A DEBATE ON ALPHA ART I (a most significant debate of its kind!)

On September 2, 2006, at 9:06 AM, Ben Lau, unable to contain his mirth derived from an announcement in the news regarding the recovery of a burglarized Edvard Munch, suddenly burst out laughing on Cyber space.

The laughter did not subside for many hours and was heard many miles away!
Ben Lau: Ha, ha, ha,….. Tee, hee,….Oh Edvard Munch? Give me a break! One just cannot resist a good practical joke played upon us by those burglars!

As we know, someone’s honey can be another person’s poison. Sure enough, the laughter has wide repercussions. Most significantly, they have precipitated a very important debate on Alpha Art.

It must be borne in mind that I am willing to repair to any of my offended friends by giving my sincere apology for the slightest and unintentional display of disdain towards their favorite artist, Edward Munch.

That said, I still find the very fact of promoting Edvard Munch or Mickey Mouse to a status of high art by the Academia/media complex utterly amusing! It was both comical and unsettling! A full course of comical spectacle was displayed in front of me owing to the sighting of that reality,– the configuration of which may serve to explain the cause of both my mirth and fear, namely, for the proverbal throng of blind folks being led forward by a smaller group of even blinder academicians and so-called artists approaching danger in rapid strides.

It was rather entertaining to witness the latter group of people–shall we call them the elites?– who, while availing themselves upon the head of such a formidable train of humanity, perpetually curse the artistic geniuses and arrogantly proclaim themselves the gurus at art and poetry, without so much as a blush on the cheeks, and despite their impotence at creativity!

What is truly strange , wildly , and hysterically farcical was that they were at the same time busying their hands and mouths by applying them to the deep pockets of the likes of McKnights, Daytons, or Rockefellas, inappropriately feeling, probing, squeezing, kneading and wantonly feeding and suckling on any and all of the nipples found therein!

Thereupon also dwells my great fear, as the throng of blind folks have not been able to slow down but are fast approaching a great ditch of foul smelling, squeamishly obnoxious and excessively nauseating pig-chow formed of the regurgitations and excrements of the French postmodernists and International existentialists!

Guys, if that is the same wild spectacles that you too, are looking at, honk-and you are immediately licensed to laugh with impunity on this blog. The bufooneries of humanity can surely tickle this Age!

Just as I have said before, my honey can be another person’s poison. Sure enough, my friend Kerry hated the way I treated Edvard Munch. She was candid to me about it. Personally, we are good friends. Friends have disagreements. That is to be expected!

Kerry : I am sad to hear your laugh. One may or may not appreciate his work, but it represents a time and many events in Norway and some of that history has now been defaced. I know you to be a good, kind an generous man-a good friend. this seems incongruent. (Just the gist of my friend Kerry’s words. Kerry is a pseudonym for a real person.)

KNOX MARTIN: (in an email to Ben Lau)

Dearest Ben

How low can so called art get?

Klimpt, Munch, Caravagio, $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

BEN LAU: (Trying to explain why Edvard Munch can be reduced to such a laughing stock.)
Don’t be sad, Kerry. Be happy that the truth has been pointed out! Your friend Ben is the same true Ben but your idol Munch, unfortunately has been exposed as an impostor! You may feel hurt now because a longtime idol has been blown to pieces, not just by one, but by two Alpha Seers (i.e. Knox Martin and myself.) When addiction is deep the pain from withdrawal has a fiery cut. But old superstition, narcotic sense of false security, won’t quit if you don’t deal with it! So here is the take: History is very confused and clarity must be restored once more. Unfortunately that thankless task has become my call, even though I hate to give people such surgical discomfort! It makes one unpopular, you know!

But the Emperor is naked! So one must choose between unpopular and unsightly!

When one is thirsty, drink—don’t ask who has brought the goddamn water! I may not look like much of an authority but my last 30 years have been spent in studying the root of art. An Alpha Seer’s understanding of art at its root has now become a report. Ben Lau is its author. He has emerged from the wilderness to report his findings about art. “Munch is a bum–not a Mercede Benz!” said Ben. That is just one of many findings! Whether or not you throw the bum out is your business, my good lady!
No offense, Kerry,– but you are among my own Guests of Honor,– some of the very first in humanity to receive this message– shouldn’t you feel glad at least? I have written extensively about my findings and posted them on-line. Anyone who is serious enough about art would not be disappointed as it tells the whole story sincerely and with a clarity that can rival broad day light!
Same old Ben here, Kerry! Same love for you! Only your “hero”, Edvard Munch is in fact a wannabe who could do no better than above-average illustrations. Then he somehow garnered the coveted title of artist, and got himself and public equally deluded,–entangled in his own web of deception like all impostors!– with no charity ever, nor relief granted by salvation and clarity!
I am certain that our friendship of many years is very much alive. Truth be told, all of human beliefs are but ghosts from a vast burial ground called memory,– dead yet undead,– as they steadfastly tempt our better natures and refuse to die!

Unproven beliefs are no more than snake oils. The Cult of Edvard Munch is all fabricated reality!– A religion born of insecurity, complete with the usual trains of High Priests, Dalai Lama, or Bishops! Think Norman Rockwell or Walt Disney,– Kerry!– and you would be in a better position to recognize the true rank of Edvard Munch. Ego often keeps us from seeing with clarity! Ego refuses to receive a rude messenger with news that drive heart-broken tears to the eyes. As for Munch,– Nordic hero no more! The Alpha Seer is here! Revolution is here! Impostors may shake their last shabby lies at the world, odious poison darts from a hideous cloak dark as night! Herd instinct is the impostor’s favorite plaything! No wonder the clever one has a large following! Herd instincts make a whole nation gullible!

The Alpha Seers, however, are sworn to expose them, obnoxious charlatans and quacks, doomed dim spirits from Death Stars!

Paul Cezanne, the last Alpha Seer of 19th C did just that! The Alpha Seers of this century will do no differently! There are no wiser princes than the Alpha Seers, nor sterner, who are born to rule poetry! The impostors may have cleverly kept the world on night’s vast black beam-less shore, surreal suffocating and superstitious!– But eyes will soon open to Beauty’s broad day light again,– and new Spring dances merrily in the air!
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Thus started a great debate on Alpha Art on this strangely uneventful day of September

(September always surprises!)

The protagonists were Knox Martin and Ben Lau on one team with the oppositions, A K. and Kerry. on the other.

Knox Martin (ref. www.knoxmartin.com) is the greatest artistic genius since the Egyptians, (Ben Lau has explained why on True Art Blog,) Ben has fashioned himself a fancy title, the Alpha Seer–one who sees Beauty–so as to match the higher status of the other citizens.

A K. is a prominent writer in Minnesota and Kerry, an important educator. Knox and A K are nationally and internationally renowned. Kerry is a well respected art educator.

Olivia martin, Knox’s daughter, and my own daughter, Isabella Lau, also contributed
their opinions– which were mostly neutral in their contents. I would not disclose the true identities of the learned oppositions. It is always wise not to send your friends to the Chief Executioner called History. If that generosity was not appreciated, it was their own call!

A K:

Ah, Ben, in the email you sent re Munch, there was no attachment and no link. So there was nothing to read, only your laughter at nothing. Self-proclaimed “geniuses” need to make sure their shoelaces are tied, just like the rest of us mortals.

Izzy, 19 year old, was concerned that her Dad Ben should say anything improper to offend our friends, who have been extremely popular around the family.

DAUGHTER:

Dad,

Be careful not to burn bridges. You might want to say something to tell them the truth, but I think more importantly, you should stop first to consider whether what you’re saying will affect your friend or your relationship with other people in a negative way. Say what you want to say in your blog– you can have your opinion about artists there, but do not say it in personal e-mails that will end up offending people who have been there to support you for many years. More important than art and than anything else is your relationship with other people, with your family and your friends. I am saying this not because I’m on this side or that side, but because I am genuinely concerned. Step back and look at how they perceive you: right now, I think they feel sarcasm and negativity from you, which is not a good way to behave.

BEN LAU:

Izzy,

Kerry is a good friend and intelligent one. We have been friends for years and remember we have Lee because of her? I don’t think she feels negativity. she is merely passionate about her beliefs. What is important, Izzy, is to understand the priority of things. What is not true must be righted. What is not clear, clarified. The rest is not so important. Why is art important? It is the spirit of a people, it is the spirit of a civilization. Mechanics fix cars. True geniuses fix art. I don’t think the bridge would be burnt. If people decide to misunderstand what is in www.trueartblog.com, it is all their choice. This is a free country. They can make or break relationships but you do not give up loving them. That is true respect to me!

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SORDID REALITY SHOW:

WHATEVER THE POSTMODERNISTS DO, ACADEMIA CANONIZES LATER ON.

The following individuals’ eccentric performances in the name of art are more than just freak shows. They have been done in the name of art but are in truth con-games driven by Sordid Desire to garner prestiges, fame/notoriety as well as monetary advantages when sensibility on the good Earth is asleep. The public is not entirely free of blame since they have allowed themselves to be led on by such untold vulgarity as modern urban life has become quite a handful to some while stark and purposeless to others. And to leave metaphysical questions to “the experts” has become a dominant theme of modern life and eventually a supreme pretext for the citizens’ laziness.

Whom do those charlatans impose on? The Alpha Seer. Who is the Alpha Seer? The one who is awaken to Beauty.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the Alpha Seers, more often known by the terms of major artists, or supercreators, or artistic geniuses; are extremely rare in number. For example, in art we only have Ingres, Cezanne, Matisse, Degas, Picasso and Matisse in the past one hundred years. Mozart, Beethoven, Hydn, Bach, Vivalde, Schubert and Chopin are probably the only known musical Alpha Seers in the past 500! They are Nature’s own mandates of Beauty! The Alpha Seers were born to greatness and their indelible accomplishments testify to Nature’s own perfection expressed through the imperfect sensibilities of man.This ultimately sets humanity apart,–not just several rungs higher than our closest primate cousins–but completely break out from the Animal Kingdom! Think of a scientific genius who has attained that glory! No wonder the Alpha Seer draw the envy of everyone and many are tempted to impose on the Alpha Seer, — thus continually perpetrating a deceptive and self-delusional process on good Planet Earth!
The following individuals also call themselves major artists of our times,– but folks, don’t let yourselves be conned! These impostors, taking advantage of the citizens’ general blindness for Beauty, have come up with cheap gimmicks to arouse public sensations, good enough for them to achieve fame/notoriety and prosperity. They operate in the same way as felons or con-men! Try to “Google” them on the internet and find out more about them; focusing especially on the fees imposed by their handlers on their so-called “art works!”

Unlike the felons or con-men though, they enjoy high social status. Such individuals are continually glorified by Academia and they enjoy a privilege equal to that of the patron saints found in any religion.

It is an important first step in an organized religion for the worshipers to come to terms with an arbitrary and ritualistic reality. That fabricated reality has been sustained by the High Priest of the religion, so the latter may dominate the believers and exert his influence with no question asked. Similarly has a strong grip around all cultural activities been inherently devised in an organized academic belief called the Academia. The academic High Priests’ cultural tendrils are obnoxious and poisonous enough to achieve general mediocrity and ignorance to the point of absurdity! For examples, Carolee S the stripper was awarded the title of Doctor of Fine Art after she pulled out something from her own vagina stark naked in front of an audience. Manzoni’s “canned shits” can be found in the collections of museums world-wide; and the dancer to the tune of no music, Gillian W. had become so famous that she got to give her “artistic performance” in the royal presence of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
One may trace the concepts of the postmodernists to an Existential origin. All postmodernists, talentless and artistically impotent as they are, inevitably behave like monstrous identical twins,–the ill-begotten offspring of that sorry philosophy! Postmodern influence upon the society in contemporary life is deep– and wrought with such deformity! It reminds one of the unsightly Oriental female feet- binding practice during dynastic periods where an ugly fetish had become confused with a beautiful, or artistic pursuit.
It is quite possible to trace all social idiosyncrasy in the modern world to such philosophical deformity since the thesis of art predicates all cultural matters,– thus affecting human consciousness in some very subtle ways.

Like the average citizen, Queen Elizabeth II of England would not know any better and could not tell what is true from what is false. Most of her cultural activities had been arranged by her own cultural ministers whose impure alliance with postmodern Academia is a matter of course. So one may try to explain away Her Majesty’s foolishness in endorsing Gillian W’s “art” and make the claim that it was completely unavoidable. However, one is not sure if history would entertain similar magnanimity when it comes time for an assessment of Her Majesty’s heritage with an “artistic” focus!

What the postmodernists do, Academia International faithfully and ritualistically follows up with canonization and glorification! Eventually, all the charlatans get to be promoted to a supreme status,–as Academia’s own patron saints.

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Carolee Schneemann.jpg shigeko kubota.jpg Manzoni.jpg robert morris.jpg

I.>>>>>> II.>>>>>>>>>>> III.>>>>> IV.>>>>

gillian wearing.jpg

V.>>>>>

I. Carollee S.

In 1975, Carollee S. performed in front of an audience in Long Island, the so-called “Interior Scroll” where a stark naked Carollee gradually unraveled a scroll from her vagina. Carollee S was later awarded the Doctor of Fine Art degree by an American university.

II.Shigeko K

In 1965, Shigeko K. used a brush attached to her vagina and performed the so-called “Vagina Painting.” Her academic glorification and canonization came at the heels of those peculiar activities.
III. Manzoni

In 1961, Manzoni put his own fecal matter in this can, labeled it as “Canned Shit” sold it as “work of art.” Are you ready for this stinker?

IV Robert M.

In 1962, Robert M. presented his I-Box where he was exhibiting his own penis.
It seems the prime goal most postmodernists think of achieving is exhibit their own naked bodies in ways that society found “shocking” even though there is nothing new under the sun.
V.Gillian W.

This video clip showed Gillian W. dancing in public without music. “Art historians” claimed that Gillian was actually exploring the disparities between people’s interior and exterior lives in her works. How painfully deep! How insightfully cultural Queen Elizabeth II had been to grace one of Gillian W.’s performances with Her Majesty’s attendance?