Why Don’t We Create Beautiful Art Anymore?

Art created today doesn’t paint the full picture of reality: its depth, breadth, or zenith.
Why Don’t We Create Beautiful Art Anymore?
Could the introduction of modern art into our culture be a Trojan horse against traditional art? "The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy," circa 1760, by Giovanni Tiepolo. Public Domain
Walker Larson
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In April 1917, French experimental sculptor Marcel Duchamp submitted a porcelain urinal to an art exhibit, signed “R. Mutt, 1917,” and called it art. It was a declaration of war against traditional ideas of sculpture, form, and beauty. Duchamp simply willed the urinal to be a work of art even though it clearly was not, stating that even ordinary objects could be art if they were “raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist’s act of choice.” Art, he asserted, is entirely subjective.

This was the same man who defaced a print of the Mona Lisa by inking a cartoon mustache and beard onto the enigmatic face of the portrait and titling it with a risqué pun.

Walker Larson
Walker Larson
Author
Prior to becoming a freelance journalist and culture writer, Walker Larson taught literature and history at a private academy in Wisconsin, where he resides with his wife and daughter. He holds a master's in English literature and language, and his writing has appeared in The Hemingway Review, Intellectual Takeout, and his Substack, The Hazelnut. He is also the author of two novels, "Hologram" and "Song of Spheres."