Quotulatiousness

January 1, 2019

Whither European fine art?

Filed under: Europe, History, Media, Politics — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 05:00

It’s apparently not just problematic because the vast majority of it was produced by dead white males, but it’s also now considered to be a totem of white supremacist beliefs:

“The Raft of the Medusa” (French: Le Radeau de la Méduse) by Théodore Géricault 1818-19, an oil-on-canvas painting measuring 491 cm × 716 cm (16 ft 1 in × 23 ft 6 in)
Louvre, image via Wikimedia Commons.

A Philadelphia-based art historian and curator believes exhibitions of European art in American museums should be “reconsidered” in light of “a surge in white supremacist violence” across the country.

Alexander Kaufmann says that “[b]ecause the centering of Europe is baked into the architecture” of museums, and “usually inhabit the largest and most central galleries,” people might not notice a connection to white supremacy.

“But white supremacists do,” he adds ominously.

“Europe’s cultural prestige is their evidence for the racial superiority of white America,” Kaufmann writes in Hyperallergic. White supremacists and white nationalists gather at museums because that’s “where Europe’s cultural patrimony is most visibly singled out as exceptional.”

White supremacy notwithstanding, American museums’ original missions — “provid[ing] instruction for the industrial classes” and helping the country achieve the goal of becoming the “noblest development of humanity” — have long required a response, Kaufmann argues, and the activism of groups like the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition and the Guerrilla Girls can provide just that.

“After the violence in Charlottesville, Charleston, and Pittsburgh,” Kaufmann says, “our encyclopedic museums must take steps within their galleries of European Art to combat white supremacist ideology.” (But are women who run around in gorilla masks “to expose gender and ethnic bias [and] corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture” really part of a serious solution?)

Blog traffic in 2018

Filed under: Administrivia, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

As I try to remember to do every New Year, here’s a snapshot of the blog statistics gathered for me by the CyStats WordPress plug-in from 1 January to mid-morning 31 December (click to embiggenate):

As you can tell if you compare this to last year, CyStats have updated their UI so that relevant bits aren’t quite as easy to screencap.

Overall, the numbers are down a bit from 2017, but I still feel it’s worthwhile to carry on…

The Greatest Ancient Empire you have never heard of … The Mitanni

Filed under: History, Middle East — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Epimetheus
Published on 4 Oct 2018

The Greatest Ancient Empire you have never heard of … The Mitanni

The Mitanni capital city of Washukanni has never been identified although there are a few locations “mounds” where the city is most likely located. It will be one of the most exciting and illuminating discoveries when this ancient capital is unearthed — (I hope it happens in my lifetime) — if there are tablets there (maybe even a library!) that could very much rewrite the history of the middle east and civilization. I have been fascinated by the Mitanni for quite some time and I am very happy to share this video with you all 😊 I hope you enjoy, and it stirs your curiosity!

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QotD: The hallmark of civilization

Filed under: Liberty, Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

The true mark of the civilized society is not that it defends the rights of people who are loved by the bulk of the population, for those people need no defense. No one, after all, will arrest a popular person for saying or doing popular things. The true mark of the civilized society is that it defends the rights even of those who are universally reviled.

Indeed, in a truly civilized society, there would be no question but that you would defend the rights of people who disgust you provided they do no violence to others.

Our society is not civilized.

Perry Metzger, “On Civilization”, Samizdata, 2017-03-30.

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