Note to “Kabul Dur Ast”

Farhad Darya is perhaps the most famous and popular living Afghan artist and intellectual. All the deceased ones are legends of course. But Farhad Darya is a living legend. And he also happened to be one of my dad’s patients here in Northern Virginia. An artist in his own right, but an intellectual as well. Someone recently asked if art and aesthetics can ever be disentangled and separated from politics and intellectualism. And the answer is no. Art and aesthetics can never be separated from politics and intellectualism. Authentic art and aesthetics will always be intertwined with politics and intellectualism. Cheap industrial art and aesthetics like Taylor Swift can in fact be disentangled from politics and intellectualism. But not authentic art and aesthetics. It is what it is. Art and aesthetics would become a dull-witted empty shell if culture and politics were taken out of it.