Art, Politics and the force of Painting

Prof. Fred Inglis gave a lecture at TC on Art, Politics and the force of painting. He was arguing against a postmodernist position, specifically the work of philosopher Athur Danto. Crudely the postmodern position on art is against ideas of "Inspiration, originality, and purity of form" ...and is for " appropriation, collage and juxtaposition of meaning."(Clark, 1996 p.2) Inglis was against kitch in art and argued it as self-desception and morally untenable. He also argued for the importance of "touch" in painting which he saw as an answer to postmodern alienation. He also argued for the painter to work within established communities to produce work which echoed a provincialism and a domestic context. Interesting to here a counter argument to the predominant view. Prof. Fred Inglis is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sheffield. His books include: Ideology and the Imagination, The Delicious History of the Holiday and The Management of Ignorance: a political theory of the curriculum.