Week four’s essay finds inspiration from the anti-intellectual movement. The essay titled Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter defines the anti-intellectual movement. The anti-intellectual movement began in the 1950’s “primarily as McCarthyism the belief that the mind was at ruinous discount” (Hofstadter 3). Additionally, Merriam-Webster.com further defines the anti-intellectual movement as “opposing or hostile to intellectuals or an intellectual view or approach” (Merriam-Webster). The anti-intellectual movement impacted social, economic, education, politics, art genres. Today the discussion focuses on Exhibit H. in the Hofstadter’s text on page fourteen . More focused on the comment by Congressman George Dondero …show more content…
(SAAM, SI) (qtd. in Adler Fig. 2.)
Many of the Avante Garde contemporary art were either laughed about in cartoon strips, puzzled viewers or made them angry. The American people felt the European art often relished by wealthy art connoisseurs was a step backward in American culture. Moreover, several Americans found the primitive, distorted imagery threatening to American civilization and the United States progress. Also many American’s were afraid the art form itself represented an adaptation to modern society. The Armory show had political undertones. The Armory show happened during a time politically when woman fought for their rights In 1913, women took to the streets, too with political and social causes. “Women marched in the streets not only for the right to vote, for open marriages, contraception, and the right to have children out of wedlock” (Stamberg). The Armory show also transpired during the industrialization movement. Thus electric trains pulled out of Grand Central Station for the first time, and New York was bursting with immigrants. New York City during this time was the leading example of the “Fresh and the Modern” society (Stamberg). The modern style of art is contrary to America and Dondero’s view. The contemporary art movement objectively sent a powerful message of freedom. The Armory show was about new ways
This paper examined in detail the reasoning, evidence from a claim that Robert Florczak arguing Why is modern art so bad? Robert florczak is an American artists and illustrator with many years of experience in field of art. The motive of the speech is to convince the art community of the ineffectiveness of modern art. The speaker uses a compare and contrast method during his speech between western and modern art. To show differences between the two, he illustrates his ability to back up his argument with evidence. He uses rhetorical analysis techniques such as, ethos, pathos, and logos to build on various point of views to strength his point. The speaker could achieve the overall purpose of the speech in convincing the art community of the
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff believes that individuals, who are ot interested in school, have a chance to be intellectual by inspiring them on subjects they themselves are interested in instead of forcing them to correspond with cliché historic figures. Graff begins his essay acknowledging the perception communities have on behavior of streetwise people who are looked at as “anti-intellects.” (264) Furthermore, he explains how society connects intelligence with historic heroes instead of modern subjects like sports or fashion; which Graff emphasizes is the issue. Graff supports his claim by providing a personal experience of growing up; he was that “anti-intellectual” (265) who preferred sports magazines and biographies rather
Jacoby seeks to answer how and why these barriers negatively affect this “Age of American Unreason”. In Jacoby’s book she explain how American’s have become less and less intellectual over the year due to our culture our distraction. In order to understand what constitutes such anti-intellectualism in our culture, we must first understand what it means to be an intellectual. By doing this, it will help us understand why many American’s today lack such intellectualism.
Anti-Intellectualism and society's overall decline Anti-intellectualism is an attitude that minimizes the value of intelligence, knowledge and curiosity. The death of thinking and anti-intellectualism is becoming a trend in American culture. The reason for this behavior is due to the ignorance of science, arts, and society and it's replacement by entertainment and ignorance. Wanting to learn new things isn't much of a trend and never was. Anti-intellectualism has became a tradition in America, unlike many other countries.
After the World War II, the United States went through a time were economic and political growth. This was time when Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe were the peak of their fame and television had replaced the radio. In the 1950’s and the 1960’s there was a new cultural revolution. This new cultural revolution of activists, thinkers, and artists. This was the time were new generation of artists were appeared in Britain and in the United States. During the late 1950’s the pop artists began to look for inspiration in everyday things. They were getting inspiration from consumer goods and mass media. They began with bold colors, and they also adopted the silk-screening. They also established and idea were there work had its own originality. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were very aware of the past however there idea was to connect fine art with pop culture. There ideas came straight from the televisions, advertisements, films, and cartoons. Nevertheless the famous creations of Warhol and Lichtenstein and other artist, managed to stamp the 1950 and 1960 as the pop art era.
November 8, 2016. As the clock ticked from day to dust, the American population sat down to the conclusion of the forty fifth presidential election. Within moments, the fate of the nation was broadcasted into the homes and hearts of millions. For the some, the results of the election bought upon a sense of joy and excitement. However, for the other half of America’s citizens, hearing the call for Trump to presidency emitted feelings of sadness, disappointment, and above all else, confusion. How did a multi-billionaire businessman defeat a former First Lady of the United States and Secretary of State to become the president on the United States? In fact, how did a man of such little constitutional knowledge obtain the amount of political attention
5. Visual Art Expressionism art spread throughout America in the 1890s. “The objective of the art movement was to present the world solely from a subjective perspective or emotional experience rather than physical reality” (The Art History Contributors). Artists like Alfred Henry Maurer and Arthur Dove accomplished this aim through vivid, violent, and dynamic applications (The Art History
American art, and its countless mediums, evolved equally with the capitalist country. This is a visual medium and a form of self-expression, where an artists is free to turn a canvas into anything he or she would like. They are not bound by grammar, words or other aspects of written communication and could freely As the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words”; and in America, their work served as mirrors of the social and political climate. The many painters, architects, and photographers themselves could be considered the archivists that shaped the “all-American” identity.
In order to discuss pop art I have chosen to examine the work and to some extent lives of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who were two of the main forces behind the American movement. I intend to reflect the attitudes of the public and artists in America at this time, while examining the growing popularity of pop art from its rocky, abstract expressionist start in the 1950s through the height of consumer culture in the 60s and 70s to the present day.
What is Anti-Intellectualism? According to Dictionary.com, Anti-Intellectualism is defined as being hostile toward intellectuals and the modern academic, artistic, social, religious worlds as well as other theories that are associated with them. Although Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize, it is now almost fifty-fives out of date. Not to mention the ideas within the book are seen as suggesting a type of self-defensive justification rather than an actual deep investigation. Hoftstader used the aftermath of McCarthyism and how there were wide range witch hunts among the academics and progressives and how that is influenced by the reform, socialists and communist movements between the World Wars. Applying McCarthyism, Hoftstader looks at the tension from four different perspectives: religion, politics, business, self-help culture, and education. Taking into consideration the year the book was written, each angle is explored from the colonial period up until the 1950s. Throughout the introduction, Hofstadter makes it clear that the purpose of the book is to shed a little light on our cultural problems. Focusing on the social and political phenomenon of “anti-intellectualism” Hofstadter applies broad abstractions to social issues. He explains how applications of the abstracts presented by intellectuals can ultimately pose a threat to the social and political ambitions of certain and specific individuals. Because of this,
As previously stated, European modern art was what people thought of when they pictured modern art. A common issue that arose with Native American modern art was that people saw their culture as a thing of the past. To many, Indigenous cultures no longer developed once Europeans colonized all of North America and restricted tribes to live on small reservations. Thus people remembered Native American cultures as what they were like before westward expansion. Since people looked at the culture with this mindset, if they saw a piece of modern art that incorporated Native American traditions or concerns, but used the new modern style of art, the modern aspect of the piece was forgotten and all that was focused on was the antiquated culture that the piece
The largest downfall in the lives a century ago was the spanish flu that started during the november of 1918. It infected one in every five people of u.s during the calamity and took the lives of 675,000 people, close to 10 times as many lives as from ww1, leaving a deep wound on to the history of U.S. the next difficulties faced by the people of U.S was their work difficulties. 85% of adult men were working for labors in many factories for an average of 55 hours a week. And they were not working in good A.C conditions. Instead their fatality rate at work was 30 times higher than present day. And you would think that they would get a bad for it right? Indeed they did get a bad pay for it. They had to spend half of their pay for feeding themselves.yeah. It was not good. Now unlike men who had to work hard, women were treated differently coz women.. Working… let's move on…. Ok im not being a feminist. Contrary to popular belief, i treat women and men equally.. Coz i beat people no matter their what their gender is. Next up is Art…. the tool to find yourself and lose yourself at the same time. Now there is only one thing i want to talk about in art and that is the rise in expressionism, or like I call it, the start of a disaster.*rage*. If there is one thing the future generation will make fun of, it is the fact that people buy these. Let's get to the conclusion before i kill all the expressionists in the world*tear the paper.*. In
Abstract expressionism emerged in period of Cold War politics, social, and cultural. Many Americans had a benefit of unexpected economic growth of World War II which the United States had positioned as a global power (“MoMA Learning”). In that time, the artists started to have more confidence in their works and delusion grandeur (“MoMA Learning”). However, Abstract expressionism was getting more viewers worldwide. New York become a center of art movement and make the artist famous. Abstract expressionism was great movement for Americans during the Cold War. The word Abstract expressionism was first expressed by Robert Coates. American expressionists started to expand their ideas about human matters and civilization. However, my essay is going
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City is the world’s leading modern art. Its exhibits have been a major influence in creating and stimulating popular awareness of modern art and its accompanying diversity of its styles and movements. The museum’s outstanding collections of modern painting, sculpture, drawings, and prints range from Impressionisms to current movements. Moreover, there are exhibits of modern architecture, industrial design, sculpture, photography, prints and electronic media. The museum presently has a modern art library of 300,000 books and impressive collections of films that are shown regularly. The Museum is said to be the complementary of the Metropolitan Museum
This paper is an explanatory paper by a cultured gentleman on Avant-Garde art and the challenges facing Avant-Garde. More specifically, it comes off as a rant against the bourgeois and proletariat for failing to appreciate Avant-Garde art and instead preferring to art he calls the rear-guard art or Kitsch. This work was printed by the Parisian review during fall, 1939.