Ancient " modern art "

I  am no art conossieur but I know what I like. About 10

    years ago I accompanied my brother Steve , a professional artist , to

    the EXQUISITE ( no better word ! ) Vatican Museum of Art exhibition

    at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Those Renaissance paintings

    will strike a nerve  of the most torpid sensitivity .No doubt they were

    inspired by passionate religious belief. It thought occurred to me that

    they might simply be IMPOSSIBLE in the modern world -which has only a

    pale pretense of piety. We cannot recover the psychology of the past, but

    we can at least appreciate it and understand it .

           But what I found most touching in the Vatican Exhibition was a

    strikingly " modern " ancient Roman statue of a toddler embracing a

    goose.

          Your editorial today " What makes art 'modern ' ? " made me recall

    that particular " masterpiece " . A work a few hundred years old may seem

    dated but one 2000 years old " modern " !

          I cannot provide even a sophomoric answer to your question. But

    it is an interesting question.

          But... they say we are as young as we FEEL . Perhaps the same truth

    applies to works of art. Will the music of Elvis Presley - " Burning Love "-

    for example - ever sound hopelessly dated ?

           I'll bet that 2000 years from now a visitor to the American Museum

    of Ancient Music, will find Presley's " Burning Love " as   MODERN as I

    found " Boy and a Goose " .

Comment from R Marshall:

Ron--I enjoyed reading your warm & incisive thoughts on Art & certain

    timeless themes found therein--i.e., "Boy With Goose" antient statue.

    I'm often struck by the seeming agelessness of certain artistic works,

    such as Van Gogh's brilliant impressionistic paintings. The theme may

    often seem dated, capturing the agrarian fields of long ago France & the

    simple peasants who laboured in them, but the the vibrant colours &

    texture of his paintings make them seem too full of life to ever be

    dismissed as outmoded  passe. I was thinking just the other day how

    timeless James Dean seems. I've always felt that way about him, of

    course, but what strikes me quite profoundly is how timeless he seems

    the more time passes by! 

    No wonder reactionaries fear & loath the Arts! So "subversive" in its

    affirmation of LIFE & FREEDOM! While Art lifts the spirit the

    reactionary feeds on the destruction of others spirits--the essence of

    evil. That Boy With Goose statue you wrote so warmly about--that touched

    you so deeply & moves you still--will endure long after cranks,

    megalomaniacs & egotistical buffoons have withered away on the vine &

    been long forgotten. I've always seen you as an artist--one who, as JFK

    once spoke of the role of the true artist in society-- "remains true to

    himself & lets the chips fall where they may."