Michelangelo and the Urinal: What’s in Common?

Navigating a museum which displays the art of man stretching across the centuries is akin to walking through time. One finds himself surrounded by the marks of an incredible diversity of human minds, and is soon after prodded along a path that so many before have taken. Its end has yet to be reached, but many have bravely weathered it—despite the threats of disappointment, despair, and cynicism—with the hope of discovering and portraying Beauty. This is a daunting task but it surely should be regarded with dignity and respect for those steadfast enough to endeavor it.

But something strange has happened as one’s footsteps fall closer to the modern era. The few who have remained faithful on the path suddenly find themselves among strangers: strangers who are journeying for a different reason than those who walked it before. Why? They are no longer seeking the Beauty which enticed so many others to create the finest works of art.

If this is true, why do we continue to call the modern works art? Does anything define it at all?

I find myself asking this question when I am forced to realize the consensus is currently that Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel or Raphael’s Madonnas are simply one aspect of a greater realm of “art” which now encompasses pieces such as Marcel Duchamp’s Urinal (coined “Fountain“) or the chaos of the famous modern “masterpieces”. In Roger Scruton’s words, we have gone from art being an expression of “the real in light of ideal” to simply any slice of reality, even the ugliest of this. Now, art is for the sake of originality or pure amusement, utterly foreign to its forefathers.

What happened?

Well, what if it is because man’s view of nature has changed? We no longer see it as having a purpose—no more does it reach toward its Creator but rather, it is random and without final cause. And if art imitates nature, it seems that our conception of it will be–and has been–altered forever, or at least for the foreseeable future. Its purpose is no longer for something higher than itself. It is certainly no longer for Beauty. No longer do we stretch to fulfill our transcendental desires so natural, so human, but rather we smother them amidst a changing world. Such an inaccurate view of reality slowly destroys any hope of intelligibility of the world or hope for our lives, and this problem is at the root of much degradation of culture today.