IT IS ALWAYS extremely sad when someone commits suicide. So it is with the death this week of the wildly successful New York fashion designer, Kate Spade, 55, whose upbeat, chic, and colorful feminine accessories were understandably very popular.

Spade, who hung herself with a scarf and leaves behind a husband and a 13-year-old daughter, obviously had a dark side she did not wish to reveal to the public. This darkness is apparent to me in the artwork which decorated the multi-million dollar homes in New York and the Hamptons owned by her and her husband, Andy Spade. These homes combine a studied, preppy look of classic furniture, elegant patterned fabrics and cozy knick knacks with chillingly bleak modern art. This contrast is a common form of juxtaposition among the fashionable. On one hand, there is a devotion to tradition and on the other there are “I-reject-all-that” gestures. The art people hang in their homes expresses their worldview and definitely affects their inner states. Even people with vast resources to buy the most expensive of things often cannot make a full commitment to beauty because they are alienated from its source. This alienation, I submit, was the cause of Spade’s death. How could Kate possibly make sense of intense inner suffering in such a world?

I offer these images, however, mostly without comment and with condolences to her family. I do not mean to suggest that all modern art is dangerous. Much of it, however, makes people unhappy because it is ugly and bleak or simply confirms an emptiness within. Much of it is mere sensation and thus enforces a profound meaninglessness.

— Comments —

John Purdy writes:

As someone who takes an interest in Traditionalist values as well as modern art I view the question of “how are we to judge bleak art”, very seriously. I’m sure none of us wish to dismiss ‘Oedipus Tyrannus’ or ‘Macbeth’ despite the fact they are not very Christian. Or ‘Crime and Punishment’ or even Camus’ ‘The Stranger’. I’m not much on visual arts, I’ll leave that for experts, but the Schoenberg Fourth Quartet and ‘Rite of Spring’ are remarkable works – but bleak. The American composer Elliott Carter’s Second String Quartet is not even bleak, although it is highly unconventional in it’s use of musical materials.

The jerk who created ‘Piss Christ’ can be easily dismissed as, I think, can American Composer John Cage. What are the criteria for judgment?

Perhaps St. Thomas can guide us, who, of course, reflects Aristotle and his idea of ‘catharsis’ among many other ideas.

Any thoughts?

Laura writes:

Yes, it’s a big topic.

Macbeth and Oedipus Tyrannus are not bleak works of art in the sense that I mean. They are filled with meaning. They examine how the characters undo themselves by their own moral failings. There’s nothing anti-Christian about them. A work can be sad or depressing, but not bleak.

The black hole above the Spade fireplace, surrounded by primitive African figures, seems to say that life is dark and purposeless. I can’t imagine someone growing old alongside it or having children play happily nearby.

June 8, 2018

Kyle writes:

Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef host of Parts Unknown, was found dead from apparent suicide in his Strasbourg, France hotel room today. Bourdain, who was 61, also hung himself. As you said in your post on Kate Spade, suicide is a tragic situation and each one claims more than one victim. The family and friends will always wonder what they could’ve done to help prevent it.

Bourdain was an Obama-supporting New York liberal but his program was entertaining due to the exotic locales he’d visit. I caught a few episodes over the years. The episode in which he visited West Virginia to meet Trump voters being one. Bourdain was highly critical of Donald Trump, once claiming he was similar to Mussolini. I’ll give him credit for coming out of the socialist bubble to mingle with the common man in his rural element, which is more than can be said for 99% of other leftist celebrities. He had this to say about the residents of West Virginia:

“The stereotypes about West Virginia, it turns out, are just as cruel, ignorant, misguided, patronizing, and evil as any other. […] Their identities, their aspirations, and their situation are far more complex than one can imagine, and their needs are more immediate. […] I am intensely grateful for the kindness, hospitality, and patience the people of West Virginia showed to this ignorant rube from New York City who arrived with so many of the usual preconceptions, only to have them turned on their head.”

He’s the second celebrity to commit suicide by hanging this week. Acedia seems to be crippling the West and its more materially successful citizens.

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