Addendum by DH related to his 'disturbingly powerful' in the preceding post -
'Stravinsky and Diaghilev may have felt a degree of scorn at public traditionalist tastes, but the work done in creating the ballet was done genuinely as an artistic venture, in other words done to produce something disturbingly powerful but which would be supported by its aesthetic.':
... I wanted to add something about the idea of being "disturbingly powerful" ...
I feel that it's the fact that it's disturbing that matters, that it gets through our thick skin, past our defences.
My thought is that it can be solely the aesthetic quality that makes this happen, not because of any avant garde aspect ...
...
They would have hoped to carry their audience with them.
Did you get to see the Leonardo exhibition? One or two of his paintings are extremely disturbing. It's interesting to analyse how they work, what he did, but he is neither avant garde nor was trying to teach the philistines a lesson.
