DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69711#0108
90 WESTERN ART AND THE NEW ERA
feeling and realize the truth thereof. It is this quality
which shows itself strongly and seems to differentiate the
new movement from the past. For though there always has
been a great deal of research work done in art by all workers
of importance, throughout the ages, the art of the past five
centuries was such a steady development of an idea, that
it was rare for any but connoisseurs to see the inventiveness
in the new contributions. But the modern men who are
blazing the path for the new era to enter, force their
research upon us with greater insistence, because their work
belongs to a more definite break in the world of art.
You will notice the use of the word ‘research,’ to which,
strange to say, few American critics have drawn the pub-
lic’s attention. In consequence, few Americans think of re-
search in connection with art. Because of this, they are
paralyzed when they come upon it, and do not understand.
This is one of the main causes of the misunderstanding in
connection with Modern Art, for the public has not realized
that the greatest artists throughout history have grasped
the truth of Ruskin’s maxim—-“Invent or perish.”
It is the result of the research work, that we see in
Jacque Villon’s recent paintings, where he presents his prob-
lem of color perspective in flat abstract forms (Fig. 39), or
the result of the research that we see in the Russian sculp-
tor, Archipenko, through his sculpture paintings, or his
concave figures (See Fig. 36) which I have already men-
tioned. Another example is where Archipenko and Marcel
Duchamp, unknown to each other, both attacked the problem
of the introduction of the third dimension within the
realm of the two-dimensional art of painting: Archipenko
through his sculpture-painting, and Duchamp through his
panel “Tu m’ ” (Fig. 44), reproduced here. Duchamp, in
this decorative panel “Tu m’,” introduced his theory of the
third dimension by attaching a long wire ice-box cleaner to
the picture in such a manner that it became an inherent
part of the composition as a whole. Its effect at night is
feeling and realize the truth thereof. It is this quality
which shows itself strongly and seems to differentiate the
new movement from the past. For though there always has
been a great deal of research work done in art by all workers
of importance, throughout the ages, the art of the past five
centuries was such a steady development of an idea, that
it was rare for any but connoisseurs to see the inventiveness
in the new contributions. But the modern men who are
blazing the path for the new era to enter, force their
research upon us with greater insistence, because their work
belongs to a more definite break in the world of art.
You will notice the use of the word ‘research,’ to which,
strange to say, few American critics have drawn the pub-
lic’s attention. In consequence, few Americans think of re-
search in connection with art. Because of this, they are
paralyzed when they come upon it, and do not understand.
This is one of the main causes of the misunderstanding in
connection with Modern Art, for the public has not realized
that the greatest artists throughout history have grasped
the truth of Ruskin’s maxim—-“Invent or perish.”
It is the result of the research work, that we see in
Jacque Villon’s recent paintings, where he presents his prob-
lem of color perspective in flat abstract forms (Fig. 39), or
the result of the research that we see in the Russian sculp-
tor, Archipenko, through his sculpture paintings, or his
concave figures (See Fig. 36) which I have already men-
tioned. Another example is where Archipenko and Marcel
Duchamp, unknown to each other, both attacked the problem
of the introduction of the third dimension within the
realm of the two-dimensional art of painting: Archipenko
through his sculpture-painting, and Duchamp through his
panel “Tu m’ ” (Fig. 44), reproduced here. Duchamp, in
this decorative panel “Tu m’,” introduced his theory of the
third dimension by attaching a long wire ice-box cleaner to
the picture in such a manner that it became an inherent
part of the composition as a whole. Its effect at night is