I agree and disagree with you harpgirl. I agree with the need to protect artists from society's wrath when they "hit the mark" holding the mirror up in the right place, at the right time. The now infamous Mapplethorpe exhibit comes to mind.

I also agree an artist has very little control over their ability to actually hit that mark. The target is more often missed, than hit. But that is why I give artists much more leeway than I do the society that condemns them, and whose first response (and is the mode literalists usually are stuck in) is censorship. Artists have to be allowed to fail and miss the mark when it comes to socially relevant art, and we have to be able to tolerate that. I am able to do that with Crumb, because I can appreciate what he is trying to do, even if I think his vulgarity gets in the way of him succeeding at it.

Where I disagree with you is on the artist's responsibility in their use of irony. For it to be truly effective, it must be transformative, IMO. If it isn't, it just sinks into pop culture banality, and becomes an irrelevant fringe pop phenomenon, which is what Kauffman became.

But when an artist uses irony in a way that transforms (as I believe Vonnegut's work does--and no one need agree with me about this), it becomes something transcendant. It will not only hold it's own and transcend the predictable criticism and damnation of society's mainstream, it will transcend time, and become a classic work of art.

Frankly, the number of mediocre artists willing to drape themselves in dark irony usually results in becoming parodies of themselves. The reason for that, IMO, is because they do it as a glamor accessory, not as a serious attempt to manifest the divine on earth, which is what a true artist works at their whole life long, and rarely attain. I know that sounds cliched as hell, but that is the essence of it, in my book. It is so hard to do in fact, I have learned in my old doddering middle age, to separate artists from creative people.

Methinks you might be referring to the latter, as that is where most of us reside. I can't speak for Peter T, but for me, I'm really only interested in the artists engaged in the former pursuit.