Page 37 - Studio International - February 1971

group of men pour the excretions of their 6
bodies over the small trees in a garden. In the
foreground is a crouching figure—a caricature
of a well-known contemporary art critic.
Anyone who regards art as more than mere
decoration, a status symbol, or an investment
must come to realize that one of the functions of
art is to heal and immunize, to uncover and
register in advance the first shocks of coming
catastrophes. Strindberg provides such insight
and information, an 'early warning system'
which can serve as a protection, or as a
vaccination against the dangers which are
developing alongside our technological and
cultural progress.
It is also significant that the first published
short story by Strindberg (i872) is called
Martyrs of the Arts. Between the martyrs on one
side and the connoisseurs and critics on the
other, there can be no bridge. Only when art
has again become a necessity of life will this
contradiction be resolved. q
1 The exhibition was held on February 18 1895 at
the Hotel Drouot.
2 `Celestographics'—photographs taken of the night
sky with lens open for a long period.
7
5 August Strindberg
Night of jealousy 1893
Oil on cardboard
41 x 3r cm.
Coll : Strindberg Museum, Stockholm
6 Edvard Munch
My Garden is Manured
Lithograph
7 Paul Gauguin
Self-portrait. Near Golgotha 1896
Oil on canvas
76 x 64 cm.

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