Page 21 - Studio International - April 1972

affected the Church; it is enough to note in might be applied to manufactures, but it of the industrial society, although I must admit
passing that as early as 1849 the Pre-Raphaelites would not do with regard to art. The man it may be doubtful whether it still fits the
declared Jesus Christ to be the greatest artist of who wished to attain excellence in art in any traditional conception of art. Nonetheless, if we
all time (He who was then the 'Genius' is now line must give himself to that line only, must pursued this line of attack I fear we would soon
the Superstar). Moreover the speech does not concentrate his attention on one small point. come up against the usual question of whether or
deal with the question of what religious Another thing tending to interfere with the not art was dying. It would then only remain for
applications can be derived from artistic perfection of art was the wealth of the age. me to devote a few sentences to saying, either
activity, or, in more practical terms, how the What was done in one place was sure to be that the aims of the APG were doomed to
work of art can be taken into the service of the done in another; and it was almost impossible failure, or else that they should be taken in a
Church. Your reverend predecessor seems for an artist, whether painter, sculptor or fundamentally different context.
above all to have wanted to deal with the architect, to follow his own genius and have Another point of view seems to me more
problem of art in the industrial world. It would his own way. If a man painted a picture which meaningful. What is so appealing in the speech
give me great pleasure if you would take his was a success in an exhibition, the result was is the ease and matter-of-factness with which the
thoughts as the pretext for an examination, not that every rich man wanted to have a picture obvious dichotomies of the time are dealt with
theological so much as philosophical, of this just like that. That led to the reproduction or in the summing-up. Would anyone have thought
same question-now highlighted by the APG. manufacture of pictures, and not the progress that the inventor of the morse code could have
There is one thing I should like to point out of true art. This tendency to interfere with been an artist ? In point of fact he was originally -
before quoting your predecessor. In his 1876 the development of art, and to make us a painter. Isn't that quite irrelevant ? I believe it
speech there are resonances of a sort of 'Two inferior to those who had gone before us, was is. Was he afflicted by some dichotomy between
Cultures' theory, such as many people still hold. due more to the condition of our own painting and telegraphy ? Not that I know of.
A social-critical scepticism and an idealistic times than to the inferiority of our brains. Why, in one epoch, should a painting of a lovely
confidence are mingled in the holding up against There was a good deal in the movements of and distant past not be made which is in itself
the industrial society its antitype of artistic the present day with regard to trade which consonant with the development of a news and
culture, although the conception of a fulfilled tended to interfere with what might be called data storage system which distorts time and
life rubs painfully against the reality of such a the lower department of art-that was, the space ?-the problem of contradiction first
society at every turn. He warns against a naive tendency of the present generation to get as presents itself when one thing is compared with
belief in progress -thirty-six years before the much money as possible for as little work as another, and unfulfillable demands are deduced
sinking of the Titanic. But, significantly, it is possible. That kind of spirit was embodied in from the comparison. Thus : on the one hand
neither natural catastrophes, nor wars, nor trade unions, which prevented a man of one in some way comes to terms with Antiquity,
revolutions which arouse his doubts about the ability doing his utmost because other men which throws up an opposition to the present; on
point of technological efficiency; by comparison could not do as much as he could, and there the other hand one demands of the present that
with a work of art he ascribes to the industrial was some rule of trade preventing a man of it should allow itself at least to be corrected by a
society some sort of inherent inner power and genius exerting himself to the past which it has abrogated. The mere demand
incompleteness. It is as though a slight horror fullest extent. The real way to succeed, had the same effect as its fulfilment, so long as
vacui were aroused by the incongruity (judged whether in trade, art or manufacture, was for the attractiveness of the ideal prevented the
by the standards of artistic craftsmanship) of the a man to have a thorough pride in what he was eruption of the horror vacui we have already
unequivocal economic superiority and the doing, to be determined that that which he mentioned. Seen in this light the aesthetic ideal
covert spiritual inferiority implicit in industrial turned out of his hand should be the best he is itself a product of the industrial society. The
production methods. Or do I exaggerate ? could turn out, and not to care whether he hopes that are placed on this in practice can be
I beg Your Lordship not to take this little was overpaid or underpaid.' seen in the spectrum of educational attempts at
piece of exegesis amiss. Read now for yourself As you see, at the beginning of the text reform, emanating from Britain, which in
what The Illustrated London News said : technological progress is weighed in the balance Germany led to the movement for art education
`The Bishop of Carlisle attended the annual against the artistic greatness of Antiquity, and and, later, for industrial schools. That the
meeting of the Carlisle School of Art on found wanting; at the end we read that only he beautiful picture of the past should in the process
Thursday evening, and made a speech upon who takes a proper pride in his work, (as an artist be gradually decomposed into its constituent
art. He said there was a great tendency in this does) will be really successful, whether in trade, elements in the laboratories of modern science
age for people to be proud. We had done many art or manufacturing. Is not this to say that is the natural corollary.
things that our ancestors had not done before anyone may be an artist, even if he does not I wanted to point these associations out to
us. We had railways, the telegraph-all the produce what we commonly mean by a work of you, My Lord, in all modesty and without any
machinery of modern life and progress was art ?-or is a general principle of creative doctrinaire intention, to head off possible
remarkable, and our discoveries in chemistry achievement implied, which up to now has been misunderstandings over the explanation of the
had been so very wonderful that we were apt embodied in its most perfect form only in art ? APG's programme. For example, it seems as
to think that our forefathers who lived before The crucial effects of the influence of society though some of the artists in the group subscribe
us were very great fools, and we were upon art are summed up with such clear- to an updated version of the 'Two Cultures'
exceedingly wise. If there was one thing sightedness that even today it is scarcely possible theory that I thought I detected underlying the
which more than another tended to show that to disagree. The influences of rationalization and text quoted in The Illustrated London News.
we were not much better than those who had the division of labour, of capital and market They talk of two sorts of values, or systems of
gone before us, it was art. If we wanted forces, of supply and demand are all implicitly values. On the one hand values which reinforce
anything good in art, we must almost always, stated. Finally, the argument that the human the productivity of industry and are expressible
if not quite without exception, go back to brain might have changed is disposed of, and the in monetary terms-material values, therefore,
Antiquity and set ourselves against the decline of great art laid squarely at the door of economic values, everything that goes to increase
present. One great reason why we did not the industrial society. the growth, including the relevant incentive and
now rise to the height of art to which men did It would be tempting to consider whether the prestige machinery. On the other side values are
rise in those days was that there was a want of values that guided your reverend predecessor in accepted which are debated in the context of
concentration of purpose on one special his negative appraisal of the facts he diagnosed art, though without being derived from the
object. Men's minds were so much diverted were still in any way normative. For a long time traditional picture of the ideal of artistic
and divided. The law of the division of labour now there has indeed been such a thing as an art creativity-although occasional surprising

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