L'art moderne
A Spanish historian has discovered anti-Franco forces used modern art as torture on their prisoners during the Spanish Civil War. Allegedly the National Confederation of Workers constructed cells with tilted beds, bizarre colors, and randomly placed geometric shapes on the floors to psychologically torment captured Franco supporters in Barcelona. The Spanish newspaper El Pais states:
The avant garde forms of the moment - surrealism and geometric abstraction - were thus used for the aim of committing psychological torture.
The creators of such revolutionary and liberating [artistic] languages could never have imagined that they would be so intrinsically linked to repression.
I believe I’ll have to bring this issue up the next time one of our professors begins showing us slides of modern art. But if subjecting people to modern art is torture, I guess I’m guilty as well. So Bert or Candace, if either of y’all read this, I apologize for exposing you to the mind-bending, “degenerative art” at the Pompidou Center!