DOI Heft:
No. 370 (January 1924)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure: on misplaced enthusiasm
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0078
UPHE LAY FIGURE: ON MIS-
^ PLACED ENTHUSIASM, a 0
“ Oh, what an experience! What a
revelation ! Never have I been so stirred,
so stimulated ! ” raved the Young High-
brow. “ What a master ! Colossal! Un-
approachable ! ” 0 0 0 0
“ Has something happened i ” asked the
Plain Man. “ You seem a little excited.”
“ I have been in communion with the
greatest personality that art has known,”
cried the Young Highbrow. “lam full of
the inspiration of his genius.” 0 0
“ How nice,” commented the Plain Man.
“ I am glad it is nothing worse. Who has
gone to your head like this {” 0 0
“ Why, Vincent Van Gogh, the incom-
parable master,” exclaimed the Young
Highbrow. “ I am speechless with amaze-
ment at the majesty of his achievement.”
“ That would scarcely have occurred to
me,” laughed the Critic. “ You seem to be
still fairly fluent. I suppose you have been
to the Van Gogh exhibition i ” 0 0
“ I have knelt in adoration at the master’s
feet,” sighed the Young Highbrow. “ And
I am uplifted, entranced ! ” 0 0
“ Have you licked his old boots i ”
sneered the Plain Man. “ I saw that show ;
it made me perfectly ill.” 000
“ No doubt the swine felt ill after they
had eaten the pearls cast before them,”
snapped the Young Highbrow. “ The
pearls of art are not for dull clods like you :
they belong to us who set them in the
master's crown.” 0000
“ You are an impertinent puppy! ”
snorted the Plain Man. “ I am as much
entitled to my opinion as you to yours.”
“ Don’t quarrel, you two,” broke in the
Critic. “ Let me ask a question. What is
the particular quality in Van Gogh's work
that makes you hail him as a master i ” 0
“ Quality ! It is not a matter of qualities,”
cried the Young Highbrow. “ His work
sums up all the human emotions and
expresses the whole tragedy of life. He
makes you conscious of the entire range of
human passion. We who understand him
shudder with him, suffer with him.” 0
“ Oh, I shuddered all right, and I
suffered too,” declared the Plain Man.
“ Any sane person would suffer when
such stuff was presented as good art.” 0
60
“ As good art, yes,” agreed the Critic.
“ That is the point of the argument. Our
young friend here professes to find in
Van Gogh's clumsy and perverted work
all sorts of hidden meanings and strange
suggestions, but he forgets what it is that
makes art great. The greatest art, the art
of the true master, is not lacking in
qualities ; it possesses them all in correct
proportion.” 00000
“ Then I claim them for Van Gogh,”
declared the Young Highbrow ; “ for there
is no art so moving or so vital as his.” 0
“ Nonsense,” returned the Critic. “ Cer-
tain cranks have told you that Van Gogh
is a great master, and therefore, to be in the
fashion, you rave as if no one else worthy
to be called a master had ever existed.” 0
“ But with whom can you compare
him i ” protested the Young Highbrow.
“ In the intensity of his vision he stands
alone. Never was there a painter so domi-
nated by divine passion.” 000
“You have learned your lesson well, I
see,” chuckled the Critic. “ The divine
passion that you talk about was merely an
evasion of the necessary discipline of the
painter's craft, and what you call intensity
of vision was only an obstinate convention.
Van Gogh was a bungling craftsman with
little real originality, but because his work
was in manner unusual he was hailed by
sensation lovers as the prophet of a new
dispensation.” 0000
“ And I imagine that it is only by the
seekers after sensations that his work is
appreciated to-day,” put in the Plain Man.
“ No, it is not,” shouted the Young,
Highbrow. “ The best judges of art
approve. Two of his pictures have just
been bought for our national collection.”
“ That proves nothing,” returned the
Critic. “ You are only voicing the popular
idea that our national collections include
nothing but masterpieces. Really, they
are museums in which the curiosities of
art find places beside the achievements of
the masters and where the bad art which
marks one period is associated with the
great works which belong to another and
better time. If we house the grotesques of
the African savage why not have the Van
Gogh pictures too i ” 0 0 0
“You infamous Philistine ! ” spluttered
the Young Highbrow. The Lay Figure.
^ PLACED ENTHUSIASM, a 0
“ Oh, what an experience! What a
revelation ! Never have I been so stirred,
so stimulated ! ” raved the Young High-
brow. “ What a master ! Colossal! Un-
approachable ! ” 0 0 0 0
“ Has something happened i ” asked the
Plain Man. “ You seem a little excited.”
“ I have been in communion with the
greatest personality that art has known,”
cried the Young Highbrow. “lam full of
the inspiration of his genius.” 0 0
“ How nice,” commented the Plain Man.
“ I am glad it is nothing worse. Who has
gone to your head like this {” 0 0
“ Why, Vincent Van Gogh, the incom-
parable master,” exclaimed the Young
Highbrow. “ I am speechless with amaze-
ment at the majesty of his achievement.”
“ That would scarcely have occurred to
me,” laughed the Critic. “ You seem to be
still fairly fluent. I suppose you have been
to the Van Gogh exhibition i ” 0 0
“ I have knelt in adoration at the master’s
feet,” sighed the Young Highbrow. “ And
I am uplifted, entranced ! ” 0 0
“ Have you licked his old boots i ”
sneered the Plain Man. “ I saw that show ;
it made me perfectly ill.” 000
“ No doubt the swine felt ill after they
had eaten the pearls cast before them,”
snapped the Young Highbrow. “ The
pearls of art are not for dull clods like you :
they belong to us who set them in the
master's crown.” 0000
“ You are an impertinent puppy! ”
snorted the Plain Man. “ I am as much
entitled to my opinion as you to yours.”
“ Don’t quarrel, you two,” broke in the
Critic. “ Let me ask a question. What is
the particular quality in Van Gogh's work
that makes you hail him as a master i ” 0
“ Quality ! It is not a matter of qualities,”
cried the Young Highbrow. “ His work
sums up all the human emotions and
expresses the whole tragedy of life. He
makes you conscious of the entire range of
human passion. We who understand him
shudder with him, suffer with him.” 0
“ Oh, I shuddered all right, and I
suffered too,” declared the Plain Man.
“ Any sane person would suffer when
such stuff was presented as good art.” 0
60
“ As good art, yes,” agreed the Critic.
“ That is the point of the argument. Our
young friend here professes to find in
Van Gogh's clumsy and perverted work
all sorts of hidden meanings and strange
suggestions, but he forgets what it is that
makes art great. The greatest art, the art
of the true master, is not lacking in
qualities ; it possesses them all in correct
proportion.” 00000
“ Then I claim them for Van Gogh,”
declared the Young Highbrow ; “ for there
is no art so moving or so vital as his.” 0
“ Nonsense,” returned the Critic. “ Cer-
tain cranks have told you that Van Gogh
is a great master, and therefore, to be in the
fashion, you rave as if no one else worthy
to be called a master had ever existed.” 0
“ But with whom can you compare
him i ” protested the Young Highbrow.
“ In the intensity of his vision he stands
alone. Never was there a painter so domi-
nated by divine passion.” 000
“You have learned your lesson well, I
see,” chuckled the Critic. “ The divine
passion that you talk about was merely an
evasion of the necessary discipline of the
painter's craft, and what you call intensity
of vision was only an obstinate convention.
Van Gogh was a bungling craftsman with
little real originality, but because his work
was in manner unusual he was hailed by
sensation lovers as the prophet of a new
dispensation.” 0000
“ And I imagine that it is only by the
seekers after sensations that his work is
appreciated to-day,” put in the Plain Man.
“ No, it is not,” shouted the Young,
Highbrow. “ The best judges of art
approve. Two of his pictures have just
been bought for our national collection.”
“ That proves nothing,” returned the
Critic. “ You are only voicing the popular
idea that our national collections include
nothing but masterpieces. Really, they
are museums in which the curiosities of
art find places beside the achievements of
the masters and where the bad art which
marks one period is associated with the
great works which belong to another and
better time. If we house the grotesques of
the African savage why not have the Van
Gogh pictures too i ” 0 0 0
“You infamous Philistine ! ” spluttered
the Young Highbrow. The Lay Figure.