DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69711#0107
WHAT IS MODERN ART? 89
eludes this artide with the following paragraph: “In each
individual case their work would seem to be the result of a
union between an elementary geometry and those orthodox
rules of composition that have been taught at Art Schools
for many decades. And the forms that result from this
curious union are applied, not according to any principle
of organization but under the guidance of personal caprice.
The cubistic criteria of designs are purely subjective. They
rest less upon original, well ordered and deep foundations
than upon old studio formulae, and they are built from
the outworn sticks of that very realistic and superficial art
the cubists profess to condemn. Cubism is at bottom not
radical, but blindly, haltingly conservative.”
This quotation has been given in full, because the public
constantly forgets that in the world of art there are as many
specialists, as in any other modern profession. We are so con-
fused that we ask an etcher, like Paul Helleu, or a portrait
painter like the late John Alexander, to paint murals, for-
getting that a special training exists for each separate
department in art. Because a man is a manufacturer
and makes excellent steel rails, does not guarantee him to
be an authority on the manufacturing of silks, nor would
we demand it. Yet we call upon the doctor to pass on
the mental make-up of our modern artists, delighted when
they pronounce them mad, or art historians to pass on the
coming of a new era, when the whole training of an art his-
torian is to trace back. The historians are very valuable in
making many things clear, but through their historic atti-
tude of mind, they are often blocked from recognizing the
seed from which the tree will grow. Their function in life
is a totally different one from that of the creative artist,
and it is our duty as reasonable thinking people not to
confuse these two distinct functions. It is here where our
personal responsibility of discrimination comes in.
Ruskin said to the artist, “Invent or perish,” and these
modern men with the new vision are imbued with this
eludes this artide with the following paragraph: “In each
individual case their work would seem to be the result of a
union between an elementary geometry and those orthodox
rules of composition that have been taught at Art Schools
for many decades. And the forms that result from this
curious union are applied, not according to any principle
of organization but under the guidance of personal caprice.
The cubistic criteria of designs are purely subjective. They
rest less upon original, well ordered and deep foundations
than upon old studio formulae, and they are built from
the outworn sticks of that very realistic and superficial art
the cubists profess to condemn. Cubism is at bottom not
radical, but blindly, haltingly conservative.”
This quotation has been given in full, because the public
constantly forgets that in the world of art there are as many
specialists, as in any other modern profession. We are so con-
fused that we ask an etcher, like Paul Helleu, or a portrait
painter like the late John Alexander, to paint murals, for-
getting that a special training exists for each separate
department in art. Because a man is a manufacturer
and makes excellent steel rails, does not guarantee him to
be an authority on the manufacturing of silks, nor would
we demand it. Yet we call upon the doctor to pass on
the mental make-up of our modern artists, delighted when
they pronounce them mad, or art historians to pass on the
coming of a new era, when the whole training of an art his-
torian is to trace back. The historians are very valuable in
making many things clear, but through their historic atti-
tude of mind, they are often blocked from recognizing the
seed from which the tree will grow. Their function in life
is a totally different one from that of the creative artist,
and it is our duty as reasonable thinking people not to
confuse these two distinct functions. It is here where our
personal responsibility of discrimination comes in.
Ruskin said to the artist, “Invent or perish,” and these
modern men with the new vision are imbued with this