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VRISHCHIK Dec. Jan. 1971-1972 Year : 3
Nos. 2 - 3
Editors: Gulam Sheikh Bhupen Khakhar Address: 4 Residency Bungalow
University Office Compound Baroda 2. Gujarat-INDIA:
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$ 3 or £ 1. (Sea mail) $ 10 or £ 3. (Air mail) We regret for the extreme delay caused in publishing this out later this month,
Linocuts in this number Shankar sing Suwal number.
The next double number of Feb. March will be
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SIX POEMS
Eunice de Souza
II
Love Story
SWEET SIXTEEN
POEM FOR A POET It pays to be a poet. You don't have to pay prostitutes.
Marie has spiritual thingummies. Write her a poem about the Holy Ghost. Say:
"
"Marie, my frequent sexu'lil encounters represent more than an attempt 路 ' to find mere physical fulfilm'ertt. ' They are a poet's struggle ':10 transcend the self and enter into communion with the world. H
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Marie's eyes will glow. Pentecostal flames will descend. The Holy Ghost will tremble inside her. She will babble in strange ,tongues: , HO Universal Lover in a state of perpetual e~~ction Let me too enter into ' communion with the world through thee. " Ritu loves music and has made a hobby of psychology. Undergraduate, and better still, uninitiated. Write her a poem about woman flesh. Watch her become oh so womanly and grateful. Giggle with her about horrid mother keeping an eye on the pair, the would be babes in the wood, and everything will be so idyllic, so romantic, so intime Except that you, big deal, are forty-six and know what wor ks with whom.
Well, you can't say they didn't try. Mamas never mentioned menses. Sister screamed you vulgar girl don't say brassieres say ' bracelets and pinned pape~ , sleeves onto our sleeveless dresses. The retreat preache'r 'thundered Never go with a man alone Never Alon~ and even if you're engaged only passionless k'iss~~. ':
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So at sixteen, Phoebe asked qle confidentially: can it happ~~, :. when you're in a ~ance ha.11 with a man, T mea~; YO~l kno.w what, getting preggers 'and ,all t,hat, i ' . when you're dancing ' " _ ~ !. I, Sixteen, assure~ ~~r darkly:,You could. I
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HE SPEAKS
MARRIAGES ARE MADE
Well, now teJl me, what would you do to a woman who wrote to y?U . saying: you haven't written for three weeks. You're the meanest man alive. Not even an exclamation mark at the end and she sends telegrams and express letters saying it was a joke, Jove, it was a joke. A joko! Me, a joke! I did \路vhat any self-respecting man would. I ignored her 'for a week . Her pleadings wore me down. She was an 'a'ffectiOD$lte creature and tried hard, poor- dear, but never quite made the grade. She would walk too close to me and then protest nllively: How should lovers walk ? Show me ! Ridiculous, too, her unseemly mirth when I said confidentially: I have such an hypnotic effect on women. Ev.!rywhere I go they fall into my arms Jamie Bond ! she cried My man is India's answer to Jamie Bond ! After that pathological display I decided there was only one thing to do : fix her. The next time we made love I said quite casually: L hope you realize I do this with other women.
( for Veronik and Adit) My cousin Elena is to be married. The formalities have been completed her family history examined for T. B. and madness her father declared solvent, her eyes el{amined for squints her teeth for cavities her stools for the possible non-Brahman worm. She's not quite tall enough, perhaps, and not quite full enough, certainly, (children will take care of that) but her complexion, it was decided, would co mpensate, tbeing just about the right shade of rightness to do justice to Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu good son of Mother Church.
BANDRA CHRISTlAN PARTY
GOA
Hubby emerges from coal bin bottles under arm face a smirk. Hot stuff, be says. The gathered goans giggle dirty jokes : hot stuff and sex Fred the comic slaps hubby on back now the party' 1t go men go says Fred. Goans agaggle Fred laughing loudest (he's the big thing , • this side. of• Hill Rd) I " What personaiity says Dominic . such pink lips man and look at that chest so comic says Mabel so comic says Hetty Fred is the life of the party. Come on men Fred give us a song calls Mabel what personality says Dominic such pink lips and look at that chest.
When Goa was Goa my grandfather says the bandits came over the mountain to our village only to splash in the cool springs, and pay a visit to Our Lady's Chapel. Old ladies were safe among their bags of rice and chillies, unperturbed when souls restless in purgatory stoned ,th~ roofs to ask for prayers. Even ith:~ sna~€s bit only to break: the monotony.
In Quest of Identity: Art & Indigenism in post-colonial culture with special reference to contemporary Indian painting
GEETA KAPUR
(This series of articles will be published in a book form when concluded. It will be available on an advance payment of Rs. 10/-)
PART 1
CHAPTER III t.
CRITIQUE OF CONTEMPORARY WESTERN ART The following discussion is highly generalised. It takes up a number of critical approaches and individual artists, as also the contemporary cultural milieu within a short space. Perhaps this approach will be acceptable if the motive of the critique is kept in view. This is to evaluate certain premises of modern western art, rather than its individual achievements, in order to extrapolate if there IS, or can be, any distinctness of an Indian a r tist, rooted in different cultural and aesthetic premises.
I have taken a biased viewpoint and an overall critical one (deliberately putting aside the fact of a large number of great works, each of which requires a slow and intimate dialogue) in order to expedite the process of deductions 10 which I am here interested. The writers I quote are generally ideologically inclined. There seems now, perhaps more than even before, a need for a philoso phically or sociologically angled viewpoint on contemporary art. Sint.:e the last three decades, in a mutually accelerated process, art and criticism have become increasingly formalistic, therefore a closely confined activity. One can understand anything if one looks at it in aesthetic isolatio n, impartially and conscientiously enough, but this does not necessarily help in grasping its extended significance or its place in the total framework of meaning-communication. I propose that particularly in a ~h aotic a nd op;;n -end Ad cultu ra l sir:lation, a, in India. an in ter pretive and eva ua tive appro ~ ch is more fr liHful. SOME IMP ERATIVES O N CO NTEMPORARY ART An integral relationship between art and its audience is based on a shared system of beliefs - conventionalised iconography and language. With t he breakdown of traditional societies this rela tionship becomes tenu o us and the role of the mediator or interpreter is created. By the 18th century the historian critic was already an emerging figure and wielding influence in creating art history. By the 19th century, with the decline also of assured pa tronage, there was need for 'democratic' institutions to perform the
runction
of presenting work, sometimes supporting artists. and detecting buyers and collectors from the bourgeios audience. Thus begins the importanee of galleries and collectors, along with historian-critics. The alignment of art activity with art business goes as far back as the 17th century but by the 19th century it became close and inevitable. There are other factors that have increased the number and and variety of people interested in art and investing in it, though by no means understanding or appreciative of it. Since the last century, the expanding middle classes with their aspiration to education and culture is one factor. The triumph of modern art is related to that of avant-gardism, now accepted as the device for rejuvenating culture. Modern artists (taking the term back, at least to [mpressionists) were a breakaway group-amongst the first to introduce the notion of 'modernism' as progressive and if necessary, an opposing force against oppressive tradition upheld by the established elite. Modern ar~ has thus become a symbol of new ideas and a progenitor of future values. (There seems to be evidences however that painting may be losing this role to film). This encourages all kinds of intellectuals on the one hand and commercial speculators on the other to become interested. It is both prestigious and profitable to be attached to and if possible, detect the avant-garde in art; therefore b\ implication, t he 0 l- going fo rce~ w ; t !1~ n ",ontempora ry c u'ture. Even G vernments co ยง.ider i t nece3sary to ma ke this affiliation. M odern art is a testimony of their cultural modernity and must be promoted. But all the'se people now attached to art pressurise it directly and indirectly to carry forward the phenomena of avant-gardi~m. And as far as they are concerned, it is more important that art be avant-garde than that it be good: or even. for it to be advanced than to be art. I Hence everyone for their own reasons turns prophet. But " prophets are notorious manipulators. To appreciate events is to attempt to control th~m .. , 2 1 H. Rosenberg, The Anxious Object, p. 228 Ibid pp. 30-31
2
There is no natural contact between art and audience and yet it is essential for any art activity. -Once the artist for his own survival, and society supposedly for its ~wn (cultural) survival, have stated their need and their inability to fulfil 路 it, there is very little to prevent art business becoming a kind of monopolistic . organisation. The function of demand and supply are manipulated simultaneously by the mediators, so that the art-commodity yields maximum profit. T,he artist is deprived of his role and given success. John Berger's words:
In
" Whelher be seeks or despises success, whether his aim is to please or startle, the bourgeois artist's conscious or balf-conscious concern with success takes the form of his having to foresee, whilst he is still working, the likely effect of the finished work according to quite arbitrary' criteria-arbltrary because in no way connected witlithe truth he may well be trying to communicate. The Bitch-Goddess prowls between him and his canvas, between intention and execution, inhibiting him, making him caricature himself, or prompting unnecessary caution or unnecessary excess."! I suggest that the situation intensified in post-war years and exploded as wide-spread frustration amongst artists in the last decade. As a result those artists who will not exploit the system tend to become defensive, to withdraw into other roles and categories or to opt out altogether. 2 [n this context, Marcuse's analysis of the state of art and 'culture' in advanced industrial-commercial societies is most relevant. It puts the preceding argument in a comprehensive setting. He says. "Today's novel feature is the flattening out of the antagonis m between culture and social reali~y through 1 Berger, The Permanent Red, pp . 210-211 2 This tendency is most pronounced in the arts of painting and sculpture as they are unique objects and therefore encourage acquisitiveness and conspicuotisconsumption . Literature and music e.g., can be elite activities but cannot be personally possessed.
the obliteration of the oppositional, alien and transcendent element in the higher culture by virtue of which it con~tituted another dimension of reality. This liquidation of two.dimensional culture takes place not through the denial and rejection of 'cultural values', but through their whole-sale incorporation into the establi shed order, through their reproduction and display on a massive scale." 1 This is the result of the high rate of achievement of advanced industrial society, where culture is, as it were, superceded by reality where the desire and dissent that the mythical gods and culture heroes embodied, is rendered unnecessary by the (seeming) reaHsation of the ideal in actual life. ' Along with advanced industrialism, a mass -scale commercial communication makes available the products of culture to large mumbers of people in their every day lives. But, '"If mass communication blends together harmoniously and often noticeably, art, politics, religion and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realm! of culture to the common denominator - the commodity form, tbe music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts. On it centres the rationality of the status quo and all alien rationality is bent to it. "2 "The capabilities of this society are progressively reducing the sublimated realm in which the condition of man was represented, idealized and indicted. Higher culture became pan of the material culture. In this transformation. it loses the greater part of its truth."3 I shall not elaborate his argument further. For the purpose here, the f ocus is on the new status of the work of art as a mass consumed commodity-and this invalidates its ~ 1. Herbert Marcuse. One Dimensional Man, p. 58 2. Ibid., p . 59 3. Loc. cit. '
previous one, of visual ising an antagonist or transcendent 'reality' . LOSS OF IDENTlTY: NEW ROLES THAT ARTISTS PLAY That art activity has no significant role in modern society has long been understood by tbe artist. Until the first two decades of this century this realisation built up a tension which was itself creative, but slowly this realisation was accepted and this very acceptance became the content of art. MaJ~c:e] Duchamp along with the Dadaists brought the situation to its first crisis. Duchamp undermined the faith in art as a repository of 'values' and exeposed the falsehood of the audience responding to modern art, through his 'ready-roades'. He showed how everything in the category of advant- garde art was quickly assimilated by bourgeois culture. He then took the crucial decision of abandoning art activity as futile and irrelevant. This has tended to make art an uneasy activity for the artist, absurd or sometimes subversive for the audience. In a completely diffaent (because positive) sense, Mondrian and Malevitch pushed toward a point where metaphysical speculation superseded t he need for form and in logical consequence art could became irrelevant.
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V
Subsequently, questions regarding the defini tion of art have been posed by artists like Dubeffet, Pollock, in their work. But it is not until the generation after the Abstract Expressionists of the 1940's, that a rtists have fully accepted their irrelevance. They are the real heirs of Duchamp's cynicism, for though they may not abandon the activity, they no longer struggle with contradictio n on the grounds either of conscience or desire. They simply ta ke t he situation for granted and step ahead of it by embodying as content, the contemporary value (or ' un- value') of art. Amongst the first of these artists were Robert Rauschenberg and ,J asper Johns. And in an almost opposite way but feeding the same consequences, Ad Reinhard t. Since the last two decades many artists have responded to this declining r ole of art (notwithstanding its success) by
consciously or unconsciously merging themselves with other ' roles' . This could be considered a re-definition of the artists' role, but without the assertion of their distiRctness, wh ich all their previous roles in history has .given them, and ind the choice of merger with categories that are more because they are more functional and commercially successful, the artist is near to effacing himself.路 Mass -Media and Pop-art Many artists since the end of the 1950's have identified with the various mass-media. The sophistication of visual means, the tec hniques and resources behind them, make the advertising media formidable competitors for the visual artist. This has tended to demoralise many artists into becoming assimilated within the mass-media system. particularly via film; or to simulate them, in their own subject matter and language. ~hemselve s
It is often suggested that the Pop artists are social commentators and their very simulations parody the given society. Certainly this element exists but an art based on parody as its only content finds itself in a position when it is parodying itself. The giant hamburgers and soft-wares of Claes Olden berg, the Campbell soup cans, and multiple-idol -images of Andy Warhol, and t he comic strip pictures of Roy Lichtenstein, however ringing in their first social ' comments, end up through repetitio n to pa rody themselves and the artist in the consumer society. Th~ last stage of self-directed parody is the creation of dis posable art with which the artist symbolically disposes of himself.
There are two other factors that vitiate the social comment in an pop-art. There is an attempt to make pop'ular iconography function in an elitist situation and it is never clear to whom the comment is addressed. Moreover by ' their success a s art, these works become formal and stylistic 1 Individual artists may continue to create interesting works within this or for that matter any other situation. I am suggesting here a general analysis of trend rather than qualitative judgments. I am suggesting however, that a persistence of this situation is on the whole and in the long run detrimental to significant art.
and are often evaluated on grounds of design than of content. It is Interesting to consider the examples of Ron Kitaj in this context because in a way his work acknowledges the comments made a bove. He is a 'super-eclectic' in his sources; his subject matter, includes a patchwork-of world-wide journalistic information. In his language, he combines synthetic cubism, the irony and nostalgia of surrealist mont ages, the calligraphic paint gestures of early abstract expressionists and the streamlined patterns of modern advertising. Like the film maker Godard he seems most completely to be the artist-intellectual of the 1960's with his brjlliant eclecticism he is a neutral commetator on everything and represents the irresponsible position of the contemporary artist. This is particularly important because he inverts the premise he himself suggests that of social involvement. In such a case one cannot speak of a submergence of tbe artist's but perhaps of his integrity.
the Experiments in Art and Technology group, headed by Rauschenberg and Cloover. Moreover one should derive social and economic implications from such an example.l
It is doubtful whether McLuhan would venture to follow through these implications. One of the likely oppositional viewpoints is suggested in this statement by Ernst Fischer: "False philosophic conclusions from the revol utionary discoveries of cy bernetics .... in certain individual instances may be useful as behaviorism is in science but which, as a whole, not only describes the dehumanisation of man but actually invests this de-humanisation which the character of inescapable finality. 2
To return to tbe main argument, there is evidently a potential within the area of technology for the development of a new artistic language. But before that, a unique intention will have to be invented. This is the sense in which the questions are posed above. Even from a simply THE ARTIST AND TECHNOLOGY . prag matic point of view, if the artist puts himself in the There are other artists who have sought to emulate the position of imitating or co mpeting with the scientistscientist-technician by creating forms and constructions technician , he will be at a miserable disadvantage. There that look like machines or parts of industrial equipment; is a huge amount of research and finance behind the and electronic technology to make kinetic constructions scientist-technician which tbe artist is unlikely to command. and more recently, whole environments with light and sound. Moreover, the specific fun ction of any technical project The purpose of such works can be seen as (a) homage to gives its form a rational, highly finished and often in its technology rather in the spirit of the Italian Futurists and perfect relationship of parts, an aesthetic value. The RU8~ia n C onstructivists. Tbeir con tem porary beirs a re artist eaI1fl o t su peT:;;;ede t :-:18; he' nE' ::I t '')f st beCGille a styliST e. g., Nicolas Sch a ffer :and Robert Rau sc hen berg i bi par-ody ; him self. In oId ;;r to U ~~ t;:;:ch noJogy <H a ll, th e artist mU ST some examples being Jean T inguely, Paolozzi, Trova; evolve an id eological in tention , or let technol ogy Cesar; (c) mystification and play, e. g., in the work of transgress into fanta~y-to create a mysterious, magical and David S mith; Takis, Peter Sedgley. playful world, analogous t o the functional , and possiblv
It is interesting to look upon s uch work s in Mcluhan's terms; the arti st as a visionary-perceptor, a nticipating th e changed environme n t through changed technotogy~ by incorpo rating new senso ry and mental configurations in hi s work . One should consider for example, if the Mcluhenesque prophecy i f ulfill ed by Nicolas Schoffer and his proposed twenty-five million pound cybernetic tower to be constructed in Paris, Or by the worldwide projects of
challenging it. There are young Russian a rtists unofficially planning large (fairlike) computerised environments of lights, structures and sounds. Their intention is presumably to involve large masses of people in art activity. Their plans are restricted to diagrams and maquettes due to the official art policy. If more was known about their work it would be important to consider it on the basis suggested here. 2
Pischer, Thc Necessity of Art, p 200.
ART AND DESIGN ACTIVITY
MINIMAL ART '
The relationship of the artist and designer within an industrial culture developed through tbe related movements of the Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Constructivism. At its inception tbis was a conscious and in ita social implications, idealistic coming together of artists with designers (architects and product-designers) to transform the shape of urban"environment for the benefit of the urban masses. But the artist is now assimilated into the intentions and processes of commercial design activity. There are several reasons tor this: (1) there is a growing importance of <good design' in the life of the afHuent consumer societies, manipulated by competitive industry and disseminated by all the mass madia; (2) The artist lives in a man-made invironment- in formaHy planned and built surroundings. This consciousness, in conjunction with what I consider the . historical spending out of the energies of abstract art by about the 1940's, has tended towards, what may be called a highly 'designed' art. A lot of contemporary abstract sculpture and painting is neither expressive nor conceptually exploratory. It is how.ever in impeccable good taste. In the current discussion among art school students about the merger of art and design activity, there is perhaps a desire for merger into a more successful, or at least more directly- functional and more relevant activity. There is the 'resurrection' of Baubaus ideals in an overlitc.ral way. It is important to remember, not only tbat tbe Baubaus declined within a decade, but tbat even at its best, it produc.ed very little fine art of any significance.
One may look at the work referred to' above more路 sympathetically, that is, to regard abstract-minimal art as metaphorically speaking, hermit--art. Then these artists can be seen, not as reaching out towards the more afHuent categories. of society but rather, as withdrawing into more 'purist' activity. This artist-hermit position was taken up by artists like Ozenfant, Mondrian, the Supramatists especially Malevitch. It has been, ever since, one of the options for the. artist. By its very nature, a dialogue with 'silence' (again metaphorically speaking -the bl ank space as silence), is conducted at the edge, as it were between mental and and manifest activity. This precarious inter-play is most significant in its first stages. But it alln ws ver) few variations. If repeated, it quickly becomes an empty formalism, and manneristic in the extreme. It is important that Malevitch fell into a silence (not entirely explained by the Stalinist policy) by the end of 1920's: yet the ' minimalist' issues have been revived in different ways by the Americans e.g., Newman. Reinhardt, Noland, Stella, and numero.us other contemporaries all over the world. After .Malevitch it is perhaps Reinhardt who most effectively -baited silence, if only because he is relatively in the chronology. Subsequent artists and art school studenJs have worried over their blank canvas when it no longer allows either reduction or repetition. This persistence, when it is not simply because of impoverishment, is- because the artist adopts the role of a critic, where by he derives his positi0n from a supposedly linear history of art and narrows 路his possibilities more and more.
I must add that this 'over-identification' of art with design has very much to do with the way in which design activity in architecture, interior design and industrial and graphic design has itself quickly followed trends in art. Secondly, that most abstract constructivist art: ( ordered ~nd . la~-imp<?sing) becomes ipso facto 'design' when looked at, even if it is not by intention.
There are certain questions in regard to minimal art that need to be raised. I simply mention them here: (a) Is it only chronology which gives-value-priority to the abstract artists of the 1920's? Supposing we had no historical perspective, is there anything inberent that suggests a qualitative difference between then and now? (b) It is our knowledge of the ideological intention of th~ artists of the 1920's, stated in manifestos and programmes,
that colours our perception of their work; is it then the lack of ideology that accounts for our criticism of contemporary min~mal art ? If so, is this a .l egitimate criterion,. when in fact, there is not mu~h difference, formally? "
business, reduce art to a commodity; that the pressures of historicism set ap imperatives for avant-gardism, There is therefore denial of the given situation and concomitantly, tbe denial of art itself. Thus tbe debates on whether the tbe artist should make, objects at all. As a logical conclusion we eitber have an end' of the category of 'artist' or a totally different role for him, as a perceiver, a dreamer and not a doer. This last seems to be not only logical but tbe most real position in the circumstances. If we could have a state of silence, of a kind of ascetic indifference, it would at least be a self consistent state; "After all", says levi Strauss. " .... painting is not an inevitable feature of culture; a society can perfectly well exist without any form of pictorial art. So it is not iriconceivable that after abstract art .... ,. (we may arrive at) "A kind of total detachment, heralding the advent of an 'a-pictori(!l' era. "1
One 'claim, which 'i s the closest to art 'ideology' that is made by the contemporary minimal artists is that their open, minimum statement, the lack of aggressiveness in terms of content (i. e., image, information) encourages the viewer's participation because he is induced i~to 'filling in' the picture su~face by his own imagination. In McLuh~n's terms, this is 'cool' art, encouraging audience 'participation'. However, it would seem to me that participation presupposes invitati on, which in turn has to do with enigma or challenge. It would be difficult to claim this for most artists included as 'minimal'. Both conceptually and formally, they are comprehensible and and unyielding (consider the middle period painting of Frank To return to a more immediate situation, there is some evidence in tbe drifting dialogues of artists and art students, Stella). May ' they not become in the process, innocuous ? of a desire for what can best be called a state of x x x 'innocence'. A quite opposite reaction would be the 路 assertion of an ideology (against formalism) but this is All the examples taken above show the artist in a defensive unlikely to happen within the given system. An ideology position and one of the worst features of defensiveness in art would be derived from a wider standpoint, is !riviality. philosophic or social. Countries witb long but interrupted " It is the triviality of so many contemporary works, not traditions, who are only now emerging in to contemporary the small number of people who look at, or read them, culture have, even if by default, a more un-structured that makes them so irrelevent to the modern world. situation; a certain range of choices as to ideology, language In such works all purpose is reduced to the minimum and the organisation of art activity--what I have called . ... The artist, in other words, has been forced to hii art business. Here too the attitude in art will be directly knees and there, tries to find significance in the scraps' related to -a n overall social and eultural pattern. Perhaps around him on the floor ." 1 however, in these emerging nations, cultural rejuvenation, including art activity, could be a parallel rather than a "One has the impression that each artist has desperately dependent factor in the formulation of a comprehensive searched for some little novelty of his own and then outlook. been content to mass produce it and market it."2 With the younger artists, particularly art students, there is a growing impatience that the mechanisms of art and 1 John Berger, Permanent Red, pp. 323. 2 Ibid., p. 28
All these alternatives are based on certain major presuppositions; that the artist detached himself from the G. Charbonnier (Ed.) Conversations with Claude Levi-Straus,,_ p. 132
business which has invested in the 'triumph' of modern art; that there is a return to 'meaning' (conventionally speaking 路content) clearly distinguished from fo rmal means of 'making' a painting though by no means referring to figurative art as we know it; that language becomes significant and yet as if new-born. In the given situation, even in the case of dissenting artists there is very little to indicate any chan,ge in jl1t~ntion 路even when these are verbally c1aimed. There is either a a simplification and reduction in the vocabulary of language, or a pedantic return to figurative painting (Communist countries), or a romanticisation of the given idiom or style 路(in most non-western countries inc1uding large sections of Indian paintings). The problem resolves into the most fundamental one in all art activity; of embodying mtentions, especially the changing, cbaUengi'Og intentions, within a significant, appropriate and expansive language. THE 'M ETHOD OF ART HISTORY : ITS EFFECT ON ART ACTIVITY I would like to suggest that the encroachment of historyconsciousness into the field of art has, through its concomitant logic of cause and effect and of Drogress, resulted in some of the present problems in contemporary western art. It is unnecessary to reiterate that the social and technological devel0'p ment that characterise the modern world is a result of an inculcated sense of history. But it should be c1ear that this historic sense is important in areas dealing in facts and events. They are unimportant, or mis-applied when we are considering e. g., religious, mytho}()gical and aesthetic values. Yet history, its assumptions and processes, are posited as values in art, accepted as such by the 'artist and 'viewer .and become ruling criteria. I contend that they distort our unders tanding of art as a creative activity and lead to false pressures _and obligations on lh.e artist himself.
I quote, as an example of the historical approach to art; a statement by Heinrich Wolfflin in the Principles of Art History : "The mode of vision, or let us say, of imaginative beholding, is not from the outset and everywhere the same, b,u t like every manifestation of life, has its development. Tbe hjstorian has to reckon with stages of imagination. We know pFimitively immature modes of vision, jpst as we speak of 'high' and 'late' periods of art. AFchaic Greek ,a rt, .or the -style of sculpture in the west portal at Chartres, must not ibe interpreted as if it had teen created today. Instead of asking, "How do these works affect me, the modern man?" and estimating their expressional content by that standard, t he historian must realize what choice of formal possibilities the epoch had its disposal . ... "1 Some ot the consequences of such an approach in art history are suggested . below. The Factor of Causation Causation in history, often referred to as determinism, is defined by the historiao, E. a. Carr : "as the belief that everything that happens has a cause or causes and could not have happened' differently unless someth ing in .the cause or causes had also been different. Determinism is a problem not of history but of all human behaviour."2 He adds however, "the logical dilemma about free will and determinism does not arise in reaitife. It is not that some human actions are free and other determined. The fact is that all human actions are both free and determined according to the point of view from which we consider them."3 lWolffiin, Principles 0/ Art History, pp. 232-233 2 Carr, What is History? p. 87 3 Ibid. , p . 89
Thus historical causation' is a fact, but its relative significance in different areas ,varies and depends, on the aims of the particular investigation. Presumably, this is what Carr calls the point of view. But W olfflin.' e. g., 'regards works of art almost exclusively in terms of stylistic causation and development. It leads to ,theassumption (a) that art works, in that-they follow an 'essential' pattern ,of cause and effect, can be explained and understooa as such and evaluated on the basis of this understanding, and' (b) that there is development and progress in alt, on this basis. [n this quest for explaining art, E. H . Gombrich introduces certain systematic procedures. In the chapter 'Function and ~orm', in Art and lllu.sion and other essays, e. g. , 'Arts and Scholarship', in Meditation on a Hobby Horse, he suggests that if we are impartial and conscientious enough, it is possible to decipher the iconogrophy of a work by resources to texts and myths, to decipher the events and objects presented, by references to the cultural history of the time, Then one must interpret them by internal evidence, by examining relationships between the images in the work of art; that i~, by working backwards from the work and gathering the relevant information as to its purpose in the time and place of its creation, An artist's language of forms could be further understood if one knows the gamut of choices available to him (cf. Wolffiin), for this would bring out the unique 'gestalt' of his choices-his style. From such understanding would proceed according to Gombric1;J, evaluation of t he work. (Thus. e. g., after an investigation into the internal and implied evidence of c1assical Greek art, he concludes that in its intentions as well as in its actual apprehension and transformation pf form, Greek art was a 'revolution' in the His'tory of art) I,' This appears to be an irnfutabJe approach because it is based on empiricism and ,rationality; I suggest, however, 1 Gombrich, The Greek Revolution, Art and Illusion
that the point of view in art history and criticism most ' creative and therefore most -closely related , to creative ' activity itself, is not the exclusive understanding of ' causes' ~ that the assimilation o.r internalistion of a work of art is not achieved by these meaQs, In trying to explain a41d understand works of art in ' thIS way we ' -are implying a': similar process in their creation From the historian's need for understanding have flowed assumptions regarding art activity itself; e. g., that there are qtiantifiable influences ' from art ,history and environment, that they are -disc'e rnible and clearly transmitted. Tbe leads to a highly deterministic attitude in regard to the activity of att. Th,e environment and also art history, however impinging ' upon the arist, are subject to transformations on bases that are nof always explicit. The artist's imagination and fantasy, his eccentricity, create the aesthetic dimension of the work, This is impossible to understand and explain by the method and terminology of those who deal with ' :, factual reality-the historian and the scientist. Therefore, r suggest that we distinguish between a critical and creative understanding of art works and use both at all times. By creative understanding I meat] empathy, the 'quick' of D. H. Lawrence; a simultaneous apprehension of the conjif(uration of factors which led to the creation of the work. Secondly. it means the acknowledgement _~f the evaluative factor in all our apprehensions; a recogniti<;>,n, that we are seldom objective towards works of art . Here are two passionate and biased points of view, both rhetorical and poetic, to supplement th~ rationalist 路 approachArnold Hauser: " A work of art is a challenge, we do not explain it, we adjust ourselves to it. In interpreting it, we draw upon our own aims and endeavours, inform it with a meaning that has its origins in our own ways of life and thought. , .. " 1 I.
Hauser, Philosophy of Art History, p , 3
And Baudelaire: "I sincerely believe that the best criticism is that which is both amusing and poetic: not a cold mathematical criticism which, on the pretext of explaining everything, has neither love nor hate and voluntarily strips itself of ~very ~hred of temperam-ent ...... the best account of a picture ma/ well be a sonnet or an elegy. But this kind of criticism is destined for anthologies and readers , of poetry. As for ~riticism, p roperly so-called, 1 hope the philosopherswill ·underst ~l1id what [am going to s~y, t? justify its existe,nce : criticism should be partial, passionate and political, that 'is to say, written from an exclusive point of view, but a point of view that opens up the widest horizons." 2
If these seem slightly irresponsib le, I shall counterbalance by pointing out the dangers of putting too much ' emphasis on explanations of art. Claims of understanding the meaning and style through a series of rati'onally comprehensible choices, deduced from a given work, overlapping with th e historica l develo p ment of abstract ' art, has ' resulted in art criticism as mere description 'o f perceptual data. Thusfor all kind of work s there 1S a predominance 'of formal ist criticism. Clement Greenb.e rg and his followers, Fried, Lawre'nce Alloway, a nd recently Susan Sontag are all in their o wn way 'against interpretation' because it has to d o with extran eous conside~alions. Any over':'-all viewpoint .:;ontai~ing e.g. ; phllosophic or sociological attitude is considered ipso facto irr~l~vant. (To understand Kenn ~ tb Noland in 't his way ~ay be justi'fiabl~ but it seems ;curio'u s that the Pop artists' who scream ou t their subject- ma tter have ' not been examined successfully from some comp reh e~ sive point of view-in their case, approp,r iately" a sociological one). In explaining the 'work' 'o n Its own, terms, ,without aJ?-y outside reference, the creative as well as the critical evalutation is abandoned in favour of decription and analysis. 2. ' C. p , Baudelaire 'Salon o:f 1846' Art in Paris (1845-1862), p, 44
In proportion as the historian-critic becomes important and he has become indispensable - it would seem that he turns prophet. Criticism is not only retrospective, but also prospective. The historian-critic extrapolates via the factor of causation, into the future. Thus we have manufactu red art movements, not onl:y commerCiaIly;' but '::: academically and professionally! The historicist >method' :based seemingly on invincible rationality eClipses' 'our : <, ; approach to art and the artist's imaginative freedom: " THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOP-M ENT -AND PROGRESS IN ART 1 '(,.,--:
What follows, derives from the discussion above. A. ' direct consequence of historicism and' rationalism is a belief in historical development ofari. Wolfftin, in ' the statement quoted in the beginning does ' not recognise ' a ', simultaneous assimilation of art history: Following his i, ' , method, the art historian would be able to understahd '; i: PicO-sso, but not H;!nri Rouss~au, both painting: in ' 1907. ' ! The notion of development in art history relies upon" some essentialising criteria of the historian -either ~erSoQ(l'l preference or a theory . I
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The historian-critic ra tionalises a work or moyem~~t, .. : ma kes a linear connection between ,s,uccessive W~rk,s . and, ~; rf~ names a mainstream. As he ex!!rcises so much ..influence , " " , . ,, ' . ;" l'f the artis t tends to d o what 'logically' rollo,~s wi~h, fhe 1 _'•• '~'I obligation of solving the his~oriqally appropriate ,pr:oblems" . of finding such 'solutions' that take . forwa'rd ' ~rtistic , " .J achievement. Analogically speaking, th~ cri~.i~ ~s' m~st'~;:-: : artist and t he artist as , artisan is not so very far-fet,c 'h ed','-"; particulary in the last few decades. And yet in art', ' th~re'; '" is nothing in the short or the long run' to prove the '" rightness or wrongness of the cboiceslhe ' artist' ma.;kes'The obligation to do so is merely inhibiting. The artist ,I~ tends to opt out of ,making, any real choices, for t~emes , J
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1 The attacks on the word progress in art have been many and __ vi~lent. _As a concep_~ ,!elated to ~rt it i,s largely <lis~redited but its milder substitute-the ,notion of d~velopment, , ~ontinues tq , J ~ operate even if implicitly in djalogl,le on art~ ,_ "
R. N. 15189/69
and forms are progressively d.enied to him ·as· extinct. · He simply: variates upon the given themes,. f~lling into mann.edsms and apad.emicism: This, is evident in much con tern porary ~ork~ "For the. artist" the replacem.e llt,of tradition by historical consciousness compels a continual choosing among possibilities. The dec~sion to foll~w one aesthetic hypotliesis rather than 'ariother is a matter of professional life and death." I Without tbe containing factor of tradition whiCh acted as an antidote. to progressiv.is,t beliefs, the historian-critics have tleen instrumental in creating the imperatives ' of avant-gardism.. ,It is not d~nied that in ,the latter , part o~ the nhleteenth and early twentieth centuri~s this was a progressi,ve force. But its generativ~ qualities pave been submerged since, by its alliance with the industrialcommercial structure witb the twin economic considerations of obsolescence' and novelty. We h'ave now the heir \)f modernism, 'the cult of the new'. Clement Greenberg in Art and Culture suggests avant-gardism as the prime mover in contemporary culture. But it should be stated that an acceleration of the avarit-ga~de principle, in that it disall~ws ~ny system of valu~s to emerge or be transmitted, undermines' culture. For presumably, values, ho*ever impermanent are necessary in the cultural social life of a community. . 1 w~sh to c10se my argument with two Hauser:
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, 1. H. Rosenberg, The Anxious Object. pp. 30-31.
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"The greatest danger f~r history, and one t~· whic4 it has been constantly exposed .·. , . is that it shoul,d bec.o me a mere history of forms and problems .... These problems. and tas~es are real enough;' they are neither inv·e ntions <, . nor methodologica~ fictions, and any scientific art history must face them and work them ouL,. .. : The works of art, however, arenot brought 'into 'being in order to 'solve these problems; problems turn up in' the course of creating works to ' ans~e~ questions 'haviQg , little connection with formal and technical p~oble~s questions of world-outlook, of the conduct qf life .. .or . faith and kn<;>wledge."l I
. "Artistic creations are more linked with their own time than they are with the. idea of art in g.eneral,. or. the history of art as a unitary process. Tb~ ,works of , different artists do not have any comnion ai~ o~ common standard; one does not continue an9th~r qr ', s,upplement another ; ea-ch beg.ins at the beginning: ;;md: attains its goal as best it can. There is o.ot any r;,e al progress in art ; later works are not necessarily, more valuable than earlier; works of art are in fact incomparable., ,That is what makes truth in art so,. very different from truth in sci~nce ; . . : .. ~' 2
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With reference to contemporary art these ·seem more normative ' than factual statements. This may be a measure of the 'impoverishment" of contemporary art, which' 1 " took as my premise' in this chapter. ' Quoted by E.Fischer, The 'Necessity of Art, p. 15'1 . 2 Hauser, Pliilosuphy uf Art·HisttJry. p. 36
PubJish-ed by Gu-Iam She1kb from · 4 Residency Bungalow, bniveraity Office Cqmllo{Jnd, , B~ro,da-:-2, , and printed by A. , N. lQgtekar. at 3-A- Associates, 4:"5, Laxmi 'Estate', Bithucbaraji Road, Baroda. . ., G j
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