Page 24 - Studio International - October 1970

How to become Students' Bibliofila Klubb has listed Strind- the best evidence of Strindberg's authorship :
berg as the author. The club's catalogue also `Professor X is painting a picture. Critic Y
an art has the following note : 'A small art dictionary thinks that the church tower leans towards the
right, but Critic Z thinks that it is leaning
worthy of study even by visitors to art exhibi-
tions and art critics today'. towards the left.
connoisseur in In the Sällskapet Bokvännerna's (Society for `How peculiar ! Just now my friend Y thought
Booklovers) 'On collecting Strindberg', we that it was leaning towards the right and
sixty minutes find further affirmation of Strindberg's author- friend Z that it was leaning towards the left,
ship. Professor Elias Cornell writes in an
and I myself think that it is perpendicular.
introduction to a reprint, Stockholm 1943, `Yes, it depends.
August Strindberg `There can be no doubt that Strindberg "'It depends" is one of the most profound
himself, in one way or another, produced this truths which has been pronounced since
little book. A copy which once belonged to a "everything depends upon how you look at it".
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
good friend of Strindberg, Arvid Vikström, `It is one of those universal truths which have
BY TORE HAKANSSON
has an annotation by him to the effect that the advantage of being applicable in all
Strindberg made the "Translation". The circumstances'.
booklet is intended as a joke and the author The reader need only refer to 'Ambiguous
pokes fun at art critics, but with serious intent.' Statements' and 'Certain' in How to become an
However, I think these statements alone art connoisseur to discover points of similarity
cannot be considered as sufficient evidence which indicate a common authorship.
that Strindberg really is the author. We can During the 1880s Strindberg abstained from
first note that in the introduction 'written to writing art criticism and from painting. In a
be read' there are references to Edvard Berg, letter of this period he writes, 'I never visit the
Tideman and Sörensen. These three artists studios nowadays because the artists are just
could hardly have been known to a non- as nervous as I. If you praise them, they
Scandinavian author. On the other hand, despise you—if you don't praise them, they
Strindberg mentions them several times in despise you anyway. Apart from this I am also
letters and articles of this period. a pessimist, or even worse, a nihilist, and I
During the 1870s, Strindberg exchanged have no eyes for the excellent, because I think
letters with the Norwegian, Lorentz Dietrich- that everything generally is bad. Sometimes I
son, who was active as author, critic and surprise myself by praising the miserable in
professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, and error, trying to see some good everywhere.
was editor of the Journal for the Creative Arts. A Because of this, my opinions are unreliable,
letter to Dietrichson, dated 1st June 1877, and vaccillating ... therefore I think I am not a
PREFACE shows how intensely Strindberg was engaged suitable person for the job which I accepted in
How to become an art connoisseur in sixty minutes in art controversies at this time. 'In a word—I the belief that I was capable of it'.
was first published in 1877, one year after want to do something, and must do something ! He left Sweden in 1883 with his family, and
Strindberg's first visit to Paris. He was at that A journey to Paris, Düsseldorf; Hamburg, the following year he dismissed all art as use-
time working as an assistant in the Royal Christiania [now Oslo], which I made last less and immoral. However, he maintained
Library in Stockholm, and writing art autumn has, I believe, enlarged my under- friendly relations with artists, among them
criticism for Dagens Nyheter and other journals. standing and I shall be glad if you will let me Carl Larsson and Ernst Josephson. It should
His first articles were published in 1876 know if and what I may contribute to your be noted that Strindberg was the only person
following his visit to Paris, 'From Café de journal'. who understood the artistic value of 'The
l'Ermitage to Marly-le-Roi'. In these he men- We also know, thanks to the research of Neck', while the artist friends of Josephson—
tions the Impressionists for the first time. The Torsten Eklund, that Strindberg at this time not to mention the critics—were completely
present article was published as a 'Translation', wrote extensively about art, often anonymous- without understanding.
but Strindberg's own authorship can no longer ly, at the same time that he was art critic for How to become an art connoisseur is presented here
be doubted. Dagens Nyheter, Finsk Tidskrfft, and other because it is still relevant, although it contains
All the works of Strindberg's youth, up to journals. During the same period he painted few of the terms used in art criticism today. It
1878, were printed under a pseudonym. But his first paintings with motifs from the sea and may be relevant to recall how Gauguin, in a
the Royal Library in Stockholm has listed the the skerries. Furthermore the cutting and desperate letter a few years before his death,
pamphlet as a work of Strindberg, and his satirical style of How to become an art connoisseur is quotes Stephan Mallarmé: 'A critic! A
name has been written in pencil on the cover. typical of Strindberg at this time. But it is an gentleman who meddles with things which are
In Lund's University Library the book is listed article in Dagens Nyheter in May 1876, 'The no concern of his.' q
under 'anonymous authors', but Lund's arts, the artificial and the natural', which offers TORE HAKANSSON

Contributors JONATHAN BENTHALL is organizer of the current ICA ERIC CAMERON is English. He was a lecturer in the Fine
lecture course 'Ecology in theory and practice', and Art Department at the University of Leeds until July,
to this issue also contributes an introduction to the catalogue of the 1969, when he became Chairman of the Fine Art
international kinetic art exhibition at the Hayward Department at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Gallery.
ALAN GOUK teaches painting at St Martin's School of Art.
BRUNO MUNARI was born in 1907. Of his design for the
cover, Negative-Positive, he writes: 'All parts of the com- GEORG JAPPE is art critic of the Frankfurter Allgemeine
position can be seen as figure or background, thus creat- Zeitung. He collaborated with Dr Karl Ruhrberg and
ing an optical effect of chromatic movement in the Richard Demarco to mount the recent 'Strategy: Get
perceptual space between it and the spectator. Arts' show of leading Düsseldorf artists, in Edinburgh.