DOI Heft:
Nr. 193 (April 1909)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20966#0282
The Lay Figure
THE LAY FIGURE: ONFASHIONS
IN CRITICISM.
“ How little sense or reason there is now
in what is called art criticism,” sighed the Plain
Man. “ Most of it seems to me to be quite unin-
telligible and to be absolutely useless educationally.”
“ I hope you do not consider my criticisms
unintelligible,” laughed the Art Critic, “ for I can
assure you that I intend them to be most instructive
and to explain all sorts of things that people ought
to know.”
“ No, I did not refer to you,” returned the Plain
Man, “because you do say things that it is possible
to understand. What I complain of is the extra-
ordinary absence of agreement among art critics
now about the principles of art : everyone who
writes on the subject seems to have some fad of
his own to advocate, and in the multitude of fads
art disappears entirely.”
“You do not realise,” broke in the Man with
the Red Tie, “that art criticism has got out of the
old stupid rut in which it travelled years ago, and
has become a living thing. You are old fashioned
and you like listening to platitudes; new ideas
puzzle you, so you say they are unintelligible and
you call them fads.”
“ It is not the new idea that puzzles me,” answered
the Plain Man, “but the fact that no two people
who write on art hold the same opinion. They
tell us that everything that we have been accustomed
to hitherto is all wrong, but none of them agrees
about the line we ought to take for the future.”
“ That simply proves that modern criticism is
alive,” cried the Man with the Red Tie; “ people
think about art now and realise in how many ways
it can be expressed. They do not reduce it to
rule and make it a matter of convention.”
“ I admit that sounds very nice,” interrupted the
Critic, “ but really it does not mean anything.
Acceptance of standards in art criticism does not
involve the following of a convention, and if there
are no standards there can be no stability of
opinion. That is just the trouble at the moment;
things are advocated simply because they are new,
not because they are in any way improvements
upon what has gone before.”
“ But the love of what is new implies a desire
for progress,” objected the Man with the Red Tie,
“and progress should always be encouraged.”
“Not necessarily,” replied the Critic. “You
must first of all explain what you mean by progress.
To destroy existing standards, simply because you
do not appreciate their value or understand their
256
meaning, is only to produce incoherence. The
love of change is not a healthy one unless the
change leads you to something better than you
have had before.”
“ That is just what I say,” cried the Plain
Man; “we have become incoherent and our
critics have become unintelligible. We have lost
our old standards and we have no new ones. Why
is this ? ”
“Well, as far as I can see it is simply because
fashions in criticism have changed,” replied the
Critic. “Years ago the fashion was to uphold
what was customary and to attack everything that
was new—now everything that has hitherto been
accepted as correct is ridiculed as obsolete, and
every new fad is put forward as a discovery of
world-shaking importance. There is no sense
in it; it is only a new fashion.”
“ But if it is only a new fashion why has it been
so universally adopted ? ” asked the Man with the
Red Tie. “ It must be founded on common-
sense to secure such general acceptance.”
“By no means,” laughed the Critic; “common-
sense is the last thing upon which a fashion is
ever founded. If you want my real opinion I
should say that the foundation of this fashion
is the ignorance of the men who pretend to be
critics. They have no standards in art, they have
not even any knowledge of artistic practice in the
wide sense, and consequently they are blown
about by every wind of doctrine. They acquire
all their opinions at second hand, and merely
repeat parrot-fashion what they are told to say.
They are not critics but advocates, and act as
mouthpieces of this or that art clique.”
“Then you argue that modern criticism is not
independent?” asked the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Of course it is not independent,” replied the
Critic. “ The man who follows a fashion can
never be independent. The real critic is a judge
who views impartially all the aspects of the case
submitted to him, not an advocate who holds a
brief for one side and abuses the other. The
modern critic is a lop-sided person who is in-
capable of exercising any judicial functions, and
who is mortally afraid of being impartial lest the
party by which he has been hired should accuse
him of being old-fashioned and take away his job.
He is not allowed by his masters to study anything
except what they prescribe, and his position depends
upon his obedience. Thrust into a position to
which he is not in any way entitled, there is not
the least doubt that he does more harm than good
to art.” The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE: ONFASHIONS
IN CRITICISM.
“ How little sense or reason there is now
in what is called art criticism,” sighed the Plain
Man. “ Most of it seems to me to be quite unin-
telligible and to be absolutely useless educationally.”
“ I hope you do not consider my criticisms
unintelligible,” laughed the Art Critic, “ for I can
assure you that I intend them to be most instructive
and to explain all sorts of things that people ought
to know.”
“ No, I did not refer to you,” returned the Plain
Man, “because you do say things that it is possible
to understand. What I complain of is the extra-
ordinary absence of agreement among art critics
now about the principles of art : everyone who
writes on the subject seems to have some fad of
his own to advocate, and in the multitude of fads
art disappears entirely.”
“You do not realise,” broke in the Man with
the Red Tie, “that art criticism has got out of the
old stupid rut in which it travelled years ago, and
has become a living thing. You are old fashioned
and you like listening to platitudes; new ideas
puzzle you, so you say they are unintelligible and
you call them fads.”
“ It is not the new idea that puzzles me,” answered
the Plain Man, “but the fact that no two people
who write on art hold the same opinion. They
tell us that everything that we have been accustomed
to hitherto is all wrong, but none of them agrees
about the line we ought to take for the future.”
“ That simply proves that modern criticism is
alive,” cried the Man with the Red Tie; “ people
think about art now and realise in how many ways
it can be expressed. They do not reduce it to
rule and make it a matter of convention.”
“ I admit that sounds very nice,” interrupted the
Critic, “ but really it does not mean anything.
Acceptance of standards in art criticism does not
involve the following of a convention, and if there
are no standards there can be no stability of
opinion. That is just the trouble at the moment;
things are advocated simply because they are new,
not because they are in any way improvements
upon what has gone before.”
“ But the love of what is new implies a desire
for progress,” objected the Man with the Red Tie,
“and progress should always be encouraged.”
“Not necessarily,” replied the Critic. “You
must first of all explain what you mean by progress.
To destroy existing standards, simply because you
do not appreciate their value or understand their
256
meaning, is only to produce incoherence. The
love of change is not a healthy one unless the
change leads you to something better than you
have had before.”
“ That is just what I say,” cried the Plain
Man; “we have become incoherent and our
critics have become unintelligible. We have lost
our old standards and we have no new ones. Why
is this ? ”
“Well, as far as I can see it is simply because
fashions in criticism have changed,” replied the
Critic. “Years ago the fashion was to uphold
what was customary and to attack everything that
was new—now everything that has hitherto been
accepted as correct is ridiculed as obsolete, and
every new fad is put forward as a discovery of
world-shaking importance. There is no sense
in it; it is only a new fashion.”
“ But if it is only a new fashion why has it been
so universally adopted ? ” asked the Man with the
Red Tie. “ It must be founded on common-
sense to secure such general acceptance.”
“By no means,” laughed the Critic; “common-
sense is the last thing upon which a fashion is
ever founded. If you want my real opinion I
should say that the foundation of this fashion
is the ignorance of the men who pretend to be
critics. They have no standards in art, they have
not even any knowledge of artistic practice in the
wide sense, and consequently they are blown
about by every wind of doctrine. They acquire
all their opinions at second hand, and merely
repeat parrot-fashion what they are told to say.
They are not critics but advocates, and act as
mouthpieces of this or that art clique.”
“Then you argue that modern criticism is not
independent?” asked the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Of course it is not independent,” replied the
Critic. “ The man who follows a fashion can
never be independent. The real critic is a judge
who views impartially all the aspects of the case
submitted to him, not an advocate who holds a
brief for one side and abuses the other. The
modern critic is a lop-sided person who is in-
capable of exercising any judicial functions, and
who is mortally afraid of being impartial lest the
party by which he has been hired should accuse
him of being old-fashioned and take away his job.
He is not allowed by his masters to study anything
except what they prescribe, and his position depends
upon his obedience. Thrust into a position to
which he is not in any way entitled, there is not
the least doubt that he does more harm than good
to art.” The Lay Figure.