I regularly spend a very pleasant few hours in Bristol Museum, where I alternate between visiting the various galleries, spending some ’quality time’ with all my favourite objects, and sitting in the vast, austerely beautiful atrium, sipping a cappuccino and reading or writing. The real joy of my visits though, is that I have a haven of solitude in which to be anonymous and invisible, so that I can think more deeply about whatever I am currently studying.
No, I have not enrolled on any official course of study, much as I might like to. The costs are beyond my reach! But I do follow my own personal study journey, and try to focus on whatever serious issue which currently interests me. The procedure is the same as that found at any University: read seriously, analyse and compare the various authorities, take notes, memorise and finally - the equivalent of formal ‘Essays’ - I try to produce, for my own interest, and for an intellectual challenge, written responses to those questions which spark my interest or intrigue me. It is supremely enjoyable and really exciting to struggle with new ideas and concepts!
Up to a couple of years ago I would never have bothered to do such a thing. I always read widely, but my reading had become superficial and undemanding. It was my meeting with the Heralds of the Gospel which changed all that. As I have said in earlier posts, there are so many aspects of this wonderful Order that I came to deeply admire, and to desire to emulate, but it was their love of deep and serious learning which really attracted me. Their example changed me completely in so many ways, and the desire to study is one of the gifts I have received from them.
So now I take my books and notebook with me wherever I go. I study on buses, in cafes, park benches, libraries, art galleries - wherever there is peace and I am undisturbed. What I have discovered, strangely enough, is that the surroundings in which you think or read deeply about something, colours your memory of that thought and that book. And the beautiful and grand interior of the Victorian museum really adds to that wonderful feeling of having an ongoing conversation with great thinkers and writers. It has a little of the same ambience that I associate with great libraries of the kind in the photos above.
But now I am going to descend from this elevated mood and express the deep irritation that I feel when I first enter the museum and see what appears to be a statue of a classically beautiful angel defaced and mocked by the artist who has upended a pot of pink paint over its head! It is a work by the internationally renowned Bristol graffiti artist ‘Banksy’
Of course, I am aware that this is an ‘ironic’, ‘postmodernist’, ’deconstructivist’ take on classical aesthetics. But every time I see it, I feel assaulted by a sort of spiritual nihilism, a desire to desecrate all that is good, or noble. And the most depressing aspect of all is, that this ‘artwork’ has been chosen to be proudly exhibited in the most prominent part of the Museum’s display area!
This work - and I think that some of Banksy’s graffiti art is clever and thought provoking - seems to show a coarseness of feeling which grates on me every time I see it.
Well, now I have done! My opinion counts for nothing here, and would no doubt be regarded as unsophisticated rantings of a middle-aged nobody. However, I will say it: this is not a ‘work of Art’! It is just another outing for the Emperor’s New Clothes!’
No, I have not enrolled on any official course of study, much as I might like to. The costs are beyond my reach! But I do follow my own personal study journey, and try to focus on whatever serious issue which currently interests me. The procedure is the same as that found at any University: read seriously, analyse and compare the various authorities, take notes, memorise and finally - the equivalent of formal ‘Essays’ - I try to produce, for my own interest, and for an intellectual challenge, written responses to those questions which spark my interest or intrigue me. It is supremely enjoyable and really exciting to struggle with new ideas and concepts!
Up to a couple of years ago I would never have bothered to do such a thing. I always read widely, but my reading had become superficial and undemanding. It was my meeting with the Heralds of the Gospel which changed all that. As I have said in earlier posts, there are so many aspects of this wonderful Order that I came to deeply admire, and to desire to emulate, but it was their love of deep and serious learning which really attracted me. Their example changed me completely in so many ways, and the desire to study is one of the gifts I have received from them.
So now I take my books and notebook with me wherever I go. I study on buses, in cafes, park benches, libraries, art galleries - wherever there is peace and I am undisturbed. What I have discovered, strangely enough, is that the surroundings in which you think or read deeply about something, colours your memory of that thought and that book. And the beautiful and grand interior of the Victorian museum really adds to that wonderful feeling of having an ongoing conversation with great thinkers and writers. It has a little of the same ambience that I associate with great libraries of the kind in the photos above.
But now I am going to descend from this elevated mood and express the deep irritation that I feel when I first enter the museum and see what appears to be a statue of a classically beautiful angel defaced and mocked by the artist who has upended a pot of pink paint over its head! It is a work by the internationally renowned Bristol graffiti artist ‘Banksy’
Of course, I am aware that this is an ‘ironic’, ‘postmodernist’, ’deconstructivist’ take on classical aesthetics. But every time I see it, I feel assaulted by a sort of spiritual nihilism, a desire to desecrate all that is good, or noble. And the most depressing aspect of all is, that this ‘artwork’ has been chosen to be proudly exhibited in the most prominent part of the Museum’s display area!
This work - and I think that some of Banksy’s graffiti art is clever and thought provoking - seems to show a coarseness of feeling which grates on me every time I see it.
Well, now I have done! My opinion counts for nothing here, and would no doubt be regarded as unsophisticated rantings of a middle-aged nobody. However, I will say it: this is not a ‘work of Art’! It is just another outing for the Emperor’s New Clothes!’
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