Camille Paglia

relating to the underworld or the earth

The chthonian undertow she locates beneath every surface of Western art — in Botticelli's Venus, in Elvis's pelvis, in the Medusa's petrifying gaze — is nature asserting its dominion over every civilisation arrogant enough to forget it.

relating to the underworld or the earth

Art that ignores the chthonic forces of nature and sexuality produces nothing but sanitized decorative objects.

adj. of; like; or having to do with Apollo wellordered; rational; and serene

The apollonian impulse to impose order upon chaos is civilization's greatest achievement and deepest illusion.

adj. 1 characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions; 2 destructive of images used in religious worship

Her iconoclastic readings of canonical art history shattered assumptions that had calcified over decades of consensus.

adj. 1 of pertaining to or honoring Dionysus or Bacchus; 2 recklessly uninhibited; unrestrained; undisciplined; frenzied; orgiastic

Dionysian energy erupts through every great rock performance, reminding us that art descends from ritual frenzy.

the belief in and worship of many gods and goddesses

Beneath Western civilization's Christian veneer, paganism endures — pulsing through art, eroticism, and myth.

adj. 1 volatile in temper; changeable; fickle 2 of or relating to the element mercury

Her mercurial intellect leaps from Michelangelo to Madonna without pausing to apologize for the exhilarating distance.

adj. a person of great learning in several fields of study; polyhistor.

Her polymathic range — spanning antiquity, pop culture, and feminist theory — defies every academic boundary.

relating to a powerful and often chaotic force

The daemonic dimension of genius cannot be rationalized away by tidy psychological or sociological frameworks.

a person who causes excitement or controversy

As an intellectual provocateur, she considers complacency a greater danger to culture than any controversy she stirs.

adj. fundamental or original; being earliest; existing from the beginning

Strip away modernity's comforts and you find primordial instincts that no progressive ideology has ever dissolved.

adj. an odd or peculiar habit

Her idiosyncratic methodology borrows from art history, anthropology, and psychoanalysis with sovereign disregard for boundaries.

adj. 1 unorthodox or unconventional; 2 holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines

Heterodox and proud of it, she has never allowed institutional approval to soften an argument she believed true.

having to do with creating myths or stories that express deep truths

The mythopoeic imagination — that urge to remake reality into symbol — is what separates art from mere illustration.

n. one who attacks established beliefs or customs or institutions; an individual who is contrarian in thought and rebellious in spirit and opposition

As an iconoclast, I challenge the prevailing norms of contemporary culture with fervor and insight.