Down With The People! & Bourgeois Art!

Civilized Man, 2012

An FB friend posted this poem by Amiri Baraka, Against Bourgeois Art...

...which is Jazz Cool and politically righteous, of course, but 'Pollock dollar signs'? Not sure he's picked the right target there, although I know his extremely valid (knife) point is aimed at The Art Market more than Pollock. Presumably. 'The State bullshitting on the wall'? Is this a poem against white art? 'No people's struggle'. A Marxist attitude? I once dated a member of the Socialist Worker's Party who was criticised by fellow members for going to an exhibition of abstract art. Is art not valid unless it directly relates to The People?

Art by The People I'm all for. I am one of The People more than I am either a tool of The State or a bourgeois big time artist. You noticed? My art may not 'get on record' the state of Britain today. Political anger is not what motivates me. 

'Bourgeois artists stare at crumbs of dust in the light'. Ah yes, all avant-garde work must therefore be 'meaningless' and The People think it is 'as profound as monkey farts'. Well, we know what the lumpen proletariat think of Art. They would hang Marcel Duchamp before hoisting a politician. Is that wilful ignorance, or simply ignorance? Lack of (art) education? Or refusal to learn enough to be more open-minded?

Now meditate on that...