Welp, he’s done it again. Glenn Beck went loose cannon on FOX News yesterday morning, and this time his irrational ire is aimed at NBC’s Rockefeller Plaza. According to Mr. Beck, whom we seem to remember from our art history days at the Sorbonne, the 1937 intaglio carvings on the limestone facade of 1 Rockefeller Plaza are actually Communist art. He also accuses Rockefeller (not sure which Rockefeller, but does it matter?) of sympathizing with Communists, supporting Fascism, and hating America. The best parts come at 1:48 when Beck analyzes another insidious mural on 636 Fifth Avenue (Attilio Piccirilli’s Youth Leading Industry from 1936) and at 6:10 when he pantomimes how a “crazy journalist” called out a Diego Rivera sculpture formerly housed in 30 Rock. We’re relieved to know what “propaganda” we’re unwittingly ingesting every day.
Related: Art critic Jerry Saltz throws down the gauntlet on Modern Art Notes.
Comments (5)
So is Beck saying, with his extremely paranoid art reviews, that we need to destroy all this historical art lest it infiltrate our culture and turn us all in to communists? The pandering to right-wing extremists is soooo obvious and calculated! You would HAVE to be dumb to listen to him.
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The fact behind his rant is that many artists doing public art in the 30's had communist leanings. He must think his viewers are sufficiently ignorant of art history for that to be news. The really disturbing thing is that he is trying to tie progressives with communists in the minds of his viewers.
"It makes sense that you feel a little uneasy," about those cultural elements that you are ignorant about and don't understand because you are undereducated and deliberately obtuse. "It makes sense that you feel a little uneasy," because you believe you are entitled to privilege because of your hard work but you are still being left behind by all of those smarmy, educated "progressives, communists, and fascists" from all around the world. Paranoiacs feel uneasy when they suspect that despite being right about everything and having the power of god on their side, they are about to become the next great losers of history. So watch Fox News to whip up your anger about being taken for a rube and duped by evil sophisticates and their subversive art.
Don’t you guys realize this pice, taken out of context, was meant to be sarcasm?
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