Now, I will admit that occasionally I have difficulty deciphering abstract art and its meaning and, at times, I wonder if the splotches of paint strewn across the wall are nothing more than an artist's fiendish prank to fool the pretentious among us into believing that they are analyzing meaningful art, when, in fact, they are merely looking at paint splotches. I have to remind myself that the fact I can't decipher a piece of art doesn't mean that the work is indecipherable; instead, it could be that I haven't the tools or knowledge inside me to do the deciphering or maybe my imagination isn't sufficiently expansive to see what the artist is able to imagine more clearly than me.
I have captured the images of two of the sculptures. Can you guess what the title of the first sculpture is? Why, it's called "The Homecoming." But, what else could it be titled? No one, except perhaps someone completely lacking the sense of vision, could misunderstand the scene that is being depicted, and I suspect that the meaning is so obvious and overt that even the blind can sense that they are in the presence of "The Homecoming" when they walk by it unsuspectingly, while conducting their daily errands.
The second sculpture called "Pilots, Man Your Planes," of course, depicts pilots running to man their planes. Again, almost nothing is left to the viewer's imagination, except perhaps the identity of the enemy who might be forcing these two pilots to dash so quickly toward their airplanes. And even that doesn't matter as the viewer need only fill in the "enemy of the day" and assume that it is that enemy who is being responded to.
Come to think of it, there are few military monuments that are abstract in nature. When war is the topic, there is no gray area, nothing is abstract, imagination is not required--there are enemies and there is the valor of "our" side. The abstract and the ambiguous are the enemy of those who want to force nations and their people into bloody battle. After all justice, ecumenicism, tolerance, and peace are abstractions, in a sense, that do not lend themselves to such clear-cut depictions and easy sculpting.
If we consider historical example, the abstract is also the enemy of dictators and totalitarian regimes. The Nazis of Germany took great lengths to condemn and destroy what they termed "decadent art," almost all of it abstract, almost all of it deviating from the clear propaganda the state wanted its citizens to take in without thought. Not much in Soviet Art was abstract either, particularly if the dozens of Soviet sculptures I saw in the old Kyrgyz Historical museum are a guide. And now in the U.S., more and more of those from the right wing, Trump supporters, and Republicans lash out against "decadent" art, and abstraction they don't understand or that they find threatening; these groups cut funding from the arts and insist that art fit their narrow conception of the truth. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this assault upon abstraction and the concept of art as a whole has taken place at the same time our democracy has begun to collapse. A democratic society that cannot cope with alternative visions and with the abstract is one that is danger of being overrun by the undemocratic vision of those in power.
I left the non-abstract sculpture park after listening to my fellow park visitors gush expansively at how wonderful and patriotic the sculptures were and how refreshing it was to have public art that everyone can understand--none of that horrible, indecipherable trash, they cheered. The failure of civic imagination, tolerance of only dominant and clearly understood messages, hostility toward alternate visions, and identification of the "decadent"--all are hallmarks of societies where democracy is imperiled or absent altogether. It seemed that only I left the sculpture park that day lacking a warm glow in my heart and possessing a deeper understanding of the descent into darkness into which our society has embarked.
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| The Homecoming |
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| Pilots, Man your Planes!!! |
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