Page 19 - Studio International - January February 1975

survived curiously intact despite passing, on Nelson Rockefeller's eccentric and bangs around too much, it is not
generations of cultural change, schemes during the cold war years to only a nuisance, but something to be
infiltrating the systems of the art subvert the Communist world with feared ?
world with subtlety and stealth. It exhibitions of Abstract Expressionist Art needs the will of the state to keep
stands for the supremacy of American paintings. And cultural diplomats from its life lines open and its integrity intact.
culture, release from its servile and the American Embassy here seemed, Its role confirmed within that space
dependent relation with Europe, during the sixties, always to be phoning defined by acts and moments of time
matching exactly the jingoist aim for up, and having parties and hanging round which is the human state. And the
cultural aggrandisement we find in at private views. As late as 197o, the responsibility of art is to ensure its
England in the eighteenth century and Cultural Affairs Officer at the American continued presence there. Not by
given voice in the aspirations of the Royal Embassy proposed an exhibition designed whistling in the dark, waiting for
Academy. There's a kind of paranoia specifically to show the subjugation of legislation from above, thinking it's a
hidden somewhere here. You get a hint English art to American influence. I game only other people play. Nor to
from time to time. A glazed look comes emphatically opposed the project and regard with detachment the politics and
into the eye of some of my American the premise that it embodied, and the methods of the state. But by a surge from
friends when the name of Europe is show never took place. But his thesis within the life of art itself. Not an adjunct
mentioned. I went to Venice a little while was supported by a panel of British art to the state but in its midst. To lean hard
ago with a well-known American artist. administrators. There is significance in and long. To keep the light in its eye,
It was his first trip to Venice and to these issues being raised. They bear upon until its aim of integration as a social
Europe. He ducked into Harry's bar and the state of art, and merit serious factor is affirmed. 12
stayed there until the time to leave for attention. More than the flip rejoinder to
home. A trivial incident, I realize. He Heron's piece from the head of
was a protégé of Clement Greenberg Chelsea School of Art, 12 which might 1 In a letter of 15 September, 1919. Quoted
whose pronouncements always disclose a have raised a giggle in the common by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. 'The Gulag
bouncy pride in American independence room, but was hardly the useful Archipelago', Fontana, 1974.
of its European roots. The realization of a contribution to a valid debate one might "By Noel Barber in 'Seven Days of
Freedom', Macmillan, 1 974.
gut ambition for supremacy in art to hope for from a leading art school. Robyn Denny, 'London Letter', Art
match its supremacy in other fields. International, VIII/4 May 1964.
There is a kind of grisly fascination in The institutions of artistic life in 12 Organized by the Arts Council of Great
observing the pursuit of power on a London still do display, as in the Britain.
grand scale. In 1968 I felt a compelling eighteenth century, a curious reticence `The Presidential Papers (An Impolite
curiosity to watch the Nixon bid for the regarding our own achievements. The Interview)', Putnams, 1963.
Presidency at close quarters. I sensed a grass seems always greener on the other Jules Henry, 'Culture Against Man',
kind of symmetry to come, not yet fully side of the hill. Reynolds cherished an Penguin, 1 974.
J. H. Plumb, 'The First Four Georges',
realized, in the events that would unfold, idea of glory that aimed to emulate the Fontana Collins, 1956.
and I followed the trail from New York art of other cultures. And Marinetti ? Of Discourse 1. P.4.
to Minnesota, the state of his opponent, what did he complain ? The worship of 9 The Guardian, 10/11/12 October 1974.
and back again. At the last great Nixon tradition. The ignoring of English 10 'Culture Against Man', op. cit.
rally in Madison Square Gardens, originality and daring. The indifference 12 Jeremy Campbell, 'What Makes Rocky
thousands of banners carrying his name of the state and politicians towards all Run 12 12 .', The Evening Standard, 20 Nov.,
were held, in error, upside down. Thus arts. An echo bouncing through the days. 1974.
the palindromic distortion of his name — In all eight hundred pages of Harold " The Guardian, Letters to the Editor,
NOXIN — NOXIN — was carried through Wilson's account of his first years as 14 October, 1 974.
12 Harold Wilson, 'The Labour Government
the networks coast to coast. The word Prime Minister 13, there is not one mention 1964-70', A Personal Record.
spelt thus seemed somehow apt. A of the fact that in that time the creative 12 Attr. by G. W. E. Russell.
bizarre kind of symmetry underlying it — life of London was the focus of the world,
and also the events that followed to this and that art in this country has achieved
day, in the sounds, the places, and people a dynamic unparalleled this century.
— Nixon-Agnew. Haldeman-Erlichman. And needs the affirmation of the state.
Ford-Rockefeller. East coast-West Not from patronage or paternalism, or
Coast, the stockyards in the centre, the aim of its own aggrandisement and
violence at the heart. One American the subjugation of others. Fear does lie
writer says that on the contrary deep within our culture. The motive for
asymmetry and imbalance are Empire — to keep the life-lines open. The
fundamental there. 'Balance, symmetry... fear of cultural inadequacy the motive for
is poison (to America)', he says, and emulating the attributes of others. For
adds, 'were the main factors ever to sectarianism and sexism, for clubs and
come into balance the culture would class-distinction, and whatever else are
fall apart."' attributes of the British way of life. 'When
He was speaking of the economy, and I fear penetrates a culture, it freezes in
expect he knows. These thoughts just fixed attitudes, all cultural life suffers,
came to mind in passing, since Patrick and the self nearly dies in the cold.' Is
Heron argues that symmetry is an there not the danger of us dying in the
American addiction. In art, he means, cold ?
one alien to the European tradition of For speaking of the state of art is really
unity and equilibrium between disparate about the state of man. The two are the
elements. An addiction which, he claims, same. An artist cannot live his life as
has become a worldwide pictorial something separate. A hundred and fifty
disease owing to American promotion years ago, Lord Melbourne uttered the
and its principal propagandists. But memorable complaint that: 'things have
Heron does bring light to bear on an come to a pretty pass when religion is
aspect of the latter Greenberg years that allowed to invade the sphere of private
does not make them wholly irrelevant; life'. Hasn't art, like Anglicanism,
that is, that power was their aim, and the become something here, not to be
wooing of European intellectuals was indulged in too devoutly ? — an
part of it, the links with cold war established ritual linked to the Crown,
politics a matter of no coincidence. administered by clerics who've lost their
A fact that is seldom talked of. congregations ? Is there not the
Although just last week one political conviction, locked firmly within the
journalist" in Washington touched, in national consciousness, that if art gets out