Dwight Macdonald

Dwight Macdonald

Dwight Macdonald was a social critic from the United States, born in the city of New York to an upper-class family. He has written many social evaluation essays, and one of the most prominent of his writing is “A Theory of Mass Culture,” which he wrote in 1957. In the piece, Dwight is lamenting the deterioration of highbrow art. Before the 20th century came, the more substantial portion of the society could not be able to access the highbrow art. That was because art was perceived as the sole property of a single artist. Art was just like any other asset that an individual could own, and therefore, it could not be taken away from an artist, not unless there was a consideration in exchange. In addition, for the post-20th-century era, there was only a small number of educated people, and for one to be able to understand highbrow art, they had to be literate. With the highbrow art, there was no excuse for knowledge of artistic movement and educational concepts.

Down into the 20th century, art went on to become very accessible to people since individuals were starting to get educated. People had started realizing the value of education in society. The motive of art also changed from projecting visions as it used to be before to featuring common items. With the move, art was starting to lose the crucial meaning that it had in the hands of the artists. And one of the things that Dwight did not like about the move was that art was moving from the ownership of the people to be a property of a society or an industry. The automated nature of making art made it a mass culture (kitsch). It meant that for an artist to be seen as successful in society, their product has to be appealing and marketed to the masses.