Monday 17 May 2010
Tuesday 11 May 2010
Degenerate trash, huh? I know what you mean...
When doing research on censorship in art I came across an article by Richard Burt called ‘"Degenerate 'Art' ": Public Aesthetics and the Simulation of Censorship in Post-liberal Los Angeles and Berlin’ in his book: The Administration of Aesthetics (1994). He used a Madonna quote on ‘degenerate art’, as an example of the conflation of the realms of high and low art in Los Angeles and modern age censorship. Given Madonna’s reputation for controversy at this point it kinda makes sense – while it being a reminder of M's great quotes of old:
During a seventy-minute tour of the LACMA recreation of the 1937 Nazi exhibition of “Degenerate Art”, curator Stephanie Barron explained to Madonna that the Nazis vilified the paintings as “degenerate trash”. Madonna responded: “Degenerate trash, huh? I know what you mean … Look at this Rev. Donald Wildmon character and all his Moral Majority people. They’re obsessed with me - and there’s hostility to that obsession. They have a hatred for the power and fame and freedom that I have. For them to go around banning records and books and trying to get people arrested, it’s a pretty clear statement about their own obsessions. Obviously I’ve tapped into something in their unconscious that they’re very ashamed of. And since they can’t deal with it, they tell everyone it’s shameful. I was really reminded of that in the “Degenerate Art” exhibit. It’s like Hitler-they want to purify your thoughts”.
From a review of Madonna's documentary Truth or Dare LA Times, May 5th, 1991.Newspaper image courtesy: http://madonnascrapbook.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
