Opinion

Barbarians at Yale: PC idiocy kills classic art history class

The intro art-history course at Yale University is the envy of the world. The students who qualify for this costly privilege, some of whom go on to run the nation’s major art institutions, relish densely packed, richly presented lessons about the brilliant brushstrokes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and the like.

Or not. As department chair and course instructor Tim Barringer explained to The Yale Daily News recently, the course was “problematic,” ­because it put European art on a pedestal, at the expense of other artistic traditions “equally ­deserving of study.”

Thus, a band of hyper-educated Visigoths will soon demolish Yale’s storied course “Introduction to Art History: Renaissance to the Present.” In its place, the neo-barbarians will teach mini-courses fit for those confident in the correctness of their political views: “art and politics”; questions of “gender, class and race”; and the relationship of art to capitalism and climate change. Students will learn little of enduring value.





It is true that there are other artistic traditions deserving of attention, but these are already taught. Crucially, the history of art is the history of the Renaissance and its influence. Drawing on the achievements of Greco-Roman civilization, key parts of which the Islamic world preserved, the Renaissance blossomed in the city-states of Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Enriched by the past, the Renaissance pushed the boundaries of what we know and what we could achieve. It changed the world. It gave birth to American art, which was dominated by Europeans who brought their cultures with them.

It’s also true that Leonardo da Vinci is guilty of being a Dead White Male, as are Michelangelo and the whole pantheon of Renaissance artists. The Renaissance was intertwined with the rise of modern banking, a time when power-hungry and wealthy patrons used art for self-glorification. It arose when explorers set sail for other worlds, ushering in colonialism. There was no #MeToo.





But all that is not a news flash. Countless scholarly essays have been devoted to laying bare the dark side of Western art. Still, the art puritans are unsatisfied. Like the Islamic State’s attacks on antiquities in Iraq and Syria, or the Christian iconoclasm of the Reformation, modern-day iconoclasts in Ivy League universities would tear down all that offends them for failing to conform to their liberal certainties.

You have to wonder what will happen when they realize that the campus buildings from which they lecture us for our failings are the product of the — gasp! — Western tradition of ­architecture.

The history of art reflects the history of the world. But erasing the past, its glories and its warts, only leaves people ignorant. You need to know about something to criticize it. Students won’t only fail to understand the evolution of art, they won’t appreciate other artistic traditions and customs, for they will have nothing to compare these to.





College professors suggest that dropping the introductory course is a response to student uneasiness, but since the course is more popular than ever, the queasiness likely came from the top. Those in charge of education have relinquished their ­responsibility to hand on to the young what they themselves ­received from the past.

But they should be careful what they wish for. In Poland, the new director of a major museum has complained that he is sick of left-wing dominance of the arts and plans to put his own agenda in place. As a conservative, patriotic, pro-family politician, his politics are different from those that reign at elite East Coast universities; but his justification for using the arts to advance “right-thinking” sounds similar. Once you openly politicize the arts, others will too.





Denying the influence of Western art means dismissing its great truth and beauty. Generations of people — black, brown and white, male and female, rich and poor — have found meaning and solace in the great Western tradition. This art will always lift the heart. The philistine faculty should fall. It is up to all of us who care about the best that has been thought and said to educate future generations — and show them why Western art deserves its place on the pedestal.

Tiffany Jenkins is author of “Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums — And Why They Should Stay There.”





Share this: