New Post - the Hudson River & Art Outside the Beast
Just posted the continuation of the last post looking at Apprehensible Reality and the Hudson River School through the House of Lies art narrative. This post goes art heavy, looking at the first two generations. What we find are very different lessons from the standard myths. Pathways to development, personal reflections on the wealth of the Western tradition, the seemingly Providential promise of a magnificent land. And above all, a haunting sublime appeal that present a fork in the ontological road.
Either recognize that the material sublimity they share is an indicator of God’s logos in creation. Or pretend that secular transcendence, Manifest Destiny, paper fluffing, and all the other auto-idolatrous nonsense that trotted out in place of metaphysics’s coherence are True!. We are observing the late stages of door number two. But the beauty of art is that the visions linger. New viewers can marvel at the accomplishment and apply the lessons of the last century to see the real truth in them.
They’re a cultural treasure. Well worth the time.