Page 26 - Studio International - June 1972

This separation can be seen actively at work from the earliest cave-paintings, provided the but a necessary prerequisite must be an
in, for example, John Constable. At the age of main source of inspiration for artists, while one awareness of the roots of our current crisis,
47, living and working in the centre of London, of the chief areas of attraction in the and particularly those of a social or political
he could write '...though I am here in the midst countryside (for the town-dweller, at least) nature. How is overpopulation associated with
of the world I am out of it— and am happy— has been in its purely visual aspects. It would traditional demands for economic development ?
and endeavour to keep myself unspoiled. I have seem to indicate, however, that as well as simple What are the various relationships between
a kingdom of my own both fertile and populous criteria of appreciation, other types of social technical innovation, the dynamics of an
—my landscape and my children.' Yet the and value judgments are made which are industrial society, and the depletion of
kingdom of his art was increasingly common to both. the world's natural resources ? Why do
independent of the real Suffolk in which it was What it is therefore important to analyse is imposed technical solutions often end up
based. how our attitudes towards the environment are creat ing more problems than they were
What I am not debating here are the various determined by the way in which art has taught originally set up to solve ? Why do we continue
ways in which artists throughout history have us to see it. In other words, to what extent to discharge toxic effluents and gases into the
viewed landscape, or the different interpretations have a set of social attitudes conceived and environment, when we are well aware of their
they have tried to present to their audience. developed inside one tradition, namely that of potential damage to health ? These are the
Rather I am criticizing those traditions, 'fine art', been transferred or projected on questions we must all—including artists—ask
particularly of Western Art, which have led to to a totally different situation, our relationship ourselves, rather than for example how are we
an artificial fragmentation of experience, and to the natural environment ? to protect our favourite square mile of secluded
particularly social experience, from an All too often there seems a tendency to relate countryside, if we are to achieve an
immediate reality. To examine how art ideas to an artistically-perceived environment— understanding of the current world situation.
affects our attitude towards the environment, the posture, perhaps, of bodies such as the An example of one possible way in which
one should not be concerned so much with the Council for the Protection of Rural England — artists might tackle this situation has
content of individual works of art, but the way rather than to the real environment which we recently been given by Conrad Atkinson's
in which art-works function as an area of social can experience, even if it is one in which, in exhibition at the ICA. The subject of the
activity. For I feel there may be a close Hobbes's terms, life is 'poor, nasty, brutish exhibition was a real strike taking place in a
correlation between the institutionalization of and short'. small town in Cumberland, and Atkinson has
our attitudes towards the environment, and If we allow ourselves to be seduced by the used the exhibition hall, as well as his own
that of traditional attitudes towards concepts of romantic visions of early landscape artists, position as an artist, to provide a forum within
fine art. we may soon find ourselves skirting reality in a which the strike can be analysed and debated.
To see this a little more clearly, there are a reactionary and dangerous way. One should He has thus created an opportunity for the
number of striking similarities between not forget, as Raymond Williams pointed out social and political issues involved to be
social attitudes towards art and the natural in a recent lecture at the ICA, that during the discussed, seeing his role as artist as being to
environment. Both were, in primitive and early industrial revolution, it was those industrialists communicate what he feels is the significance
agricultural societies, intimately interwoven most adept at exploiting manual labour and behind social reality through a variety of media
into the fabric of everyday life, yet have been natural resources who built the large country including film, slides, videotape, photographs
displaced by industrial society into little more seats in immaculately laid-out estates, well away and documentary evidence.
than objects of week-end pilgrimage. Both have from the industrial squalor on which their Such an approach overthrows many of the
consequently become institutionalized as part wealth was founded. barriers between art and 'life' that have been
of our national 'heritage', whether one is When we talk about the environment in so widely debated for many centuries. It
talking about national parks and gardens, or art ecological terms, we are not primarily concerned presents a powerful threat to that art tradition
galleries and museums. The influences of with the conservation of visual integrity so which sees the prime responsibility of the
both are, by this method, safely separated from much as with the preservation of an artist as being towards his art, a responsibility
the mainstream of life, where they might ecological stability, and this is something which which must not be contaminated by social
interfere with society's productive processes. can only be truly assessed in scientific terms. considerations. At the same time it escapes
And finally, both become a focus for social It is this aspect which many landscape and other much of the superficiality often associated with
ritual, either in the form of carefully laid out natural painters have tended to ignore through social realism (or art treated as no more than a
back-gardens or as cheap reproductions of old their prime concern for a perceptual or reflection of reality).
masters on the living-room wall. aesthetic, rather than scientific, analysis of the The environmental crisis will not be solved
Referring to art, J K Galbraith has written 'interrelationships between physical by talking mystically of the beauties of nature
that 'One of the terms of disapprobation in the characteristics. and fighting to keep a few footpaths open across
industrial system is "aesthete". This is This is not to say that the two points of the South Downs. Neither, however, will
because aesthetic achievement is beyond the view are incompatible. The engravings of it be solved by imposing the monolithic
reach of the industrial system, and, in Diirer, for example, show how an artist, scientific solutions that have been eagerly
substantial measure, in conflict with it. There through direct observation and faithfulness to introduced in the past (the problems
would be little need to stress the conflict were his subject, can act as much the scientist as any associated with the use of DDT are a good
it not part of the litany of the industrial system biologist staring down his microscope. Yet example of this). The solution lies somewhere
that none exists.' within modern society the two ways of between the two poles of instinctive appreciation
Compare this to Barry Commoner, one of perceiving the same object are becoming and clinical assessment, but must rely on a
America's leading environmentalists, when he increasingly fragmented from one another. The thorough understanding of all the important
asserts that 'there appears to be a basic artist no longer pretends he has a responsibility issues involved. To ignore the need for both
conflict between pollution control and what is to produce a true-to-life record, any more than artists and scientist to involve themselves in
often regarded as a fundamental requirement of the scientist sees himself creating a areas of social and political debate is to
the private enterprise system— the continued subjectively-perceived reality. reinforce many of the myths about the nature of
maximization of productivity.' What contribution does all this imply that art and science as social activities to which our
The similarities between these two sets of artists might be able to make to the growing current environmental problems can be
attitudes is perhaps not too surprising when one environmental movement ? Such a question is ascribed. q
considers that the natural environment has, impossible to answer in a few brief sentences, DAVID DICKSON

240