Page 16 - Studio International - February 1972

Rights of overnight, and (b) the recognition that the This is not just abhorrent to me personally.
word itself—which became increasingly It is utterly destructive. It means nothing less
mobility fashionable in the Sixties and reached its than self-mutilation. It means prejudging and
apotheosis in 1968 and the art school rebellions misjudging —in effect, a denial of judgment. It
(Raymond Williams, whom I read with means either stagnation or a succession of
admiration, called them `useful'; I wish contradictory commitments. More specifically
someone would tell me what they achieved that it means a ready conviction, or pretended
isn't outbalanced by the harm they did)—the conviction, as to what art is and should be. This
word commitment, as pushed at one with conviction can be essential to the artist. To the
growing frequency, became almost writer on art (equally to the editor of an art
interchangeable with the word power. magazine other than a partisan or specialized
This is a tricky area and I should like to organ, and equally to anyone else involved in
spell it out a little. Commitment must involve art) it means the opposite of true commitment
questions of power. In so far as it implies because it means abandoning art's central
individual energies brought together in a concerns in order to join the artist on art's
In 1961 I started to write for Art International. common cause it means a form of power, and periphery in order to egg him on and possibly
About 2 minutes later I found myself pinned it's a pity the Left didn't get hold of the fasces even to attempt to lead him by the hand.
into the corner of a Charing Cross Road pub as symbol before the others did. In so far as it I know that some of the best art writing has
by a friendly artist and a homily on the subject means an individual's ability to choose an ideal sprung from this sort of partisanship and
of power. It was time I realized, he told me and to cling to it through thick and thin, it exclusiveness; also most of the worst. Alloway,
three or four times, that I had power and again means power : internal power over doubts for instance, was often brilliant and could also
this meant making up one's mind how one was and disappointments, externally an air of power be directly useful in that he clarified issues and
going to use it, for what and for whom. So through sheer cohesion. thus helped artists to commit themselves more
many column-inches meant so much power and Commitment was hardly ever taken to carry constructively. For himself he reserved rights
the more prestigious the place the more its international, political/social meaning. The of mobility. On another plane, Ruskin
powerful the power. artists and art students I heard it from were not produced some of the finest art writing of all
Of course he was quite right and I am concerned, any more than the average liberal, time, and some of the silliest, in the process of
ashamed how feebly I reacted at the time. I with the class struggle. For them commitment relating wayward responses to art and life to
should like him to know I have thought about related to the art world and to their work within profound and true insights into society. But
it since. But I can't say my thoughts ever it. They felt no general duty to address their commitment must either (as in Ruskin's case)
organised themselves far enough to produce a activities to a wide public. Their duty appeared precede the writing on art, or it must come into
pattern for action. as the opposite : to pursue their own individual existence gradually, through acts of recognition,
Historically the thing is clear. It was the (whether borrowed or original) understanding and not prematurely by an act of choice more
time of the emergence of a new generation of of what they were doing in the face of public likely to relate to ambition than to conviction.
British artists, intent on a world view of aversion and ignorance, and also to have a more An artist is an artist, and that he should shape
themselves instead of a parochial view, hard or less deliverable programme (a great period his life around that basic fact is probably
working and hard thinking, impatient of the for statements) and to uphold this firmly. necessary, certainly not surprising nor in itself
gentility and the amateurism that still clung to Confronted by a critic such as John Berger, of general interest: his work justifies it, not it
the British art scene like stale scent. Lawrence whose art commitment is part of his political his work. A writer on art need not, in the sense
Alloway was their champion. He had amplified commitment, they respected his resolute voice that an artist is an artist, be a writer: he is
their effect by bringing their divergent talents but scorned his judgment. someone who works with and (as he inevitably
together before the public. I was succeeding What we might call, then, a professional feels) for art and there may be many different
Alloway on Art International: big boots. commitment seems to me right and possibly ways for him to do this. The word writing itself
At the time I was merely confused and could essential to an artist. I think some of them talk covers a great range of activities. But he is
only answer defensively. The word power still about it too much, and of course the word often centering his activities on art. There lies, if you
sounds evilly in my ear, with implications close precedes any recognition of what should go insist on one, his kind of commitment, but it is
to violence : a personality thing, I suppose. But, with it. But it is inherently apt for an artist to so open a kind—not merely permitting but
words apart, I couldn't make out what was being assert exclusivity, to hold fast to personal and obliging him to mobility of every sort—that the
expected of me and my confusion grew worse theoretical allegiances, to know exactly where exacting artist would not recognize it. He is
soon after, when I received another harangue, in every sense his interests lie and do not lie, in also concerned with truth, and here he probably
this time on the subject of commitment. order not to impede a sort of inward approaches the artist's position more closely.
Now commitment is a good word, redolent concentration. Commitment can easily be a There's an old story about a bishop who
of brotherhood, of common efforts against cover for band-waggoning and camp-following, asked his publishers why they were so long over
oppression (against power ?), culturally and as can the role of being an artist, but that bringing out his treatise on humility. He got the
politically left, and related to the beautiful doesn't alter the artist's right to a creative kind of answer that the printers had run out of capital
French word engage and thus to heroes such as narrowness (at best it is a form of breadth `I's. I sympathize with him, suspecting that he
Camus and Sartre (whose disagreement over its anyway). It is when the artist demands the same was taking his subject very seriously. The writer
meaning adds to the attraction). Committed is sort of commitment from everyone else that he on art may feel himself concerned with many
something I should like to be, but it seemed and I part company. truths, or like the artist he may feel he is
that my background and education were too For a writer on art this demand meant open carrying one big truth, but however much he
fragmented and contradictory to make for partisanship. One was to 'take a stand'. No one disguises the fact his activity is deeply personal
either direct commitment or commitment by was so comfortably bigoted as to say precisely and cannot survive the distancing forced by an
rejection. what affiliation was expected of one but of imposed, false commitment. To be pushed
The confusion here arose not from any course there is only one correct commitment towards one comes, in the pleasing new
inbuilt reluctance but from (a) a possibly and the implication was that one either had to formulation, under manipulation rather than
romantic notion that commitment should force have it or to be committed to the opposite, and conviviality. q
itself upon one rather than be assumed it had to be patent in everything one wrote. NORBERT LYNTON

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