Why Liberals Love Ugly Art

In this episode Trent reveals the reason liberals, including those in the Catholic Church, prefer downright ugly art.

00:00 Introduction
00:50 Examples of ‘Ugly Art’ in Catholic spaces
03:00 Is beauty subjective?
05:10 Liberals reject objective truth
06:44 Modern Art values what ‘matters’ to humans
12:25 ”Everything is beautiful”
15:40 Modern art abandons its transcendent purpose
16:00 A sinister motive in some bad Catholic art?

[reviewspiteras]

The worst part of modern art is the gaslight. Nobody can call it ugly because beauty is subjective so someone must find it beautiful, so subjective apparently that everything is beautiful. Its a kind if gaslight to be honest

[LilabeanAnn]

As an artist, I’ve always hated modern art. It’s so incredibly ugly. There’s an art museum on my college campus and it’s incredible to see the difference between the student art which is usually just a bunch of paint splatters and angsty words on a canvas vs on the other side of the gallery, stunning study sketches of parts of the Sistine Chapel’s painted ceilings.

[micahstory]

I’m non-denominational Christian, but also a professional visual artist, and one thing I really appreciate about Catholicism is its emphasis on beauty as an aspect of the divine. I have felt from a very early age that most modern art is complete garbage.

[devilsadvocate]

I'm an atheist and I used to consider myself a leftist, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. I despise modern "art" and love the aesthetics of old churches. Classical art took immense skill, talent, time and dedication to create, whereas most modern art feels like it could have been made in 5 minutes by a toddler. I feel that these modern artists deliberately create ugly pieces since they lack the talent to evoke feelings with their art otherwise. Any time I talk with someone who defends modern art I feel like they're trying to gaslight me.

[Gurzil-]

"Evil despises beauty and flourishes amidst ugliness"

[thoughtlessroamer]

They make it easy to “judge them by their works”

[slow]

I'm passionate about bringing better art into my local parishes. I need prayer in this endeavor.

[rgvonsanktpauli]

"Anyone who thinks beauty is only in the eye of the beholder has never been to a strip mall in the suburbs" – Caravaggio

[barrywood]

I submitted a 3D sculpture depicting the roman soldiers at the foot of the cross tossing dice for Jesus's clothing as Jesus suffered on the cross just above them. It was super realistic and anatomical correct, with particularly attention paid to historical accuracy in clothing and roman armor. I spent 2 years completing it. It was titled "Winners and Losers." The university that gave the "Art show" set my piece away in a corner and gave the award and prize to a work that consisted of a plastic toy elephant with two toy space shuttle boosters sloppily hot glued to the elephants sides and all that hot glued to a broken piece of plywood and it all was sloppily stripped with yellow paint. When the artist accepted the award, he was visibly distressed and would not look me in the eye when I offered him congratulations( I was expecting this kind of outcome and only wished to display the work for its message). Many of the visitors were upset about who received the award and were vocal about it, causing the university staff to leave the floor and they did not return.

[youtubecensors]

It's about demoralizing us by elevating the ugly to make people cynical and lose hope. We need beauty in order to find richness in living, and hope is what we need to find beauty, and beauty in turn gives us hope.

[mellieg.]

Brutalism feels as if the concrete buildings are threatening to crush me rather than make me feel part of anything. It says "you are tiny, you are insignificant"

[vivwood]

As an artist, this new modern art makes it extremely difficult for actual artists. We're constantly being judged not for the beauty and meaning of our pieces, but for this odd, countercultural, abstractness factor. So a hyperrealistic piece of gorgeous art will sell for 10x less than ketchup on a canvas. That and the fact that now no one takes art seriously anymore. Art used to take the hidden, underlying beauty in God's creation and highlight it. It was an illustration of potential, essentially showing God in God's work. Now the art that is praised has lost all meaning and has become as repulsive as an indulgent concupiscence.

[michaellowe]

Modern art is honestly the elevation of the mediocre. Why? Because it's easy to do. It's easy to build something blocky and ugly. It's hard to build something beautiful, integrated, and intricate. And perhaps the root sin of modern art is simply Sloth.

[jpfulks]

In 1963, an excerpt from the book, “The Naked Communist”, was made part of the congressional record, outlining 45 “communist goals”. If you decide to look this up and read them, it will be a wake up call for you. The following are two of them:
2. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American
Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute
shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive,
meaningless art."

[s.g.b.]

„Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin good forces have invented or made.“

JRR Tolkien

[krimbii]

I spent my 20s entrenched in the world of the arts and hung around all the best artists of my area. I understand from experience around this world that the goal of modern art is an extension of critical theory. The aim is to visually tear down anything that is accepted as traditional. The goal is to also shock others, and the only way to shock other people is to keep crossing the line of what is currently accepted as normal. Eventually you get so far out on the periphery of what was considered normal, that you venture into extremely weird sex stuff, pedophilia, or even just publicly destroying something beautiful to post online as a sort of performance art (we are here).

Modern art is also fueled by pride and individualism. Why create something beautiful? That has all been done before. The goal is to do something shocking enough that will gain you notoriety and fame. The more "triggered" the "conservatives" are, the more attention you receive, and the more you will be congratulated by your peers for causing a stir with the backwards people. By accomplishing this, you can feel a sense of superiority over most of the population, and a sense of pride that you belong to a clique of special people who "get it".

I feel like there's so much to say about this topic. Living in modern times and looking back on 2, 000 years of Christian and secular art and being able to track its devolution is a fascinating thing...

[victoriaeinbinder]

There's something in the human spirit that recognizes truth, goodness and beauty. To glorify the objectively ugly demonstrates a poverty of spirit.

[bathcat]

Once you realize that shitty art has become a way to signal cultural, intellectual and moral superiority, everything starts to make sense

[mizukarate]

Don't forget skill and lack of skill. Modern art lacks skill and is disgustingly plain.

[roberthuck]

My kids attend a Catholic grade school and I love their art teacher. She said she doesn't pay any attention to any art made after the impressionists.