Great Art Can Be Propaganda

In the slim volume Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, the longtime New Republic and New York Review of Books art writer Jed Perl assigns himself such a gigantic challenge that I found myself blushing on his behalf at the implied arrogance. In 2022, making some sweeping, categorical statement about art in general that is both interesting and new is about as likely to succeed as finding a new kind of energy, and succeed Perl does not. Trying to outline a system that will provide a useful approach to appreciating everything from Michelangelo’s architecture to “the most important weaver of the twentieth century,” Anni Albers, he flails from one unproven point to the next.