Page 57 - Studio International - June 1971

something with them depends on the existence what one means. objection to looking at the matter this way would
of general categories under which we can classify And now we appear to have come full circle. be if in practice learning art were an
them. For if what goes on in the art-lesson cannot be instantaneous process.
described, as I am sure it cannot be, as imparting And now you might ask me to spell out this
9. I expressed admiration earlier on for or transmitting something like a language, it now knowledge of art that is presupposed by the
Maurice de Sausmarez's Basic Design. You may looks as though it might be described in this art-lesson. If you do, I have no answer. Indeed
now be inclined to think that that was an act of way: as imparting or transmitting a way of I think I have the right to ask the question of
mere piety, since what I have just been saying making something like a language. In the art- you. What is it ?
goes so clearly against what he urged in that lesson, the pupil does not learn the elements of
book. I do not think that it is merely pious to art : but he learns to make elements out of what 1o. Monsieur Jourdain was made famous by
admire that with which we do not agree. But, he studies. If such a description were offered, I Moliere because all his life he had spoken prose
more fundamentally, I think that it would be a would not find it difficult to accept. It would be without knowing it. Personally I suspect that the
misreading of Basic Design to think of it as a simplification, but no worse. error here lay with Moliere, not with Monsieur
proposing an elementalist aesthetic, or an But I would have to enter this proviso. That Jourdain. Either way round, we can at least say
account of art in terms of something analogous if the pupil learns from the art-lesson the of Monsieur Jourdain that he had the concept
to the elements of language. capacity to make for himself a language, that of prose, for, if he had not had it, the probability
The first thing to be noted about the language is not art. We have a phrase for that of his at some moment breaking into verse
`exercises', as we might call them, in which language: that language is a style. The pupil has would have been so high that it is not possible
Basic Design consists is that they are given by forged for himself a style, and the style he has to see how he should have averted it so
way of example. By this I do not mean that they forged for himself is his, his style. successfully. Monsieur Jourdain had, then, the
are not given in the spirit of conviction. That But are we to conclude from this that the concept of prose. It directed his speech, though
they certainly are. But they are given not because art-lesson is exclusively concerned with the he never consciously applied it to his speech in
of the specific lesson that they will teach but teaching of style, and hence by implication that description of it. Similarly I shall choose to
because of the kind of lesson that they teach. Or the nature of art is itself to be resolved into a think of the pupil in the art-lesson who can
to put it the other way round, the specific lesson disjunction of styles, some already realized, benefit from the lesson that he has the concept of
that each exercise teaches is held to be important others yet to be formed ? I do not think that this art. For just as concern with the concept of art
because of the kind of lesson to which it belongs. would be the right conclusion to draw, but for quite outside any context of working with the
And if a preference has been shown in the the corrective to it we must—definitely for the material is likely to be of little interest—witness
compilation of the book for some exercises last time—return to the language-lesson. the aridity of much academic aesthetics, or,
rather than others, which have accordingly been It is inadequate, we have seen, to equate the again, the closely related inanities of conceptual
omitted, the reason for this is to be found in such language-lesson with the mere transmission of art—so to work with the material, undirected by
facts as that some are simpler to execute than linguistic elements. For, if the lesson is to be the concept of art, will never lead to the
others, or the lessons that they teach emerge in a effective, the pupil must already have some formation of style.
peculiarly striking fashion. general knowledge of language, into which he But for the better understanding of the role
So the question arises, What is the kind of can fit that which is transmitted to him—though of this concept, I shall leave you with an image.
lesson that these various exercises teach ? And we have also seen that to think of these two We may think of the concept of art as a
for a general answer I do not think that one pieces of acquisition on the part of the pupil in protective parent. It is in its shadow that the
could do better than say that it is a lesson in such a way that one must be complete before the vast oedipal conflict that is known as the history
discovery. Whether it is a matter of texture, or other can begin is quite misguided. I went on to of art is fought out—a conflict in which the sons
some spatial effect, or a way of representing say something about how we must envisage win, if they do, by becoming parents. Then they
movement, what in each case the exercise these preconditions of the language-lesson's bear the concept that has borne them. q
teaches is how to find in a particular material or efficacy. I stipulated, you will remember, the
instantiation of a material some characteristic notion of rule and also the capacity to apply
that the uninquisitive eye might pass over. If grammatical categories.
there is some principle according to which the And now, if we look more closely at the art-
author of Basic Design concentrated upon this or lesson, we shall, I suggest, see something
that material, upon this or that mark or set of similar. Once again, it would be inadequate to
marks as the proper object for one of his equate the art-lesson with the transmission to
exercises, if he had any procedure for identifying the pupil of the capacity to construct pictorial
a pictorial item, it would be as something to elements or with, as I have called it, the teaching
which there was more than had met the eye. of style. There is certainly that. But that is only
But if each exercise is a lesson in discovery, the analogue to the transmission of linguistic
that is, a lesson in how to discover, the further elements. And now I want to suggest that if we
question must arise, What is the significance of look more closely we shall find to the art-lesson
this process of discovery ? I do not think that too some general precondition of efficacy. The
Maurice de Sausmarez was one who subscribed pupil, in other words, must have some general
to the easy-going view that art-teaching is a good knowledge of art. For how else could he catch
thing because it alerts us to the variety of the on to what is offered to him, how else could he
world: that, like travel to the mind, it broadens see what was required of him, what was a
the eye. Of course, he thought that too, but the legitimate aim, in the formation of style ? I
ultimate end of heightening for the pupil the think that the requirement that the art-lesson
visual interest of the materials or the marks upon too be credited with some such presuppositions
which he is asked to concentrate, is that he will is irresistible—even though we may gladly
then learn to combine them in wholes or units concede the point that the pupil can learn what
that have some other function than that simply these presuppositions are, and so come to
of whetting curiosity. Put most broadly, this satisfy them, through or in the course of the
function might be described as that of saying art-lesson. Once again, the only effective
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