Christmas Four: Take Your Child to "Hide/Seek?"

Christmas Four: Take Your Child to "Hide/Seek?"

Art for art’s sake, l’art pour l’art, the early 19th century philosophy posited the view that art needs no justification other than being art and that no other purpose is necessary or relevant to the artiste. The definition of “art” on Dictionary.com is ”the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”

Washington’s venerable and esteemed Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 at the behest of James Smithson for the ”increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,” is in the process of re-defining “what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance” and defiling its role as America’s greatest, free museum and institution.

The Smithsonian’s new exhibition with the cutesy, misleading title, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” which is followed by an equally misleading if not as cutesy program description, could lead families visiting the exhibit to believe they were about to view some nice portraits. Sadly, they would be wrong.

The Smithsonian “Hide/Seek” exhibit has little to do with playing Hide and Seek, although that devious title will be sure to draw in its target audience, the kid-crowd.

Instead, “Hide/Seek” is devoted to “such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment:” http://tiny.cc/awkgk

Paraphrased for the masses, “Hide/Seek,” were it a movie, would be classified X-rated by the MPAA.

Opening just in time for Christmas break, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2919)