Art in Times of War

From the NYT Blog today: "Running out of art and artists means that we are losing the civilized face of our society, and losing the appreciation of beauty … and love." Read it all here: http://baghdadbureau.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/graven-images-2/ (hat tip [that's what I say, right?] Andrew http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/)

My thoughts on this:

As a dancer and choreographer, the arts are incredibly important and interesting to me. Over the summer I read "The Ministry of Culture" by James Mullaney. It's fiction, but addressed this very issue of art in Iraq, albeit in 1984, during the Iran-Iraq War (I was 2 at the time, so I don't remember much about it). Great story about the murals and how war can rob art from the souls of artists.

I wonder, though, if it gives fodder for others; but maybe that only works if you are detached from it (say, a continent away). I think film has a hard time making war into "art", as it tends to be just carnage. But modern dance and songwriting seem to be two areas, in my experience anyway, that can use hard topics and create beautiful (as in artistic, not necessarily as in pretty), meaningful works. Even visual artist seem to use the "ugly"(Picasso with Guernica, Goya).

Artists, I think, are more willing to struggle with the hard, the nonsensical, the incomprehensible, the ugly. Some never get out of their struggle. Some use that fighting energy to create works seen world-wide, some in just a local performance/gallery. But they have all taken the time to see their world, and to try to create meaning from it. Which is what art is- creation of meaning (at least for the artist, if not for the audience). So, I hope they keep painting murals. That the artists in Iraq can keep seeking to creating meaning. I cannot comprehend how difficult it must be some days.

The last sentence of the NYT Blog- "Running out of art and artists means that we are losing the civilized face of our society, and losing the appreciation of beauty … and love."- makes me so sad. It is deeply true. And I can't help but feel responsible. We have allowed this to happen. In our quest to "civilize" them, the opposite is occurring.