Blindness of the ‘new’
Harold Rosenberg, art critic and chronicler of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism once described the influence of this group in the following terms, “the tradition of the new.” (1)
What Rosenberg was pointing ro was that this art world chrysalis had captured the spirit of America, for some a newly adopted country (2), and reflected back our collective embrace of the revelatory, the transcendent, while debunking accepted fashion and restraints.
What’s happened since then is less revelatory than obsessive. The ‘new’ became objectified, codified first by GM (3) and successive marketers of trendiness. As consumers of the new “new,” we were left the task of weeding out the faddish. A consuming task in its own right, “authentic-seeking” infused our social agenda and influencing. Self-reflection absorbed self-regulation. We papered our bathroom walls with mirrors. We scheduled therapy, invested in “self-help” movements.
Before long, politicians bought into the latest ‘think-tank’ marketing. and lost their collective voice and demeanor. And regrettably, losing the will to suspend the short-term message for the viability of the long-term vision.
The consequence of consumerism is that as a country, as a culture we have squandered opportunities for collective action and solidarity. You know the stuff we eulogize at memorials and compartmentalize the ‘morning after.’
I am also guilty of “blindness of the new.” This is not a jeremiad. This is a call for focus, not on the “new,” but on the “mindful.”
In effect, the New York artist pioneers, were marking change and renewal, not change for “change’s” sake.
But like lemmings our “embrace of the new,” is less about integration than about crowd-think. We value the blessing of “influencers,” social media’s “early adopters,” in lieu of the reflections of elders, whom in our society are increasingly marginalized.
We can learn from “re-seeing” these pioneers’ efforts in the context of pioneers in political reform, equal justice and social progress. You know ‘stuff’ you can’t put a price on.
July 31 — August 1, 2020
(1) “Tradition of the New,” 1959
(2) Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Hans Hoffman, Tatyana Grossman and Arshile Gorky were new arrivals. The list of men and women is long.
(3) The “annual model change,” an idea borrowed from the fashion industry was first implemented in the 1920’s by GM CEO Alfred P. Sloan.
