When modernism in art gradually gained acceptance and hegemony during
the last century, it was recognised that this occurred with a break in tradi-
tion. However, whilst the avantgarde established itself, it would not allow
other equal or secondary forms of expression. On the contrary, it was radi-
cally totalitarian, a fact which had repercussions when it became the art of
the establishment. For in establishing itself, it utilised the strategy of radi-
cal definition which sought to exclude and annihilate its other. One of these
strategies was a elitistically [sic] oriented demonization of figurative art
with a strong emotional expression. (OK, 25)In the strict party line and discipline of modernism, Nerdrum recognizes
the mark of totalitarianism; Vine speaks of modernism as “an aesthetic
politburo.”^40 This link between modernist aesthetics and totalitarian pol-
itics would explain why so many artists in the twentieth century had fas-
cist or communist leanings and in some cases ended up shamefully
serving totalitarian regimes and even currying favor with their dictators
(one thinks immediately of Ezra Pound’s relation to Mussolini, but the
record of artists and intellectuals who cast their lot with Stalin is equally
appalling).^41
Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustusis a profound exploration of
the affinities between modernist art and totalitarian politics. By paral-
leling the story of a modernist composer, loosely based on Arnold
Schönberg, with the rise of Hitler as dictator of Germany, Mann reveals
the common ground between revolution in art and revolution in politics.
In both cases, he shows the need to destroy in order to create, and in par-
ticular the substitution of an abstract and artificial new order for tradi-
tional artistic and social relations. Mann thus shares Nerdrum’s
suspicions about the political dimension of modernism. Indeed, events
in the twentieth century led many thinkers to question the assumption
that whatever is modern is automatically good, a belief that has often had
disastrous political consequences, and disastrous aesthetic ones as well,
Nerdrum would add. Nerdrum is right to trace the modernist faith in
progress back to Hegel, the great prophet of modernity, who claims that
history ends with and culminates in the emergence of the modern state.^42
His successors have argued over the nature of this state—whether it
should be, for example, communist, fascist, or liberal-democratic—but
they generally have still accepted Hegel’s view that the state is the
engine of modernity and hence the one true vehicle of progress. That is
why in Nerdrum’s view modernist artists have been able to make their
bargain with the modern state on ideological grounds and hence with a
good conscience.
The Importance of Being Odd 27