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Jennifer Howard

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Updike on (White, Male) American Art

May 30, 2008

I sat in on John Updike’s Jefferson Lecture–” ‘The Clarity of Things’: What Is American About American Art?”–at the Warner Theatre here in D.C. last week. The Jeff Lec, sponsored by the NEH, is the federal government’s highest honor “for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.” The President’s Own Color Guard marched the flag in and out, and there was a rousing military band. That may sound silly, but it’s not often that anybody trots out a color guard and Sousa marches for the humanities.

And Updike’s talk? I sat next to a friend of mine, a journalist for a Major Metropolitan Daily, who found it about as stimulating “as listening to a docent.” Judge for yourself.

Filed Under: Art for Art's Sake

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Comments

  1. browser says

    November 20, 2008 at 9:13 PM

    Gender and race are characteristics of human beings. I’m not sure what “white, male” art is.

    But seriously, the concept that a range of wildly disparate works of art and literature can be taxonomized and dismissed based on somewhat superficial characteristics shared by their creators strikes me as bizarre. Also dated — reminiscent not just of 1970s feminism, but also of early 19th century race theorists, who waxed eloquent about the natural belligerence of the Celt, the diffidence of the Slav, the passion of the Gaul, and the docility of the Chinaman. Anyhow, if you’re uninterested in art produced by male human beings of the “white” race (a malleable concept), I think the loss is yours — as you’d know if you’d ever read Melville.

    (In case it’s not clear, my comment is just about your headline, not the Updike speech.)

  2. JHoward says

    November 21, 2008 at 11:15 AM

    I appreciate the comment. No insult intended to Melville, whose fan I am. The Updike lecture was remarkable for what (or whom) it did not include. White male artists are, as you point out, hardly a monolithic or unified group. But when a major literary figure, taking part in a major and publicly funded arts program, does not include any other demographic in a lecture that ranges through 200-plus years of American artistic history, something’s wrong. In my reading of the situation, what’s wrong is a blindered focus on a certain segment of the artistic population–in this case, white males.

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Writer, journalist, editor, gadabout. Book- and nature lover. Washingtonian. LLC. Read more ยป

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