On Art, Power, and Humility

Against the framework of a visit to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the backdrop of 9/11, Holland Cotter writes about “how much of the art I’ve loved and written about over the years is in fact claiming territory, is in fact about us versus you”; that “People say that art embodies the best about human kind; it also embodies the worst. Absolutely nothing about it is innocent.” What we take as a portrayal of beauty is equally an art of fear.