Idolizing ugliness
| Galatians 6:7-8 7 For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. |
Lucien Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud, is considered one of the leading portraitists alive today.
The problem is, he paints very ugly portraits. His infamously unflattering portrait of Queen Elizabeth earned him a “Freud should be locked in the Tower for this” admonishment from Royal Photographer Arthur Edwards.
And Edwards is no hypocrite, since one of his last photographs of the Queen Mother shows her in sympathy and sweetness that is possible at any age, and perhaps more so at the advanced 100 years of this lady.
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I get the feeling that Freud's sitters do not want to appear vain, and accept any rendition of them which Freud paints, which is usually awful. But, ugliness – especially false ugliness – is as bad a crime, and as idolatrous, as overzealous beauty. What counts is truth, and maybe sympathy, neither of which Freud possesses.
So, what does this have to do with reaping and sowing?
Well, one of Freud’s (40 or so) children, fashion designer Bella Freud, has notoriously entered the Palestine/Israeli conflict in her own manner. She’s making appearances in Britain television denouncing the Israeli "occupation", and makes charitable contributions to Palestinian causes.
This, from a Jewish woman who's family had to flee Nazi Germany for fear of persecution, and whose land the Arab Palestinians have made it their life's mission to destroy.
Lucien Freud gives as deadened portraits, and his daughter takes this one step further and wishes death on own her Jewish nationals.
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