The War on Good Art

Undoing the work of the previous President is far from uncommon in American politics.  Therefore, it shocked no political observer when Biden authorised executive orders intended to stop the construction of the infamous southern border wall or to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. On the 24th of February, the Biden administration issued its 34th executive order so far, entitled, "Revocation of Certain Presidential Actions". This action gave orders for the repeal of seven Trump-era actions, ranging in subject from the operation of government agencies to economic reforms. One of the actions repealed, however, concerned the architectural style of federal buildings. 

The Trump order, enacted in the final days of his presidency, provided guidelines as to the style in which civic buildings must be built. Given that the executive order option empowers a President to act without popular approval, it would be convenient for a President to keep the order short: a few sentences might suffice, especially concerning the issue of government building architecture. Regardless, the Trump order began with a section on the purpose of the order. "Promoting Beautiful Civic Architecture" begins with a rigorous description of the role that public architecture has traditionally served in Western societies, before outlining why the Brutalist architecture that has been employed by the federal government since the 1950s cannot fulfil the same role that Greco-Roman architecture has.

As to whether the workplace of some government penpusher had been constructed in the neoclassical or the brutalist style might seem to make for futile political debate, especially in a country still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the speed with which Biden moved to revoke the order demonstrates its importance. If it were nothing more than "just buildings", the current administration would have left it alone, but Biden's decision to revert to the Brutalist architecture that has gripped American cities for decades proves that Trump had something of note to say about American architecture. 

In his 2009 film Why Beauty Matters, the late English philosopher Sir Roger Scruton identifies a shift in the style of art produced. Although this is not the first time that we have entered a new period in art and architecture, Scruton argues that this change is different in that it called into question the very purpose of the creative arts. Prior to the 20th century, the consensus among artists was that they should aim to create something of beauty. Beauty, being given from God, they accepted, elevated the human spirit, and was therefore a noble goal to make art in search for. Now, given that there is diversity amongst minds, there was diversity in art; but they did not deliberately try to produce works that offended or were aesthetically displeasing. The virtue of beauty has been replaced with offence and originality. Most art in the contemporary era seems to have no purpose other than to challenge cultural standards; take Marcel Duchamp's Fountain.

After having bought a urinal at an iron works company, Marcel Duchamp submitted it to the Society of Independent Artists, a body he had helped establish. The members of the Society were bound to accept the piece by the nature of the body's constitution, but they took exception, believing it to be indecent. The Society narrowly voted to exclude the piece of work from their inaugural exhibition. 

This is not to say that Duchamp had been defeated. He arranged for a photograph of the urinal to be published in the Blind Man, an art journal, alongside his defence for it. Duchamp's submission had never been in good faith, he submitted it rather to test the new standards of his era. Duchamp was ultimately victorious. If you have ever been cursed with the discussion over whether there are objective standards to art, you have Duchamp to blame. The Tate Modern describes Fountain as "widely seen as an icon of twentieth-century art." Both supporters and detractors of Duchamp agree. 

Duchamp did not create this piece of art, he simply designated it so. Duchamp certainly did not aim to produce something of beauty; he would not have argued that. But his work even fails but the poor yardstick of creativity. The movement to purge art of objective standards collapses under the weight of its contradictions. 

Art must embolden the human spirit; public architecture especially so. Public architecture should honour those from whom their society is gifted - for what are a people but their history? In the case of the British people, it is therefore most appropriate that public architecture should be in the Gothic and neo-Gothic styles that cities like Canterbury and Cambridge are famous for. Though we cannot measure their beauty with a scale or a tape, we know that King's College, Cambridge and Canterbury Cathedral are more beautiful than any modern building because they aimed for beauty, not least because they wished to please God.

Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury

102 Petty France, London

Given these guidelines, it is also clear how American public architecture should be designed. American federalism is the lovechild of English liberalism and Roman republicanism, and a glance at some of the architecture of Washington D.C. illustrates this. The most prominent architectural style found in America's capital is neoclassical (the United States Capitol, the Jefferson Memorial and the White House) in honour of the Romans, but the English heritage of the Founders, both physical and ideological, is present in buildings like the Washingont National Cathedral and The Church of the Epiphany (both are in the Gothic Revival style).

The Jefferson Memorial

Buildings like the Jefferson Memorial stand in juxtaposition to the Hirshorn Museum. Not only are they built in different styles, they serve radically different ideals. The Jefferson Memorial was built to be beautiful, the Hirshorn Museum is a warehouse for the abundance of modern art that we have been dealt over the course of the last century. The Hirshorn Museum honours tolerance of failed art; the Jefferson Memorial honours a  hierarchy of American heroes.

This considered, it is unsurprising that progressives have decided to influence public architecture from the Oval Office. Driven by a hatred of all things old, cultural revolutionaries understand that the traditional American architectural style honours America; and on that ground alone, they are determined to destroy it. The War on Good Art is political, do not be fooled otherwise.