Response to “The Genre”

Before reading this article I looked at the vase on the cover page, (by Michael Casson, seen at right) automatically noting its apparent visual references to medieval Europe and German salt glazing.   Then I read Greenhalgh’s description of the pitcher, in which he mentions a myriad of historical sources that the piece draws from.  Sometimes I think that people read too much into a piece, however after reading Greenhalgh’s description of the lines on this vase, I can see the connection with each of the sources mentioned. The depth of Greenhalgh’s knowledge and his ability to express his ideas and thoughts is impressive.

It is interesting to hear how Greenhalgh categorizes the arts and artists as either positivist or ironic. I had never thought about it in this way, but after reading this it makes a lot of sense.  Most well know artists, as well as classmates of mine, fall into either the positivist or ironic mold.  While all of this makes sense, I’m a little skeptical to buy into it, just because it is too easy to categorize things in such a manner.  Anything that puts people into one of only two categories has to be oversimplified, and thus also somewhat incorrect.   It is an interesting exorcise to categorize everyone this way though.