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FEATURE / ARTS WRITING IN AFRICA

WIELDING THE PEN / HOUGHTON KINSMAN

WIELDING THE PEN

Thoughts on the practice of writing about art

by Houghton Kinsman

“Write while the heat is in you...

The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an

iron which has cooled to burn a hole with.”

—Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau’s call to action points out the fact that the act of writing is in itself a privilege.

The words give the writer a voice. This voice, which expounds the thoughts, observations

and emotions of whoever wields the pen, ultimately becomes the sustenance on which

the reader feeds. The writer, thus distinguished as the provider, is imbued with a sense of

power. Afforded such a position, it is only natural that there be an ensuing responsibility

• a feeling which Sean O’Toole reiterates. O’Toole writes of how he is guided by Ezra
  Pound and quotes the poet’s belief that, “Fundamental accuracy of statement is the one
  sole morality of writing.” Thinking of O’Toole – doing what he calls his “daily penance”
  with Pound’s conviction never straying far from his mind – I am reminded further of the
  responsibilities of those who choose to write about art.

Critics and art writers alike – whatever their intentions – are afforded an intimacy with

artists and artworks reserved only for a privileged few. Along with curators, museum

directors, dealers, artists; the art world at large, they form part of what Lawrence

Alloway described in 1972, as a “communications network of greater efficiency.”^1 At

times – afforded the position of intermediary; a go-between audience and artwork – it is

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