Page 17 - Studio International - July 1965

Editorial

'The farmer and the cowman must be friends' run the that is inevitable for the productive hermit, a detached
words of the well-known Oklahoma song. Transposing form of consideration of his work is more difficult to
the occupations to the artist and the critic, this sentiment achieve. A critic brings as part of his equipment the
was more or less echoed by Victor Pasmore in a speech ability to see in a body of works a common pattern, a
he made at the annual dinner of the British Section of trend, an emphasis that being so close to it an artist is
the International Association of Art Critics, held to not always aware of himself. And if a professionally
announce the winner of the 1965 Critic's Prize, which endowed critic seeing thousands of works each year
went deservedly to John Christoforou as the British does not in the process acquire a knowledge of the
artist considered not to have received the recognition he 'working' solution that a painting or sculpture must
merits. Whether they can or not be friends is open to possess it can only be due to some organic occlusion.
doubt but there can be no doubt at all that both artist and While critics have favourite runners in the way racing
critic do at least require to co-exist in a world where art correspondems do, they must assess as honestly as
as a cultural activity is more or less an 'outsider'. they can the form of performers in stakes with which
The artist's attitude to the critic, of course, may vary they are out of sympathy. And the results can be no
tremendously. He may consider him a tolerated super­ less than creditable to the judges.
fluity who, not being a creative artist himself, has no It is common knowledge that the late Bernard Beren­
sympathy with the aims and intentions of the person son could not 'see· modern art, yet his pupil and a
whose work he has the temerity to criticize. This, how­ former Director of the National Gallery, Sir Kenneth
ever, is a red herring for as all the art world knows there Clark, found it no dichotomy to admire, say, the Pem­
can be no sterner or even more malicious critics of an brokeshire water-colours of Graham Sutherland with
artist's work than another artist; especially if both went the same eyes with which he established his own
to school together. 'Bitchiness' that is common to the expertise in the paintings of the Italian Renaissance.
theatrical profession is no less virulent among painters But if the artist owes the critic a debt, it is nothing
and sculptors though usually between themselves. The compared with the obligation held by the critic to the
general public is not as a rule admitted to such interne­ artist. For without him his raison d'etre would vanish
cine bickerings. and the bridge would carry nothing. Roger Fry's
Another commonly held attitude towards critics by prestige would be the less, wanting Cezanne, and even
artists is that their sole useful function is as providers of Ruskin's somewhat piebald lustre would lose some of
publicity, preferably and expectably favourable. It is dis­ its sparkle had he never crossed bridges with Whistler.
armingly naive, this belief that all an artist has to do is to Almost inevitably some of the glory attaching to the
pick up the telephone, tell a critic he is having an post-war New York Abstract Expressionists has been
exhibition and ask him to preview it in a setting miles claimed as emanating from Harold Rosenberg, but with­
from town so that a glowing notice can appear on the out this dynamic and inconoclastic flowering the
day of the opening. Surprising though it seems, writer's reputation would scarcely have the contem­
occasionally it so happens that in this way an unsus­ porary importance it possesses. Abstract expressionism
pecting critic finds an artist is an astonishly good and Rosenberg are complementary phenomena.
judge of his own merits-but not often. More usually, Critics for their sins are considered as newspapermen.
it is to confront an arrogance that is only matched by For better or worse the columns in the make-up of daily
the mediocrity of the works proffered. Yet the critic, or weekly newspapers are evaluated on the imponder­
given the necessary time, has customarily the goodwill able criterion of reader-interest. In most cases, reader­
and optimistic curiosity to make the expedition. interest in art is held by the management and/or the
The artist and the critic must be friends, as Pasmore editor as almost marginal. Thus, in a week of several
said. Yet as he rightly asked, how can they be friends if outstanding exhibitions, the critic is faced with the
the critic writes what can be a destructive attack on an intimidating prospect of compression-the pint-pot is
exhibition. The answer must be that there is goodwill not only the metaphor that suggests itself immediately,
on both sides: the critic to be fair must judge the its desirability in reality is almost irresistible. This leads
creative artist on his intentions as they are made evident to the staccato style of writing that can be-or seems to
in the work. The latter can have no grounds for com­ be-irritatingly facile without being profound or even
plaint if the work fails to convey the intention or is accurate. Abstraction in painting can be and is a most
capable of being misinterpreted. Victor Pasmore made exciting enterprise-in criticism it can be the death of
the metaphor of the critic forming the bridge between honest assessment.
the artist and the public and recognised the necessity What most editors of newspapers should come to
for such a footway. For it is true in the least obvious realise is that criticism of most performing arts is the
way that most critics are more than half-way towards criticism of performers who are themselves interpretive
conversion to an artist's beliefs if they are new. It is rather than creative. Artists in the plastic arts are their
almost the reverse when at first glance the artist is own interpretive performers, as such they deserve
obviously derivative. Which can produce its own greater space for accounts of their efforts.
dangers in that the wish to welcome new ideas often There can never be enough of good art critics. As
overrides an honest assessment of them as ideas actors are the interpreters of an author's words into
instead of as novelty. And a too summary dismissal of a characters and action, the critic acts as interpreter of an
painter as derivative can often hide the fact that in the artist's actions into words. Despite the artist's distinctive
nature of things all the greatest artists are not innovators distrust of words in preference to the image, the image
but persons capable of working in a common lingua is reliant on its potentiality to be recognised by the aid
franca towards an expression that paradoxically can be of words. The understanding of art is still a difficulty
greater in its impact because of its similarity with some­ for many people who refuse to accept that as such it
thing known than because of its difference. need possess no meaning but its own existence, capable
Studio International Criticism can work too to the artist's advantage.
Only critics can help the public to cross that bridge. ■
Volume CLXX No. 867 of inducing instinctive as much as intellectual reaction.
July, 1965 Working in the concentrated and narcissistic isolation