EMINENT AUTHOR AND EDUCATOR MARK GOTTSEGEN HAS JUST DELIVERED HIS LONG-AWAITED critical essay on the problems with college-level art education in modern times, and has authorized its publication here on the Art Renewal Center web site. Mark is the author of The Painter's Handbook, and Chairman of the ASTM Subcommittee on Artists' Paints and Materials, among his many credentials. A tenured professor in the university system, Gottsegen gives us an in-depth account of the failures of that system, explains what led to the present situation, and offers suggestions as to how the reforms it so sorely needs might be brought about. Read what he has to say about it, without further ado.

The Decline of the Visual Arts and the Remedy

] The point is far more fundamental: Bowling for Columbine
] is dishonest. It is fraudulent. It fixes upon a theme,
] and advances it, whenever necessary, by deception. It
] even uses the audio/video editor to assemble a Heston
] speech that Heston did not give, and to turn sympathetic
] phrases into arrogant ones. You can't even trust the
] narrator to read you a plaque or show you a speech, for
] Pete's sake.
]
] The bottom line: can a film be called a documentary when
] the viewer cannot trust an iota of it, not only the
] narration, but the video? I suppose film critics could
] debate that one for a long time, and some might prefer
] entertainment and effect to fact and truth. But the
] Academy Award rules here are specific. Rule 11 lays out
] "Special Rules for the Documentary Award." And it begins
] with the definition: "A documentary film is defined as a
] non-fiction motion picture . . . ." It goes on to say
] that a documentary doesn't always have to show the
] "actual occurrence": it can employ re-enactment, etc.,
] "as long as the emphasis is on factual content and not on
] fiction."

Stupid Academy Award - Bowling for Columbine

] Furthermore, videos with words such as "bomb", "missile",
] "war" or other sensitive words in the artist or song
] title should not be shown at the moment.
]
] Examples include:
]
] Outkast "B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)" - song title may
] offend.
]
] Radiohead "Invasion" - song title may offend.
]
] Megadeth "Holy Wars" - song title may offend.
]
] Gavin Friday "You, Me and World War Three" - song title
] may offend.
]
] B-52s videos.

Quick! Construct a firewall between current world events and our art culture! Don't want the kids to get emotional about this stuff. Don't want anything like the 60's to happen again. Nothing about war makes people want to drink pepsi or buy clothes.

One of the many reasons why MTV will not be relevant in the future.

MTV Broadcast Standards blackhole current events from programming