Quotation of the Day

In free society, art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

In so-called free society, artists are but servants of the market.

Funny thing to say in the years immediately preceding the social upheaval of the civil rights movement...

So the socially engaged artists of JFK's time were what? Subversives?

What Kennedy got backwards.

"In free society, art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul."

---John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

(I *do* love "Artists are engineers of the soul" as a bumper sticker or Tweet!) Also, *way* too late for *his* #metoo post.

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}- Luftmarque لوفتمارك -{ Le doute n'est pas une condition agréable, mais la certitude est absurde.—Voltaire

Context from: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century

JFK on Poetry, Power, and the Artist’s Role in Society: His Eulogy for Robert Frost, One of the Greatest Speeches of All Time

"Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state… In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role…

If sometimes our great artist have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth… In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society — in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost’s hired man, the fate of having “nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.”

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/01/jfk-amherst-speech/

Now that we know what art is not, where it does not belong, and that artists are not engineers of the soul;
in free society could "art" have become a commodity, belonging to the sphere of mundane commerce and cheap trade,
yet the "artists" peddling it are not just the engineers but masters of our souls?