Modern Art and the Death of a Culture

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Summary: Rookmaaker Reveals Art
Review: Christians weren't and aren't necessarily "right" when it comes to art. Often uninformed and bias, Christians tend to pigeon-hole art, making it have no place in the lives of humanity. This book takes a look at art through a historical and biblical viewing glass. Rookmaaker does not just say "sin is the problem" and leave it at that (though he speaks plenty on the root of the problem which is sin). Rather he looks to history, the artist's intentions of a particular "movement", and both Christian and secular mentalities that pervaded the times. Rookmaaker ends the book splendidly, answering questions that are left in the Christian's mind (concerning faith, morals and art, good and bad art, beauty, aesthetics, what is art, and more), calling Christians to take courage, and finally charging Christians with the responsibility to go out and make good art.

Rating:
Summary: Rookmaaker Reveals Art
Review: Christians weren't and aren't necessarily "right" when it comes to art. Often uninformed and bias, Christians tend to pigeon-hole art, making it have no place in the lives of humanity. This book takes a look at art through a historical and biblical viewing glass. Rookmaaker does not just say "sin is the problem" and leave it at that (though he speaks plenty on the root of the problem which is sin). Rather he looks to history, the artist's intentions of a particular "movement", and both Christian and secular mentalities that pervaded the times. Rookmaaker ends the book splendidly, answering questions that are left in the Christian's mind (concerning faith, morals and art, good and bad art, beauty, aesthetics, what is art, and more), calling Christians to take courage, and finally charging Christians with the responsibility to go out and make good art.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK ON MODERN ART IN PRINT
Review: Dr. Rookmaaker was the Professor of the History of Art at the Free University of Amsterdam. This book is his very interesting analysis of art and how it reflects the culture. Rookmaaker was of the opinion that artists were like canaries in a mine. They were (are) the early warning system. They show clearly where a society is headed. They are not (as many cultural conservatives falsely believe) the cause of societies problems, rather they are the earliest indicators of those problems. This book (first published in 1970) is more timely than ever. It (and Dr. Rookmaaker) were a huge influence on Dr. Francis Schaeffer (The entire "line of despair" idea in "The God Who is There" comes from Rookmaaker). I highly recommend this book.

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Summary: Careful reading required
Review: I used to really like this book. Finding it at the Dales Bible Week in Harrogate was a stroke of exceptional good fortune. Together with various texts by Schaffer and Guinness, I found a good deal of clear explanation for the kinds of encounters with literature I had had in recent years.

However, I think that in later years I became somewhat anxious. Oddly enough there was the coincidence that nearly all the actual content of the Dales Bible week was suddenly coming under very close scrutiny and rightly being found wanting, I re-read quite a few of the texts I picked up in that period (which was the late 70's and early 80's), this included.

What passes for scholarship in this book is quite hard to resist, and requires the most detailed knowledge to refute. I have some friends who have tried to do this. It takes years to absorb the whole impact of 19th century machinations in the arts, and the 20th century is far more difficult. I found that Rookmaakers analysis still held up, though it is hard to rationalise how this book has now become the sole element in far too many arts and literature courses in Christian establishments. Not every stream of arts development led entirely to despair, and not every artist abrogated their responsibility to truth quite so wilfully as the author seems to suggest.

The book has become, in fact, far too embedded in the Christian subculture now. And this of course is a dreadful trap. In some institutions this form of criticism has become an alternative and if fact, vicarious alternative to real scholarship.

At the risk of being classed as a reckless fool, I would suggest it would be best if there was a concious attempt to point focus away from the L'abri fellowship for a while and to allow people to develop and sharpen real critical skills. This should never compromise real faith. Once again, what is happening in the real world is a loss of dialectic clarity among those who should be the salt and light.

Another concern is that now the arts are so degenerate, it is now almost certainly the case that the canary is now thoroughly dead, and very little, if anything is to be gained from it's postmortem. I suspect that far more is to be gained by shifting the focus of action to other spheres.

I'm afraid I must sound very critical of this - I don't mean to really. The book contains invaluable truth and should be read. However, things in the secular world are changing rapidly and it is important for us all to think on our feet.