Page 41 - Studio International - September 1972

Yet the desire to discover wide connectiveness in the communication: indeed, made, so little widely emblematic.
correspondence in our identifications and hence it is sometimes defiantly asserted that these Medical science has taught us to view the
to symbolize fully, ramifies through all objects mean only themselves; beyond that, not body largely as a machine, and it is easy now to
experience. The power to substitute, to express only do they not represent but they must not imagine that the basic mechanical inventions
one thing in the terms of another as by symbolize. Though works of which this is said projected physiological function. It is not as
language, the mother of art, belongs to the root are not among the best of our time as a rule, they easy to understand why an approximate view of
of developed mental functioning. In the present have our attention here because such bravado is bodily function and its consequent projection
context a consideration is this : whereas on the the most revolutionary : it makes overt an appeared so late. I argued some twenty years
practical side man has needed to exploit Nature element widely diffused; though I would agree, ago that there had been in classical times, the
as best he could, from the contemplative side in nevertheless, that there are growing indications more likely period, plenty of psychological
all ages natural objects have been a field for his of the trend that dates from Dada, as when the resistance; that, unlike organic references, the
substitutions, for connectiveness through the artist, like a séance medium invoking spirits of mechanical analogy to the body was not, to put
symbolic; hence poetic power. But as well as whatever kind, is intent on constructing a it mildly, inspiriting; and so it remains with
the superhuman force as of old, all Nature now hopeful mise-en-scène or skeleton or atmosphere machine products however beautiful they may
grows into a delicate object to be cherished of communication, of individual expression, be; emblematic of human achievement, not
almost with a gardener's care, though this with the help of words themselves and/or of emblematic of human function as we would
delicacy be invisible. Shall we become proud as hypnotic visual adjuncts, rather at the expense conceive it, as still it remains conceived. This is
imaginative protectors ? After all, while they this time of the outwardness, the self-sufficiency true of our urban prospect also. Somehow a
flourish, even infants begin by their phantasies of objects, as if they were somewhat disconcerting element: the machine takes over.
to shoulder some responsibility for the disembodied. This phenomenon, therefore, Cinematography, television, reinforced
life-givers who tower over them. Obviously the seems to me only an oscillation from the one concrete, demanded new arts to employ them:
artist will be first to envisage here fresh cultural above. artists, artisans, did not evolve those media. It
demand, willing for Nature its own endless life, I shall try for a moment to come closer to a follows, I think, that some young artists today
variety and strength as well as for his own, just conception of being at home in the world try to infuse the ancient crafts of sculpture and
as a child preserves his mother, reconstructs experienced by a mental picture of society as depiction with techniques learned from
her in his mind. I see the opportunity of loving well as by art. The easy means abounded for sophisticated industrial practices, not for an
perceptual subtlety once more, and of those who have been able to contemplate a adjunct, not only for means, but for inspiration.
representation by which both self and object settled society, with satisfaction, and a settled As throughout the modern movement, it is a
are symbolized together. cosmogony in which man has an assigned role courageous throw at embrace. How we long to
I run ahead. The rest of this lecture divagates so that custom and ritual were rich, so that his merge into the glitter of recalcitrant materials,
briefly on what has now been sketched. culture itself seemed an entity, near to hand. and how easily we are able to do so if we can
Things chosen to be contemplated, part, at any find no other scene for our home. But the
rate, of the visual and aural environment, sensation is usually brief.
echoed, confirmed the living afoot, by means of In a recent lecture, Andrew Forge referred to
the senses. So, for example, in the sixteenth Constable, to his putting into landscapes his
century theatre of Serlio, a background of feelings about his homeland. In modern art, he
ordinary houses was the setting for all comedies, said, the artist had put himself into his picture
Thinking advances connections. Art depends a background of grand houses for tragedy. The first as a result of scanning a subject to discover
on contemplative attitudes to things. Watching Commedia dell' Arte characters, Harlequin, the more profound aspect of what he actually
over the external world, especially for the Columbine and the rest, performed for perceived, often at the expense of what was
purposes of art, we seek reverberation, an centuries in front of comparable decor. But preconceived. Forge made the startling yet
answering response from the memory of other what, I ask you, is the comment of our high subtle point that this more abstracted concern
experiences that are connected in that context, buildings upon the action in our streets ? We with perception entails an expressiveness that
although divergent as moods or mental states have ceased to uncover in the environment a not only antedates but pioneers the route to
from physical forms. Thus, particularly thus, reverberation of such strength as once from Expressionism and even to some forms of
things with their relationships in space stand church bells when they seemed to be sounding abstract art. Of course in the further past as
for figures and their relationships in the mental all. To what pattern are we now invited to well, within conventions of subject-matter and
life. In any case every meaning has symbolic become attuned ? Contrast this absence with the accepted style, the artist has always projected
reference to previous and older meanings. extravagant achievements, the always further himself into his picture in the sense of
Hence, from the contemplative and affirmative possibilities, of technology which are in tune predilections, in the sense of creating by means
side, we would enlarge our home into with the reduplication of their products, more of outer forms a niche for his statue of wholeness,
constructions seen in space. But I suggest that objects manufactured in one year, maybe, than of reconciliation between differing trends.
we are far less at home with the urban than were were made in the history of man up to, say, But the Impressionists, Forge pointed out,
our forebears, that our art often reflects distrust 1900 : many of them disposable but in such were the first to demonstrate that there were
of its meaning and therefore of meaning. Many number as to create an extraordinary problem. often subjects for painting well beyond any
objects are made now by artists primarily (Yet in the nursery we learned that consumption range previously acceptable. Most things could
strikingly to be, at the expense of much onset of regularly entails potential pollution.) So much make a picture: all things, one might say, would
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