We used to build cathedrals - The destruction of art

"We used to build cathedrals" I hate that phrase. Often espoused in art reaction videos or threads by people who think art began and ended in centuries past, it is loaded with as much ignorance as judgement. Swung at art students and performance works removed from their context. It reduces art to the near unobtainable ideals of century long constructions fuelled by religious fervour and a flippant disregard for cost.

Yes we used to build cathedrals, in times when the church could set forth laws, and send thousands to their deaths in holy wars.

Yes we used to build cathedrals, and hundreds would die in the construction of most, whilst their cost could take up to 20% of a regional economy.

Now I know the point of that saying isn’t to literally bemoan a lack of cathedrals specifically. It’s not a cry for more religious sites, but rather a desire for great works of public beauty. An appeal for craftsmanship over corporations, devotion to a collective goal that we may not even see complete in our lifetimes.

The reason I mention what it took to build a cathedral is because it is exactly the reason I hate that phrase. It ignores the fact that no one is paying the cost to build cathedrals. No one is supporting century long art projects, so few artists are given permanent space in public to shape, we are asked to sacrifice everything in pursuit of a beauty we will never see and given nothing but scorn along the way.

If you want a new Notre Dame, to see the next Sistine, or to have a genius design the futures Duomo, you have to support it. Cathedrals did not spring from the earth. They grew out of a devotion to an idea which was wholly supported by both practical and emotional means.

If you want us to build cathedrals again, someone has to foot the bill. Artists are not the ones killing art, we never have been.