Back to Beauty?: On Steiner's Venus in Exile

Wendy Steiner's Venus in Exile: the Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art traces the dismissal of beauty and the feminine subject in the realms of Modernist art and literature of the past century. Steiner mainly focuses her critique on avant-garde art where Kantian notions of transcendent and detached, disinterested beauty seem to have resulted in "masculine" works where women, beauty, ornament and domesticity come to lose their place. Very early on in her text, Steiner contrasts a Kantian notion of beauty with the aesthetic theory latent in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and eventually suggests a societal revision of aesthetics in ways that pull us toward Shelley's critique. It is clear that Steiner sees the 21st-Century as having much potential for bringing back beauty (albeit a beauty that has been somewhat transformed by the Modernist history that has preceded it). Steiner seems to find hope in a renaissance of beauty as bodily, pleasurable and world in which generosity, love and making oneself again through a recognition of the Other are once again valued.

For me, Steiner's text was a wonderful pulling together of some pieces (and critiques) that I was struggling to give voice to. I appreciated the through examples she gave to demonstrate (instead of telling us) just how significant the departure of beauty was on many facets of life from home decorating, photography, novels, and art. I would imagine that Steiner's audience is more heterogeneous than some of the previous texts we've read in that she gives a lot of context information and, while she does assume background knowledge of art and literature, I was able to engage in her argument even when I was unfamiliar with a particular painting or novel.

I very much enjoyed Steiner's discussion of ornament and domesticity; however, these parts of the book left me with some questions regarding what was happening and going on in domestic spheres of life within certain cultural pockets despite the general devaluation of the beautiful. That is, while Steiner's project traces high art and lauded literature, I kept wondering what was going on in everyday society in the homes and lives of women who most likely did not leave ornament and domesticity behind (think, working-class womens' decorations/clothing as being called "gaudy"). Granted, Steiner does give mention to decorating books, fashion magazines and photography in a few places throughout her book; yet, I was wondering about who--despite its lack of popularity and cultural prestige--has clung to notions of beauty throughout the 20th century--who were the guardians of beauty and now that beauty is becoming in vogue again, how will this same groups relationship to beauty be changed? The reason I ask this question is that it seems to me that Steiner seems to be suggesting a cultural force (because of need and desire of individuals and society as a whole it seems) back toward beauty. Yet, a focus on the avant-garde then fails to recognize which people have held on to this notion all along and their role (if any) in how beauty will become re-appropriated in high art. I want to know more about the relationships between the avant-garde movement and "common" or "lower-end" consumption" as I think these relationships are crucial for thinking through what the renaissance of beauty will do to and for those who have less available power. Hmm...I hope this is making sense...I guess I'm just trying to reign in the hopefulness Steiner has for a return to beauty because I'm skeptical about what that shift will actually do for those that have been left out of Modernist art. Will the return of beauty be just a reorganization of the relationships to it in ways that make access to what is deemed valuable and artistic less available?