Reading La deshumanización [del arte]

Ortega y Gasset is one of those figures who often gets poked fun at in Hispanism.  The common phrase describes him as "el primer asno de España".  An extreme example is certainly Martín-Santos' provocation of Goya's painting as the philosophical imaginary of Ortega's thinking.

The image depicts Ortega in an act of sorcery, enticing his audience with a series of spells (as an animal).  Of course, in Tiempo de silencio this works out to be the terrifying fore-figure for someone like Martín-Santos (as a budding philosopher, clinical psychologist and novelist).   This is not a limit case.  Juan Goytisolo's Conde Julián also leaves few bodies behind in the canon (its diligence might be a limit case).

A major collection of essays on esthetics, La deshumanización del arte, might prove some use in the (naggingly) persistent divide of cultural production (high/low, popular/elite -- pick your terms).  In particular, the work presents itself without compromise, claiming that the difference between avant-garde and the popular effectively divides the human species.  Indeed, some art is not human:

"Si el arte nuevo no es inteligible para todo el mundo quiere decirse que sus resortes no son genéricamente humanos.  No es un arte para los hombres en general, sino para un clase muy particular...".

Of course, there are several binaries at work here that one should frown at (e.g. class distinctions).  However, is there something, let's say, nonhuman in art?  This is something curious here that should not be dismissed so easily:

En la lírica buscará amores y dolores del hombre que palpita bajo el poeta.  En pintura sólo le atraerán los cuadros donde encuentre figuras de varones y hembras con quienes, en algún sentido, fuera interesante vivir.  Un cuadro de paisaje le parecerá «bonito» cuando el paisaje real que representa merezca por su amenidad o patetismo ser visitado en una excursión.

More about this soon.