Page 32 - Studio International - April 1965

aesthetic values, of academic standards and artistic prick toy balloons with scalpels. But it is not the
categories, the pop-artist does want to be taken artists who provoke the critic, but the public that has
seriously—otherwise why does he exhibit his works to lost its sense of values. It is they who, because they are
the public and ask them to pay serious prices for them ? bored and alienated, accept instead of the work of art
Finally, as a very perceptive critic has pointed out (which always demands concentration and effort on
(Anita Brookner in The Burlington Magazine, June, the part of the spectator) a sensational stimulus as brief
1964), this absence of standards is ultimately boring. and banal as any side-show in an amusement park. It is
the art dealer and the museum director who is perhaps
most to be blamed, for he provides the exhibition space ;
unfortunately, however, he can say quite truly that he is
only giving the public what it wants.
And so in the end we arrive at the social problem—not
so much the question of the role of the artist in society
or the proper use of leisure in an affluent society, but
the general problem of the decadence of our civilisation.
I began by asserting that art was a biological pheno-
menon, closely connected with the development of
self-consciousness and intelligence. The relation of
individual development to social development is close
and intricate : one might say that man evolves as a
species but that the decisive steps are taken by
individuals. The biologist would, of course, elaborate
and qualify such a vague generalisation, but the only
point I wish to make would not be disputed—namely,
that other men are part of the environment in which
the individual develops his consciousness of the world.
We are part of one another and our victories over nature
are obtained by mutual aid.
Art is at once an activity that refines the sensibilities
and an activity that invents and perfects symbols of
discourse—these two aspects of human life are in-
separable: self-integration and inter-communication.
The whole process, involving gesture, speech, the
invention of signs and alphabets, the metaphorical
representation of experience (myth, history, poetry,
plastic art) is infinitely complex, but always at the
Claes Oldenburg In her review of the Gulbenkian Exhibition in the Tate emergent point of evolution, the bright focus of animal
Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato 1963
Mixed Media 32 x 39 x 39 in. Gallery from the catalogue of which I have already attention and intention, is the discriminating sensibility
Sidney Janis Gallery. New York made some quotations, she observes that 'these —that is to say, the aesthetic faculty. To relax or forego
pictures are not merely dull (or strange or exciting) ; this nervous concentration of energy is to give up not
they are simply not explicit'. By this she means that so much the struggle for existence, for that depends on
though they may be 'explicit as to effect', they remain cunning and brute strength, but the will to live abun-
'inscrutable as to cause'. A Dada painting had a dantly, the erotic overflow of energy into realms of
raison d'être: to mock the pretentiousness and freedom and delight.
solemnity of academic art; Surrealist painting claimed This fine distinction between existence and delight,
to be 'in the service of the revolution'. Even the between satisfaction and pleasure, is achieved by the
Futurists, though they loudly proclaimed their in- aesthetic process—by the discrimination of forms and
dependence of all accepted values, their contempt for the sensuous apprehension of thinghood, of that being-
museums and libraries, nevertheless proposed new in-itself which exceeds being-for-a-purpose. This is
ideals. 'The world's splendour has been enriched by a not a metaphysical distinction : it is a purely practical
new beauty: the beauty of speed' they declared in their distinction in the evolution of humanity, and on the
first Manifesto. They rejected the ideals of 'harmony' awareness of this distinction is founded the whole
and 'good taste', but in their place they put ideals like fabric of civilisation—not only metaphysical thought,
'universal dynamism' and 'physical transcendentalism' but also scientific invention and everything we call
even 'sincerity' and 'purity'. Pop-art has no ideal progress, meaning the alleviation of our brutish destiny.
because as a movement it believes only in an involve- It may seem difficult to equate all the various mani-
ment with whatever presents itself in the visual chaos festations of art with this achievement of a human
of urban activities. Pop-artists have no interest at all in civilisation, and admittedly we are using art in a very
nature, even in human nature. Their involvement with wide sense, in the sense of a progressive discrimina-
life is promiscuous, and although they have to conform tion or refinement of perception. But it is this wide
to certain physical limitations in order to assemble an sense that covers all the historical manifestations of
effective image, they clutch at any straw in the wind— art (from the prehistoric cave paintings to pop-art) and
or, to use a less poetic metaphor, at any dead cat in the it is the critic's task and duty to decide which of these
sewer. various manifestations is positive and which negative.
They succeed in embarrassing the critics, and that Art is in the service of life, criticism is in the service of
may be one of their aims. To give serious consideration life ; any other supposition is a betrayal of our destiny.
to their antics is to fall into the trap they have laid for us. To what extent are we critics responsible for the
They compel us to be solemn about silly matters, to present nihilistic phase of art? Is it a logical con-