The Fall of Western Art & Culture by David Starkey
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The speaker argues that the defining characteristic of the 20th and 21st centuries has been the deliberate repudiation of cultural continuity and inheritance—the abandonment of the Renaissance principle that knowledge and culture build iteratively on the past—resulting in nihilistic modernism that destroys value while paradoxically institutionalizing itself, with the exception of modernists like T.S. Eliot who maintained conscious dialogue with tradition.
- The foundational Renaissance model—'from old books comes new knowledge'—was systematically rejected in the 20th century, particularly in art
- Marcel Duchamp's nihilistic Dada movement, designed to destroy the concept of art itself, was later rebranded and institutionalized by Warhol in the 1960s, inverting destructive intent into institutional power
- Modernist architecture and urban planning (Coventry, Kendall) deliberately destroyed centuries-old cities in the name of rational planned utopias, paralleling the intellectual destruction of cultural inheritance
- T.S. Eliot's modernism offers an alternative model—one that deconstructs tradition while remaining in 'conscious dialogue' with it, providing a path to conservatism rooted in cultural continuity rather than religious dogma
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Marcel Duchamp's Dada movement was fundamentally nihilistic and explicitly designed to attack and destroy the concept of art itself, not to create new art; Duchamp was passionately convinced that he was not an artist and his most important work was the gesture of negation.
“the person who is supposed to have founded Modern Art passionately disbelieved in the idea of Art and went out of his way to attack it as much as possible”
After the First World War ended, Duchamp abandoned art entirely and spent the next 30 years playing chess, retreating into 'an activity of pointless reason,' and was no longer heard from in the art world until the 1960s.
“War stops interest stops and D stops and Dua stops does anybody some of you knew about and his his activities in the first world war does anybody know what he spends the next 30 Years doing playing chess playing chess he gives the whole thing up as an absurdity”
Duchamp invented or pioneered virtually all the categories of modern art within about three minutes: the mobile (bicycle wheel with flashing torch), kinetic art (using cinema to film moving objects), the readymade/found object, chance operations (shades of John Cage), crossdressing performance art (his alter ego Rrose Sélavy photographed in drag by Man Ray), and graffiti art (inscribing a mustache on the Mona Lisa).
“if you think of what we nowadays call the categories of Modern Art he invents all of them in about three minutes he invents the mobile it consisted of a bicycle wheel and a flashing torch right this this was a work of art he invents kinetic art using the cinema to film The Wheel or alternatively to film a turn grammar for turnp art”
Renaissance culture established that artistic worth comes from standing on the shoulders of giants—going back and forth between old sources and new knowledge—as exemplified in Chaucer's use of Petrarch: 'from old ground every year new corn comes, from old books comes this new science.'
“I summarized it with the the quatrain that comes from the very beginning of that process and also the encounter between England and Italy uh the the kind of Encounter of CHA with the petran experience and and that extraordinary four lines in which he compares the intellectual with the agricultural I constantly use the word fructifying fruitful and he does exactly the same when he says in just the same way as from the old ground every year new corn comes so from old books comes this new sance science knowledge um which as I said it seems to me in those four lines really in those four words constantly repeating old and new ground corn books a cultural inheritance new knowledge forms ideas”
The mechanism by which anti-art nihilism takes over old institutional art is analogous to the process described in Orwell's 'Animal Farm,' where revolutionary pigs seize power from farmers only to end up indistinguishable from them, sitting at dinner together—neither the rebels nor the institutions can be told apart, like attending a Royal Academy dinner.
“I suppose again in the back of my mind there is the model isn't there of Animal Farm where there's a remarkably similar process of this as you know there is the Revolutionary take over of the farm by the pigs who at the end of it uh are sitting down having a dinner with the farmers um who have actually survived that it's absolutely impossible to tell the difference between the farmers and the pigs if each gr to resemble each other in the same way if you go to a Royal Academy dinner it is absolutely impossible to tell I know I've been to several you know the the various kinds of pigs”
Duchamp created the 'Fountain' (a urinal signed 'R.M. Mutt') not as a work of construction or artistic activity, but as an act of destruction, intended mockingly to show the absurdity of calling something art by literally 'pissing on the idea of art itself.'
“he was consistently and absolutely certain that his was a work not of construction not of artistic activity but of distruction and once again it really is time that we paid attention to what he wrote and what the other DST wrote”
Duchamp invented the foundational categories of modern art—the mobile (bicycle wheel with flashing torch), kinetic art, the readymade (found object), and performance art incorporating chance—all within approximately three years during the final stages of WWI and immediate postwar period.
“if you think of what we nowadays call the categories of Modern Art he invents all of them in about three minutes he invents the mobile it consisted of a bicycle wheel and a flashing torch right this this was a work of art he invents kinetic art”
Marcel Duchamp invented the readymade as a theoretical concept by taking found objects (objet trouvé) and presenting them mockingly as art, creating the term 'readymade' (English translation of objet) as a conceptual tool for attacking the very idea of artistic creation.
“it is taking what the French call an obj What in in other words a found thing um uh the English form becomes a term of art very interesting an artist and an artist inventing a term of art but that's another matter readymade the idea of the readymade the thing that you just find”
James Stevens Curl's work on 'Making Dystopia' analyzes how modernism in architecture deliberately attempted to sever tradition and destroy notions of beauty and historic continuity, resulting in the dystopian landscape visible across Britain.
“there's a work of of a rather interesting track called uh James Stevens uh James Stevens curl uh on making dystopia looking at the particular consequences of modernism because of course modernism in our architecture”
The return of Coventry's planners to the 1930s ideology of rationalist town planning shows that modernism was not simply a post-war phenomenon but represented a continuous ideological movement that predated WWII and used war damage as opportunity for implementation.
“it is in other words it is the architectural equivalent of what um of what Burke was talking about with the excessive of the French Revolution again it is the hyp it is that you know it is the hyper rationalization the notion that it's better to start from scratch that it's better literally to tear down and Destroy and the plain truth was and you can actually see it from The Correspondents they were rather pleased with the German firebombs in the raids of 1940”
Marcel Duchamp was a Frenchman who fled to America to escape the First World War and became the founder of Dadaism, which was fundamentally a nihilistic reaction arguing that the horror of the war had so completely undercut the foundations of society, art, culture, and reason that all these institutions had to be abandoned.
“Marcel duon is a Frenchman um who uh like like so many other people who weren't terribly keen on the first world war fled he fled to America and there he is at the center of a movement which is called dadaism and dadaism is and let's get this quite clear it is a very comprehensible reaction to the horror of the first world war the first thing that we need to understand about it is it's essentially nihilistic nature”
Coventry's medieval inheritance before bombing was of 'staggering quality' comparable to the greatest German medieval cities, making its post-war destruction not merely unfortunate but a tragic loss of irreplaceable cultural heritage.
“Coventry was up there with the greatest of the German medieval cities it was an intact and remember Coventry until the end of the 14th the end of the 15th century was the most prosperous place in England apart from London it was an inher medieval inheritance of Staggering quality”
The pre-WWI world in Britain was characterized by a remarkable separation between citizen and state, where gentlemen could go an entire lifetime without significant interaction with state machinery, representing a fundamental shift to the bureaucratic state that emerged post-war.
“the extraordinary world of the pre-ir world war where gentleman could go an entire lifetime without having very much to do with the state to the extraordinary shift within a mere 10 years after that”
The foundational paradox of Duchamp and modern art is that Duchamp was passionately nihilistic and disbelieved in the idea of art itself, consistently asserting 'I am not an artist,' yet he is credited as the founder of modern art, creating a logical impossibility: how can nihilism found anything?
“how on Earth can you found something the most important work of Modern Art if you're nihilistic how can nihilism because that's what it is found something”
Coventry was one of the greatest medieval cities in England, intact until WWII, and was the most prosperous place in England after London until the end of the 15th century; it was destroyed not by German bombing but by a deliberate decision by town planners led by Donald Gibson, who convinced the council that the city's medieval inheritance represented 'centuries of commercial activity and merely delivered chaos.'
“Coventry was up there with the greatest of the German medieval cities it was an intact and remember Coventry until the end of the 14th the end of the 15th century was the most prosperous place in England apart from London it was an inher medieval inheritance of Staggering quality why then is it destroyed”
Reynolds' greatest achievement was not his painting but his annual presidential lectures (the 'Discourses on Painting'), which he valued so highly that in his self-portrait receiving his doctorate at Oxford in 1773, he depicted himself leaning on a bust of Michelangelo while holding a scroll (the lectures) rather than a brush.
“what he regards as his greatest achievement isn't his painting it is what I'm doing now a series of lectures he gives disc the annual presidential lecture of the Royal Academy from its foundation to almost his deathbed that's that's 20 odd years of it um he gives the an annual presidential lecture which are called the discourses on painting”
In an interview near the end of his life (1968), when asked why he had changed his position from attacking art to allowing his anti-art gestures to be commercialized and preserved as art, Duchamp giggled and said 'Oh isn't the contradiction wonderful,' refusing to provide a logical justification and instead celebrating the paradox itself.
“he says come on when you did all this at first you were an an artist you were denying the possibility of art you were denouncing the idea of the Artist as as a significant figure you were arguing that REM Brands you know Rembrandts should be used as ironing balls why have you changed your mind what are you doing what is The Logical basis of it and the answer is wonderful he G Giggles he giggles and says oh isn't the contradiction wonderful”
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy (founded 1768, knighted 1769), created a definition of art that emphasized intellectual over visual/craft elements, which left the door open for the modernist redefinition that Duchamp and Warhol exploited.
“the key thing that he regards as being the most important is happens here in this University um uh uh in in the Shel Onan when he is given uh the degree of doctor of civil law DCL um uh in 1773”
T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' and 'Four Quartets' represent a genuine modernism that differs fundamentally from Duchamp and Warhol: Eliot remains in conscious dialogue with the literary past, constantly moving backwards and forwards through other literary examples and forms of language, while maintaining the modernist themes of destruction and erosion of value.
“Ezra pound is the key figure who helps Elliot in the Wasteland and this is where of course you get a work of conscious modernism which seems to me one of value comparable with all the preceding great works of English literature why because it remains in conscious dialogue with them Elliot takes a wildly different view he talk those opening lines about measuring lives lived in coffee spoons and all the rest of it's exactly that sense of Destruction erosion of value and whatever but there is is the constant backwards and forwards using other literary examples other forms of language”
Duchamp's capitulation represents the inversion of nihilistic destruction into a new form of institutional legitimacy: the anti-art gesture was transformed into art, the destruction of artistic value was inverted into new commercial and institutional value, and this inverted nihilism then took over all the institutions of the old art with all their money, pretension, and pomposity.
“that extraordinary self-contained Integrity of those 30 years playing chess is thrown away for admittedly a very large handful of dollars and what you do then is invert what had been an attack nihilism into a new form of Art and the thing that is of course striking is that this new art which have been conceived of as nihilistic as destruction then takes over all the institutions of the old art with all the pretention the money the drapery and the pretense and the pomposity”
The central characteristic of the 20th century is the repudiation of the Renaissance idea of cultural inheritance—the notion that new knowledge and culture emerge from continuous dialogue with the old, as expressed in the principle that 'from old books comes new knowledge'.
“what seems to me to be the absolute Central characteristic of the 20th century is the repudiate the central repudiation of that idea”
The art gallery agent Ugo Schwarz created a financial and legal mechanism to 'preserve' Duchamp's destroyed and discarded works by having Duchamp sign reproductions of his original works in 10 copies each, charging high prices and splitting profits—a concrete example of how destructive ideology becomes commodified and commercialized.
“the form of preservation took the re form of the reproduction of all the outstanding missing Works in 10 copies each one of which was signed not AR mut but Marcel du and an exceedingly fancy price was attached to it of which Duong got adequate proportion and uro Schwartz the rather larger proportion”
In the 1917 Fountain submission, a urinal was 'signed' with the inscription 'R. Mutt' by Duchamp to disguise authorship and mock the entire idea of artistic signature and individual artistic identity.
“duon submits a urinal uh which is turned upon its side is entitled Fountain and is inscribed RM r m u t”
In 1961, the surviving members of the Dada movement approached Duchamp with a letter suggesting he should denounce Warhol and the new art scene as preposterous, reminding him that he had introduced the readymade and crossdressing to demonstrate the absurdity of art itself, not to establish a new movement.
“in 1961 when the whole mad New York scene had just got underway uh he's approached by uh one of the few surviving members of the D movement um and words are put into his mouth um and in the form of a letter and it says surely you know Marcel you're going to say that all of this is simply Preposterous in other words what warhole and whatever doing I introduced the idea of the readymade to demonstrate the absurdity of the idea of a work of art I assumed the crossdressing and the personality of s Seri to demonstrate that it's Preposterous to talk about an artist as having a named personality”
The central characteristic of the 20th century is the repudiation of the idea of cultural inheritance and standing on the shoulders of giants, which was the core principle that enabled Renaissance culture to function as a cycle of old forms generating new knowledge.
“what seems to me to be the absolute Central characteristic of the 20th century is the repudiate the central repudiation of that idea and that it I would argue that everything that's gone wrong is the result of the repudiation of that idea”
Duchamp initially accepted the Dada letter's logic by saying 'Sorry, that's true,' but was then seduced by an art gallery agent named Ulerio Schwartz (who opened an exhibition titled 'Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Duchamp' in Milan in 1964) to authorize reproductions of his missing works in 10 copies each, signed by Duchamp, at expensive prices, of which Duchamp received an adequate proportion and Schwartz received a much larger one.
“at the bottom in the characteristic fle there is Marcel saying SE sorry that's true and and no let me get this right SE okay you know the absolute characteristic frl however the devil in the form mephistophiles the tempter appears in the form form of an art gallery agent and this he's got the he rejoices in the wonderful name of uro schas and if you were trying to invent the name of a gallera it would be something like uro schvatz and if you were wanting to invent a place where the seduction happens could you do better than Milan uh it happens in Milan and there is an exhibition opened in Milan 1964 New York's wello Warhol wello and whatever which is the title of omio ah um Marcel duon duon is persuaded to come along”
Reynolds defined beauty as 'general and intellectual,' existing only in the mind and never beheld by sight or expressed by hand—an idea the artist labors to impart but 'dies at last without imparting'—a definition that is 'pretentious and very influential nonsense' that logically enables the complete abandonment of craft skill and visual representation.
“Beauty the beauty of which are inquest in claims is general and intellectual it is an idea which subsists only in the mind the sight never beheld it nor has the hand expressed it it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist which he is always laboring to impart and which he dies at last without imparting”
T.S. Eliot's modernism, particularly in 'Four Quartets' and 'Little Gidding,' offers a form of modernism that maintains conscious dialogue with the past, creating what the speaker calls 'a form of modernism which is also bizarrely a form of conservatism'—a paradigm alternative to Duchamp, Warhol, and destructive urban planners.
“Elliot takes a wildly different view he talk those opening lines about measuring lives lived in coffee spoons and all the rest of it's exactly that sense of Destruction erosion of value and whatever but there is is the constant backwards and forwards using other literary examples other forms of language and so on”
The Renaissance principle of continuous cultural renewal through dialogue with the past, not through abandonment of tradition, remains the only viable model for cultural health—and natural sciences and mathematics have preserved this model while arts and humanities have abandoned it.
“the area where the notion of descent of continuity of standing on the shoulder of giants of teaching in a quasi chronological order of subjects remains in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics it is largely gong from the Arts”
The new art movement that emerged from Duchamp and was commercialized by Warhol and his followers has taken over all the institutions of the old art—the academies, galleries, prize systems, fundraising apparatus—and now perpetuates itself with all the pretension, money, and pomp of the elite culture it originally claimed to attack.
“this new art which have been conceived of as nihilistic as destruction then takes over all the institutions of the old art with all the pretention the money the drapery and the pretense and the pomposity”
The Turner Prize represents the 'final reductio ad absurdo' of the entire modernist process—a competition that gives major prizes for absurdities such as works made of elephant dung, demonstrating the bankruptcy of modernist art institutions.
“which of course represents the final reductio ad absurdo this entire process the infinite nonsense the overhyped uh nonsense of of the Turner prize”
Reynolds' definition is 'pretentious and very influential nonsense' because it diminishes craft skill and opens the door to art claims that have no execution, no visual achievement, and no connection to the hand—precisely the framework modernism exploited.
“it seems to me it is finally I would argue pretentious nonsense but pretentious and very influential nonsense and of course the nonsense much pervy by Art critics so what I've tried to do there is to show fundamentally the absolute falsity of a notion of Modern Art it depends on reinterpreting standing on its head something that was designed to destroy and instead turning it into a new sort of value”
'Little Gidding' (from 'Four Quartets') is the best of Eliot's work: it describes the experience of standing in an ancient English church (not grand like Westminster but ordinary, with footsteps of a thousand years embedded in it), and he invokes Thomas Elliot (his 16th-century namesake and predecessor) in a way that 'moves my heart in a way which most people find only religion does.'
“I would actually like to end with what seems to me the best of Elliot which isn't the Wasteland it's the four quartex and it's little Gidding that extraordinary poem in which he talks about the experience of being in an ancient English church not Grand not like Westminster Abbey but just having that sense of the footsteps that have walked there over a thousand years and he invokes it by using a man that I mentioned last week Tom Thomas Elliot his 16th century his 16th century predecessor and he does it in a fashion which seems to me that moves my heart in a way which most people find only religion does”
Duchamp's alternative name/persona 'Rrose Sélavy' (a play on 'Eros, c'est la vie'—Eros, that's life) demonstrates his fascination with language, reinvention, and bilingual wordplay (he moved between English and French), showing his concern with linguistic disruption as parallel to artistic disruption.
“he loves crossdressing he has an alternative ego who is called aosi um in other words OS you know that's life but spelled in funny ways um and he's photographed in drag by Man Ray”
Coventry's destruction was actually welcomed by the planners as an opportunity to realize their vision of modernist urban planning, and they even employed Pharaoh Akhenaten as a symbolic model of the ideal planner who could 'start from scratch' in a desert and create a rationally designed city, which they hailed as the first town planner, monotheist, and pacifist.
“and the plain truth was and you can actually see it from The Correspondents they were rather pleased with the German firebombs in the raids of 1940”
James Stevens Curl, in his work 'Making Dystopia,' analyzes how modernism in architecture represents a deliberate attempt to sever tradition and destroy any notion of beauty, historic continuity, and art, with visible consequences written across the landscape.
“there's a work of of a rather interesting track called uh James Stevens uh James Stevens curl uh on making dystopia looking at the particular consequences of modernism because of course modernism in our architecture and whatever were again the deliberate attempt at the severance of tradition and the as it were the destruction exactly as uh exactly as um what's he call ex exactly as duch wanted the destruction of any notion of beauty any notion of art any notion of historic continuity”
The speaker served on a committee to award blue plaques to historically significant figures and proposed that Basil Spence should have a plaque reading 'Architect and Vandal,' which would be completely accurate, but this was rejected because blue plaques are governed by a 19th-century notion of exemplary lives.
“I remember vividly going back to my days again of the establishment stalky sitting on the blue plaque committee and we had a Perpetual sort of deceased wife sister argument about basil Spence in which there would be Fanatics of the 20th century Society trying to get him to have a blue plug and every sensible person saying he what he's built was monstrous and I being of course a figure essentially of compromise tried to put forward the idea that we should actually have double inscriptions on blue plaes and I proposed that his plaque should have architect and Vandal which would be exactly true”
Reynolds explicitly taught that to train as an artist, one must study craft in the Netherlands but to achieve greatness one must acquire 'the great style' from Italy, thereby establishing a hierarchy where intellectual/conceptual achievement was valued over technical mastery.
“if you're to train as an artist just as you have to go to Grammar School uh to learn the rudiments of Latin and Greek you need to go to the Dutch to learn actually how to paint how to do the dirty you know the that business of colors and using brushes and whatever however if you actually want to be great you need to acquire the great style and for that you've got to go to Italy”
Modern art is essentially masturbatory because it lacks the 'fructifying' relationship with the past that Renaissance culture had—modern artists merely repeat the same work without regeneration through dialogue with tradition, making their work inherently sterile.
“the way in which modern art disappears into to most modern artists simply repeat the same work in other words with with with without without that fructifying that fruitful um relationship with the past and you merely you're merely you you're Modern Art essentially is masturbatory uh and it can be nothing else”
Basil Spence's architecture, exemplified by the Nightbridge Barracks (a 20-story building looming over Nightbridge and Hyde Park), represents the worst of modernist design: horizontally-emphasized, lacking vertical grace, with the aesthetic of a badly-constructed chocolate layer cake, and is described by architectural critic James Stevens Curl as an abomination.
“go and walk a long night bridge and look at the nightsbridge barracks the creation of one of the followers of this lot basil Spence it is a building of such horror it is about 20 stories high looming over night Bri and hide Park and the thing again as curl points out this isn't should be an architecture of verticality instead all the emphases are horizontal so it has the charm of a rather badly constructed chocolate layer cake”
A poll conducted in the early days of the Turner Prize asked which was the most influential work of modern art, and the results ranked Duchamp's 'Fountain' first, Warhol's Marilyn triptych second, and Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' third—demonstrating that the art world values destructive nihilism over artistic achievement.
“it was a poll that was done in the very early days of the Turner prize which of course represents the final reductio ad absurdo this entire process the infinite nonsense the overhyped uh nonsense of of the Turner prize and it was a poll to ask which was the most influential work of Modern Art of them all can anybody guess that three there were three the urinal p no Andy warhole the Marilyn tryptic and Picasso did get a look in with with Le demo DAV it the order was I'm afraid Picasso third warhole second and duch up out front as a kind of head long winner”
The entire Dada and surrealist movement was characterized by an astonishingly dirty and hypersexualized quality, which formed part of the broader project of tearing down hierarchies of value and inverting established artistic norms.
“one of the things that's most striking about dada and the whole the whole of the surrealist movement which is the grander name for dadaism it's astonishingly dirty and over sexualized quality”
Modern art's fruits demonstrate its absurdity: most modern artists simply repeat the same work without that 'fructifying relationship with the past,' making modern art essentially 'masturbatory' and incapable of producing anything else, as evidenced by the meaningless prizes given for works made of elephant dung in the Turner Prize.
“by their fruits you shall know them that the fruits demonstrate its absurdity the way in which modern art disappears into to most modern artists simply repeat the same work in other words with with with without without that fructifying that fruitful um relationship with the past and you merely you're merely you you're Modern Art essentially is masturbatory uh and it can be nothing else”
Eliot's 'Little Gidding' describes the experience of standing in an ancient English church and invoking Thomas Elliot, a 16th-century predecessor, in a way that 'moves my heart in a way which most people find only religion does' and demonstrates how to maintain conservative values within modernism without requiring religious foundations.
“I would actually like to end with what seems to me the best of Elliot which isn't the Wasteland it's the four quartex and it's little Gidding that extraordinary poem in which he talks about the experience of being in an ancient English church not Grand not like Westminster Abbey but just having that sense of the footsteps that have walked there over a thousand years and he invokes it by using a man that I mentioned last week Tom Thomas Elliot his 16th century his 16th century predecessor”
The Dada movement was a 'very comprehensible reaction to the horror of the first world war,' representing a nihilistic rejection of the foundations of culture, reason, and society itself—but this comprehensibility of its origins does not justify its philosophical incoherence in trying to found something through destruction.
“dadaism is and let's get this quite clear it is a very comprehensible reaction to the horror of the first world war the first thing that we need to understand about it is it's essentially nihilistic nature”
Duchamp's final interview near his death in 1968 revealed that he explicitly acknowledged and celebrated the contradiction between his earlier destructive principles and his later acceptance of canonization, suggesting awareness but not serious engagement with the incoherence.
“in the LA the next to the last year of his life he dies in 1968 he was interviewed and the interview is fascinating it's a very impressive interview the interviewer asks him real questions he asks the questions we would like to put to him he says come on when you did all this at first you were an an artist you were denying the possibility of art you were denouncing the idea of the Artist as as a significant figure you were arguing that REM Brands you know Rembrandts should be used as ironing balls why have you changed your mind what are you doing what is The Logical basis of it”
Modern conservatism requires finding a surviving core that can work without religious foundation; Eliot offers a model of historical transcendence and modernity that does not dismiss the past but instead creates something one might want to live for and build on, which is the perfect complement to Chaucer's principle of cultural inheritance.
“if one is to search there's this great struggle at the moment to find what is the core the surviving core of a conservatism many people on the right are trying to come forward with the idea that you can only have a conservatism if it's founded in religion I do not believe that is possible and certainly not in the country's IR naturally irreligious as England and whose religion anyway was always dominated by the state or for 500 years was erastian but what Elliot offers and this is the perfect compliment to Cha he offers a kind of historical Transcendence a modernity which doesn't dismiss the past and create something which actually you might want to live for and build on”
Reynolds defined artistic beauty as purely subjective and mental—'an idea which subsists only in the mind,' never beheld by sight nor expressed by hand—thereby philosophically severing art from objective craft and enabling the later claim that any subjective intention constitutes art.
“Beauty the beauty of which are inquest in claims is general and intellectual it is an idea which subsists only in the mind the sight never beheld it nor has the hand expressed it it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist which he is always laboring to impart and which he dies at last without imparting”
Duchamp is remembered in art history despite his complete abandonment of art because of the 1960s and Andy Warhol, who reinvented and re-ran all of Duchamp's practices (kinetic art, mobile, aleatoric music, crossdressing, performance) but added the crucial difference: grandiosity, institutional weight, New York fundraising, society balls, and sponsorship.
“why then does he feature you know in the vulgar world of an opinion survey of of of of Art and I think it's 2004 with with the newly invented Turner prize Well the answer is the 1960s and New York again this is where Andy warhole comes in because what happens in the 1960s is essentially the new art which in every way is a rerun on a classically bigger New York American fleshed out hyped up super up lots more money seen than reinvents or rather just repeats all of the things that we've been see that I've been discussing the the kinetic art the the mobile uh the the aloric that's that's the business of chance the crossdressing the whole lot the entire performance is simply rerun but there's a vitally important difference it's art art with the pomp pity with the grandiosity with the New York fundraising with the balls with the sponsors”
Both nihilistic destruction (Dada) and post-WWII optimism/rationalism can produce identical effects: the deliberate abandonment of cultural past and the destruction of historic continuity, exemplified by the rebuilding of Coventry after WWII bombing.
“and it begins you know essentially as the nihilism one of the other things that we've got to understand is of course that optimism that the optimism of for example uh the periods on either side of the uh particularly uh after the second world war can produce exactly the same effect if one if we want an example of the absolute horror of what a deliberate abandonment of the past involves can I suggest you all go on a walking tour of covantry cry is an Abomination the the the the the rebuilding of the city is a disgrace and a scandal”
After World War I, Duchamp abandoned his artistic activity entirely and spent the next 30 years playing chess, recognizing what the speaker calls the 'self-defeating absurdity' of his nihilistic project, only to be revived and reinterpreted in the 1960s when Andy Warhol needed a 'grander figure' to legitimize commercial pop art.
“War stops interest stops and D stops and Dua stops does anybody some of you knew about and his his activities in the first world war does anybody know what he spends the next 30 Years doing playing chess playing chess he gives the whole thing up as an absurdity”
When confronted in a 1961 letter with the claim that his work was meant to expose the absurdity of art, Duchamp accepted the reframing, giggling and saying 'isn't the contradiction wonderful'—abandoning his 30 years of principled retreat for 'a very large handful of dollars,' inverting what had been an attack on art into a new form of art with institutional power.
“the answer is wonderful he G Giggles he giggles and says oh isn't the contradiction wonderful that is the moment but you see what's happened that extraordinary self-contained Integrity of those 30 years playing chess is thrown away for admittedly a very large handful of dollars”
Joshua Reynolds, as the first president of the Royal Academy (1768/1769) and through his annual Discourses on Painting, created a theoretical opening that enabled modern art's takeover by redefining art as intellectual and abstract rather than craft-based, shifting from 'actual craft skill' to 'some sort of literally the idea of abstraction.'
“what he does he comes up with the definition that allows duon and what's that other word that duon gives to what what he's doing that it's conceptual it is intellectual as opposed to the merely visual art of the past”
The bishop of Coventry and Lichfield began his sermon in favor of the reconstruction by saying it was a good thing that the cathedral had been knocked down because they wanted a 'fresh start'—showing how modernist ideology corrupted even religious authority to justify destruction of historic inheritance.
“and the bishop begins his sermon by saying wasn't it a good thing that the cathedral had been knocked down as they wanted a fresh start”
Duchamp is described by the speaker as possessing 'genius, a malign genius'—astonishing creativity within a nihilistic framework that was genuinely inventive in its destructive critique, which distinguishes him from mere negation.
“and it's quite confusing that I think he's a genius a malign genius there's an astonishing this niil this kind of creativity in the nihilism”
Frank Gibbard, the fashionable modernist architect hired to redesign Kendall in the 1960s, was responsible for the absurdities of the Wigwam Cathedral in Liverpool, exemplifying how modernist architects systematized the destruction of medieval English towns.
“they of course got in a fashionable architect to do their dirty for them Frank Fred Gibbard who is responsible for the absurdities of The Wigwam uh The Wigwam Cathedral uh in uh uh in in in in in Liverpool”
Natural Sciences and Mathematics retain the principle of continuous descent and teaching in chronological order of subjects, while the Arts have largely abandoned this principle.
“now curiously enough of course the area where the notion of descent of continuity of standing on the shoulder of giants of teaching in a quasi chronological order of subjects remains in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics it is largely gong from the Arts”
A poll of art critics regarding the most influential work of modern art ranked them in this order: first, Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' (the urinal); second, Andy Warhol's Marilyn triptych; third, Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'—confirming Duchamp's foundational role in modern art despite his explicit rejection of art.
“it was a poll to ask which was the most influential work of Modern Art of them all can anybody guess that three there were three the urinal p no Andy warhole the Marilyn tryptic and Picasso did get a look in with with Le demo DAV it the order was I'm afraid Picasso third warhole second and duch up front as a kind of head long winner”
Morgan Stanley's directors were so disturbed by the sexual explicitness of the proposed Surrealist/Dada exhibition that they refused to consider it for sponsorship (one director said 'we can't possibly show our wives this'), demonstrating the hypersexualization and vulgarity of the modernist movement.
“I was then taken aside afterwards and said don't be so smug let me tell you the background the directors had a preview of what uh what McGregor was wanting to show one of them said we can't possibly show our wives this so um again because of the hypersexualized nature uh nature of the thing”
In contrast to Coventry's destruction, Budapest is being rebuilt as it was in 1939 by Viktor Orbán, recreating 'that stunning combination of the Baroque city of the 18th century and the grandiosity of French Austria'—a model of conscious historical reconstruction.
“can I invite you to compare that in the the appalling products of that insane rootless rpar light this is these are the robs Spears of architecture that that that rootless Innovation with what happens in Eastern Europe where you rebuild Warsaw is the ghetto is rebuilt do you know what's actually going on anybody know what the wicked Victor Orban is doing at the moment in budapes he is rebuilding bud Buddha Buddha as it was in 1939 that stunning combination of of of the Barack city of the 18th century and the grandiosity of France Austria Absol”
Frank Gibbard, a fashionable modernist architect, designed the Wigwam Cathedral in Liverpool and was hired by Kendall town planners to demolish the historic town center—exemplifying how fashion in architecture enabled the destruction of centuries of urban heritage.
“they of course got in a fashionable architect to do their dirty for them Frank Fred Gibbard who is responsible for the absurdities of The Wigwam uh The Wigwam Cathedral uh in uh uh in in in in in in Liverpool”
In contrast to the British modernist destruction of Coventry, Eastern European cities (Warsaw, Budapest) have rebuilt their pre-war historic centers, with Viktor Orbán currently rebuilding Budapest to its 1939 appearance, combining 18th-century Baroque architecture with Austro-Hungarian grandiosity.
“can I invite you to compare that in the the appalling products of that insane rootless rpar light this is these are the robs Spears of architecture that that that rootless Innovation with what happens in Eastern Europe where you rebuild Warsaw is the ghetto is rebuilt do you know what's actually going on anybody know what the wicked Victor Orban is doing at the moment in budapes he is rebuilding bud Buddha Buddha as it was in 1939 that stunning combination of of of the Barack city of the 18th century and the grandiosity of France Austria”
Ezra Pound, who helped T.S. Eliot develop 'The Waste Land,' had fascist links that created a similar institutional awkwardness, but the speaker noted that 'Poet and Fascist' would be a completely accurate plaque description, which was rejected on the same grounds that Spence's true description was rejected.
“my other joke and this will lead me finally into my great point of contrast with all of this my other joke was again we had an annual you that annual blister marriage with deceased wife's sister we had a similar one with Ezra pound the poet um because of course of his fascist links so I said very simple solution poet and fascist this unfortunately was once would be completely accurate description was by by these idiot people rejected”
Coventry's post-WWII reconstruction represents the architectural equivalent of nihilistic modernism: planners deliberately used Hitler's firebombs as justification to destroy centuries of medieval inheritance and rebuild from scratch as a 'planned rational utopia,' but the result is a dystopian abomination that contrives to be both 'crass and twee' simultaneously.
“the rebuilding of the city is a disgrace and a scandal we can see the architecture is trashy um the where it's ornamental it's twe it contrives to be both C it's very difficult to be both crass and twe at the same time but it astonishingly succeeds”
Donald Gibson, Coventry's town and country planner, explicitly argued that 'centuries of commercial activity and merely delivered chaos' and therefore a completely planned rational city would deliver better results—an architectural equivalent of Burke's critique of the French Revolution's hyper-rationalization and desire to destroy and rebuild from scratch.
“he came he came up with the conclusion that the words are fascinating that but centuries of commercial activity and mely delivered chaos it is of course one of we've all forgotten this Coventry was up there with the greatest of the German medieval cities”
Basil Spence's Nightsbridge barracks, designed as a follower of modernist principles, is a building of such horror that it exemplifies modernist architecture's aesthetic failure: approximately 20 stories high with horizontal rather than vertical emphasis, giving it 'the charm of a rather badly constructed chocolate layer cake.'
“basil Spence it is a building of such horror it is about 20 stories high looming over night Bri and hide Park and the thing again as curl points out this isn't should be an architecture of verticality instead all the emphases are horizontal so it has the charm of a rather badly constructed chocolate layer cake”
England has been historically an 'irreligious' country, and its religion was dominated by Erastianism (state control of religion) for 500 years, making religious foundations for conservatism particularly implausible in the English context.
“and certainly not in the country's IR naturally irreligious as England and whose religion anyway was always dominated by the state or for 500 years was erastian”
The speaker attended the proceedings where Coventry's Cathedral was destroyed and recalled the bishop's sermon welcoming the destruction because it allowed a 'fresh start,' demonstrating how even religious authorities embraced modernist ideology of destruction.
“there's a sermon given on him by the then Bishop of cry and litfield hailing hailing this extraordinary figure and of course the bishop begins his sermon by saying wasn't it a good thing that the cathedral had been knocked down as they wanted a fresh start”
Eliot opens 'The Waste Land' with the image of measuring lives in coffee spoons, expressing the sense of destruction and erosion of value characteristic of modernism, but remains rooted in tradition through constant invocation of other literary examples and forms of language.
“those opening lines about measuring lives lived in coffee spoons and all the rest of it's exactly that sense of Destruction erosion of value”
Animal Farm provides a useful model for understanding how the nihilistic attack on art institutions was eventually captured and inverted: the pigs (representing revolutionary avant-garde artists) overthrow the farmers (representing traditional art institutions), but by the end are indistinguishable from the farmers—reversing destructive nihilism into institutionalized power.
“I suppose again in the back of my mind there is the model isn't there of Animal Farm where there's a remarkably similar process of this as you know there is the Revolutionary take over of the farm by the pigs who at the end of it uh are sitting down having a dinner with the farmers um who have actually survived that it's absolutely impossible to tell the difference between the farmers and the pigs”
The art fund (presumably a major source of institutional art sponsorship) has been perverted and corrupted by modernism and the Turner Prize, which the speaker says he must work to expose by 'calling out the emperor's new clothes.'
“the art fund has been perverted by it we need I really do think uh the boy I will see myself in that role to call out the emperor's new clothes”
Duchamp's work was characterized by 'astonishingly dirty and over sexualized' qualities—a feature shared with the surrealist movement—that reflected a commitment to the tearing down of hierarchy and value through obscenity.
“one of the things that's most striking about dada and the whole the whole of the surrealist movement which is the grander name for dadaism it's astonishingly dirty and over sexualized quality”
Duchamp was fascinated by chance and introduced quasi-musical instruments that produced loud harsh noises generated by electrical sparks (c. 1918-1920), inventing what would later be called aleatoric or chance music.
“he is fascinated uh by the idea of well charms are we familiar with the work of John Cage the composer where you actually introduce the element of chance he introduces musical quasi musical instruments many of them which produce loud f in noises which are again generated by electrical Sparks you this is all 1918 1919 1920”
Sir William Chambers was the first secretary of the Royal Academy and a distinguished architect responsible for Somerset House and served as architecture teacher to King George III, establishing the institutional framework that would later be captured by modernism.
“there's Chambers uh who is its first Secretary um who is the architect in many ways the extraordinary distinguished architect he's the architect of Somerset house and favorite of of George III helps to teach him architecture and and all the rest you know”
Ezra Pound was a fascist poet whose links to fascism make him morally problematic, though he was instrumental in helping T.S. Eliot develop The Waste Land.
“we had a similar one with Ezra pound the poet um because of course of his fascist links so I said very simple solution poet and fascist this unfortunately was once would be completely accurate description was by by these idiot people rejected”
George III, unlike contemporary or later monarchs, was a superior educated figure who could actually draw and paint as well as understand architecture—representing a level of royal cultural competence that had largely disappeared.
“George II is a very Superior version of King Charles um in in terms of education and and and artistic achievement he could actually draw and paint and this sort of thing as well as trying to um”
Joshua Reynolds received a full state funeral with the pallbearers including three Dukes, two Marquises, and three Earls, despite coming from 'the lower orders from the remote areas of England,' reflecting the extraordinary social elevation of the artist in the 18th century.
“he comes from I Come From The Far Northwest he com comes to the Far West he is an inkeeper son in Devon who finishes up after an astonishingly long life being buried inant Pauls with a Royal Funeral a full a full-blown State funeral and the Paul bearers at his funeral including three Dukes two marquises and three ears”
The Turner Prize, created in the modern era, epitomizes the 'final reductio ad absurdo' of modern art, representing the culmination of the process begun by Duchamp and Warhol of elevating mockery and negation into institutional legitimacy.
“the Turner prize which of course represents the final reductio ad absurdo this entire process the infinite nonsense the overhyped uh nonsense”
Joshua Reynolds received his degree of Doctor of Civil Law (DCL) from Oxford in 1773, which he regarded as his greatest achievement and painted a self-portrait commemorating the honor, indicating his priority on intellectual and institutional achievement over artistic practice.
“the key thing the key thing that he regards as being the most important is happens here in this University um uh uh in in the Shel Onan when he is given uh the degree of doctor of civil law DCL um uh in 1773 and as a result of that he paints a magnific it is very Magnificent the robes are the same that wonderful Scarlet magnificent color and of the higher doctorates”
The idea that one can 'teasing' audiences about art and culture is important and intentional in the speaker's pedagogical approach, suggesting that provoking reflection through rhetorical challenge is valuable.
“I'm a great believer in the importance of teasing uh in these matters”
The speaker claims he was 'flavor of the month' in British art institutions and was commissioned to curate an exhibition, competing against Neil MacGregor of the National Gallery for Morgan Stanley sponsorship for a 400th anniversary exhibition of Elizabeth I.
“in those days I was flavor of the month literally literally true literally true anyway um I was commissioned by them to do an exhibition for the 4 for the 400th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth the and I was lined up against three guesses Whom The sainted Neil McGregor”
The speaker was a member of a blue plaque committee and proposed that Basil Spence's plaque should bear the inscription 'Architect and Vandal' to accurately represent his role, but this was rejected due to the 19th-century principle that blue plaques should commemorate 'exemplary lives.'
“I being of course a figure essentially of compromise tried to put forward the idea that we should actually have double inscriptions on blue plaes and I proposed that his plaque should have architect and Vandal which would be exactly true and a complete summon unfortunately because the blue plaques were governed by by the 19th century notion of exemplary lives it was it was rejected”
The speaker will use television and visual analysis to examine how the institutional takeover by modern art occurred—showing that the process can be easily visualized and understood through narrative and imagery.
“here again um we've been talking about how one might do these things telev visually I think you're seeing from this description now of how very easily you could do this but let me now go give you a piece of how you could do the visual now as an actual analysis of why and something is apparently abstract as an Institutional taker can happen”
The post-WWII rebuilding of Coventry is 'an abomination' and 'a disgrace and a scandal' characterized by trashy architecture that is both 'crass and twee' simultaneously, despite representing a 'genuine endeavor to create a Utopia.'
“cry is an Abomination the the the the the rebuilding of the city is a disgrace and a scandal we can see the architecture is trashy um the where it's ornamental it's twe it contrives to be both C it's very difficult to be both crass and twe at the same time but it astonishingly succeeds but ladies and gentlemen and it's really important we understand this it may look dystopian but it was a genuine Endeavor to create a Utopia”
Reynolds suffered from serious eye problems and wore thick spectacles, as visible in his self-portraits where he appears to be suffering—a condition that may have reflected his intellectual rather than visual orientation toward art.
“he's he is he's suffering from serious eye problems they got these immensely thick kind of mons monso gilby or or you know kind of velasque Pope um uh uh spectacles”
The Royal Academy commissioned and displayed a Michelangelo tondo, which Reynolds is depicted leaning on in his DCL self-portrait, establishing his connection to Renaissance artistic genius and legitimizing his redefinition of art.
“there is um a bust of he's leaning on a bust of Michelangelo The Royal Academy has just acquired the Michelangelo tondo”
The speaker has had experience sitting on the blue plaque committee and also on arts sponsorship committees where decisions about major exhibitions and funding were made at the highest institutional levels.
“I was commissioned by them to do an exhibition for the 4 for the 400th anniversary of the death of Elizabeth the and I was lined up against three guesses Whom The sainted Neil McGregor who was then director of The National gallery and they wanted funding for an exhibition uh on the Su list centering on Dada we wanted an exhibition on Elizabeth I and the prime supplier of fundraising was interestingly enough um what's it called um Morgan Stanley”
Picasso had genuine artistic talent and skill, which is why the speaker excludes him from detailed analysis and focuses instead on Duchamp and Warhol, whose work lacked such skill and whose entire project was conceptual negation rather than technical creation.
“I'm going to leave Picasso out entirely because he has some Talent um and instead I'm going to focus on the relationship between duon and waro”
The speaker notes that in calling out modernism's failures, he plays the role of the child in Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' pointing out that the emperor (modern art) is actually naked—i.e., that it lacks the substance claimed for it.
“I really do think uh the boy I will see myself in that role to call out the emperor's new clothes so that's one part of the story of the disaster of what seems to me has happened uh in the 20th century”
Kendall's parish church is one of the largest in England, and its scale reveals the historical importance and prosperity of the town before modernization.
“the Parish church is one of the largest of England I know I had to try and fill it with my voice uh when when I was playing Becket and Mur in the cathedral so it dimensions are written in my mind”
The speaker left a previous week's lecture that discussed Renaissance revivalism with only brief mention of art, deliberately as a form of teasing the audience, with the intention to now discuss the end of Renaissance culture and the repudiation of artistic tradition.
“last week I talked about renaissance's and hardly mentioned art that was of course essentially to tease you I'm a great believer in the importance of teasing uh in these matters”