Contemporary American painting and sculpture

(Chris Devlin) #1
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dogma,orwiththefacileproductionofpuredecorationforitsownsake.
Theexpressionofnewkindsofartistictruthisstillhispreoccupation.
^Vemustacceptartistictruthassomethingwhichisnotthesameas
logicaltruth,orempiricaltruth,orreligioustruth,orpragmatictruth,and
recognizethatitisnotentirelyaconstant.Itisneithertruenorfalselogi-
cally,anditisnotscientificallyverifiable.Itcansymbolizereligioustruths,
andfrequentlyhasdoneso,justasitoften dealswiththematerialof
empiricism.Butinitselfitisnotreligious,norisitbasedsolelyonexperi-
ence.Thevalueswhichmakeupartistictrutharehighlysubjectiveand
difficulttodefineinpreciseterms.Amongthemostimportantofthese
valuesaresincerity,consistency,andinsightorrevelation.Yetartistictruth
isnotanyoneofthesethings,anditismorethanacombinationofthemall.

Wemayattempttomeasureartistictruthoraestheticinsightbyitsorigi-


nality,itssignificance,anditsperfection,buttheseaspectsmayappear\ery
differenttoindi\idualswhoapproachaspecificworkofartfromdifTcrent
directions.Artistictruthiscloselyrelatednotonlytomentalconceptsbut
alsotoproblemsofvision.Changesinartistictruthfromoneperiodto
anotherareindicatedby correspondingchangesbothinsubject matter
andinform.
Oneofthechiefreasonswhytheformswhichartistshaveemployedat
differentepochsha\enotremainedthesameisbecauseourmethodof
seeinghaschanged%er\sharply.W'elookfordifferentthings,andactually
seedifferentthings,thanpeoplelookedforandsawfiftyorahundredora
thousandyearsago.Thisexplainswhywecannotreadtheliteraryaccounts
contemporarywithsomeofthemasterpiecesofthepastwithoutrealizing
thatworkswhichmayseemtoussymbolicandhighlyarbitraryinstyle
apparentlylookedcompletelyrealistictotheircontemporaries.Whatare
theelementswhichwelookfortodaywhichhavemostprofoundlychanged
theconceptofnineteenth-centuryvisualrealism,whichisstillthebasisfrom
whichmuchcontemporarycriticismhasbeendirected?
Therearethreeoftheseelementswhich.seemtobeparticularlypower-
ful. In thefirstplace, wearetodaypeculiarlysensitivetotheinternal
structureofthings.Ournicchanisiicskillontheonehand,aiulourscien-
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