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•
The
l o
nger o
n e s tu
d ies
art the
less o
ne
fe el
s abl e
to d ef
in e it.
I was
much
mor
e
certain abo
ut
th e meaning
of
art
when
I was
you
nger and
knew
l ess.
t
the
pres-
ent s t
age
of my
ignor
ance I
o nl y
kno
w
that a
rt is so
me
thin
g
pe
ople ha
ve alw
ays
c
reated .
rt t
akes d
iffere
nt f or
ms at
dif -
f e
r ent
poin ts
in
tim
e a n
d spac
e
but
it
a lw
ays p
ersists
as one
of
th e cons
tants
of
hum
an
b
ehav io
r.
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It
is amusi
ng
to hear college instructors explain the
painting
s
in
the caves of
A ltamira to freshmen. f
the
instructor is interested in anthropology,
he
may say
the paintings are a type
of
magic d
es
igned to appease the spirits of dead animals.
f
he
has a utilitarian
sort
of p
hil
osophy he might describe the paintings as prac·
tical devices used by
hunters
to
learn
where to kill
the
reindeer
and
bison.
f
the
instructor has a more specialized pictorial interest,
he
will not explain the
paint
ings
at
all
; he
will
ca
ll
attention
to the
ir
naturalism,
and
to the
drawing
ski
ll
and
powers
of
observation of
th
e artist. Whateve r the correct interpretation, the existence
of
the
se remarkable works, executed by
pr
ecivilized savages barely possessing
lao
·
guage, has to impress us strongly.
Her
e is
an
instance
of highly
developed artistic
skill- for whatever purpose cultivated by creatures hardly able to maintain chair
existence, daily faced by fier
ce
da
nger
s
from without and
doubtless assailed by
numerous devils from w
ithin
.
hey
created be ause
they
were m en. hey mad e
images because they had to. And we are no different.
This
is the bedrock principle
of
Art
.
It
is
th
e f
ou
ndation on which
the
profes·
sion of Art Education is built The practice a
nd
teac
hing
of art
in
thousa
nd
s of
schools throughout America goes
on
because it is rooted in the nature of man. A
relatively small group
of
art educators
in
this country work to extend the influen
ce
of art in
human
affairs. The efforts of this group continue and will be marked by
success because a
rt
is a
permanent part of
the
human
condition: Art is implied
by
our hands, our eyes, our
thumb
s, our binocular vision, our nervous system, o
ur
brains our
powers
of
imagin
at
ion.
The
role of art in
human
affairs is always changing a
nd it
alw.ays is the same.
In
o
ne
sense it always deals
with
man s fundamental forming impulse- his need
a
nd
d
es
ir
e
to
change
th
e shape of
things to impo
se his
own
ideas
of
form
upon
formless or recalcitrant
mat
erials.
In
another sense, a
rt
changes because the world
evolves new social and technical challenges to which it must respond. The machine
a
nd
the e
le
ct
roni
c computer are examples.
In
response to the machine, the role
of art was to find some way to ad just
the
human organism and its characteristic
modes
of
forming to the scale a
nd rh
y
thm
of mechanical-industrial modes of de
sign and fabrication.
But no
sooner had a
rt
developed a machine aesthetic
as
well as
the new
prof
ession
of Indu
strial
Design
with
all
it
s problems
and
also its
ut
opian
aesthetic possibilities)
than the
electronic revo
lution
was
upon
u
s.
Now we can
expect the electronic computer to solve many of the problems of boring machin
e-
te
nding and
of dehumanizing toil by men
as
servants of
in
st
rument
s which have
assumed a higher social and economic value than human beings. In the future
computers will make decisions
now
reserved to clerks a
nd
corporation executive
s
efficiency experts and aU manner of management consultants. Financial vice
presidents
and
acco
untant
s will be
as
easily replaced
in
industry
and
government
as
Bob Cratchit,
wh
o
kept
ac
counts
for
Mr
. Scrooge.
Comp
uters will replace
not
only
semiskilled workmen and middle managers, but also the authors
of
speeches spoken
by politicians, the composers of music
for
popul.ar records, and the author of day-
time radio and television dramas for housewives those emancipated members of
o
ur
society
wh
o have been freed from domestic toil by the mechanical-industrial
revolution.
It
often seems that the freedom conferred by the automatic dishwasher,
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the
vacuum cleaner, the automatic oven,
and
prepackaged food is a
qu
estionable
benefit if the benficiary is obliged to listen to or view
he
Right to Happiness,
Young Doctor
Malone
, and
the
other
lac
hr
ymose
dr
am
as of
prepackaged daytime
culture.)
At
any rate, when the benefits of the electronic revolution are s
hortl
y confecred,
p e
rhap
s
in
fifteen or twe
nt
y year
s
a new set
of human
challenges will emerge
and
art
will have its role
in
their solution.
It is easy to see some of the more obvious consequences of the electronic revo
lution:
greatly increased leisure, di
sp
lacement of many
kind
s of la
bor
, temporary
economic dis
tr
ess, a
nd
extension of the period of education weB up to the Platonic
prescription for philosopher-kings. And the problems some
of
which we already
face, will be the re-education of displaced workers; the se
ri
ous study a
nd
re
organizati
on
of recreation; the questi
on
Galbraith raises of knowing what to do
w
ith our
productive capacity;
and
also the
pr
oblems of a
rt and of
aesthetics, which
1 insist on regarding as serious. How will
the
forming impulses of men be spent ?
Ho
w sh
ould
t
he
products
of their
imagination
and
skill be used, shared, exhibited,
circulated ? How shall we educate artists and art teachers; and how much of art istic
educat ion shall
we
extend throughout
society?
What
influence will artists a
nd
de
signers have over the uses of their skills? To
what
extent shall aest
hetica
lly sensitive
persons
in
our society occupy posts of practical power? Of course, we face many of
these problems already. But a
rt
will also
ha
ve to co
ntribut
e to
the
sol
ution of
prob
lems indire
tly
resulting from the coming elec
tr
onic revolu ion. Profound changes
in
the
human
condition are imminent,
and we
may ask
how
a
rt
shall deal
with
these
cha
nge
s-wi th man's sense of
in
adequacy, his feelings
of
worthlessness a
nd
despair,
because
t
is
cl
ear t
hat
these fee
lings
pervasive
throughou
t the western
world
today,
are related to man
's
obsolescen
ce in
many areas of activity. Concerning despair, it
must be plain that our preoccupation with self-destruction and our competition to
dis like
our enemi
es
more fiercely is the source of considerable anguish just beneath
the surface of national awareness.
One
of the present functions of art,
it
seems to
me, is to reflect this sense
of
despa
ir without
succumbing to it.
It is to these
latter
problems
that
I wish to address my rema
rks.
I shall not
discuss
art
an
d
art
educ
at
ion
under
it
s aspect
as
a type
of
recreation,
or
as a
br
anch
of psychotherapy, or as a means of discovering intelligence which can be redirected
by our educational system into the professions supporting a sound military pos
ture
.
I
want
to deal
with
the da
y-
to-day kinds of fo
rming
, imagining, des
igning
,
criticizing, and loving which we do
in
art studios and classrooms throughout this
country.
But
first we must
attempt
to understand what it is
in
modern man or what it is
f bout
modern
man that he him
se
lf
wishes to transcend.
Wh
at
does he seek
through
art,
through
the practice or teaching or collecting of art, to forget or overcome?
Paul Goodman recently wrote that much
of
juvenile delinquency grows out
of
the
feeling amo
ng
adolescents th
at
there is
no
work,
no
heroic
or
exciting task really
worth doing. Adolescents today feel no vocation, no summons to noble action, no
place
to
invest
their ardor an
d capac
it
y
for id
ealism. Other generations of yo
ung
people could invest their idealism in a just war, or following that, in movements
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in
the
h
eight of
his achi
evement and pride
.
T
his
tw o-leg
ged cr ea tu r
e
of
monumen
t l
mbition
avarice and
self-es
teem with
his grim
sense of humor
a
n
d
t ragic per
cep t
ion of him
self and
his chances
in the un
iverse tri
es yet to l
ive beyond
his
means.
He
seeks
sti l l t re
ach a level
of existen
ce which h
is frail ph
ysiology an
d
l im i
t
ed
experien
ce as a civ
ilized crea
ture will pr
obably pre
clude.
An
d
to
do
this
he
us s instrumen
ts w h ic
h
he
beg n
to fash ion
long ago
from
the m
a terials p
resen ted
by
hi
s own hum n
n ture
and
the stu ff around him. Very tentat ively and with the
grosses t i
mprecision do w
e nam
e one of th
ese instrum
ents Art.
We
ha
ve only be
gun t o rea
lize
the
ra
nge of pos
sibili t ies w
hich are co
ntained
in the
category A
rt
fo
r contin
uing t
o humanize
educate an
d finally
to vindica
te
man. Un
li
ke
science
a
rt does not
show
progress b
ecause it d
oes
n
ot cas
t aside its
past.
F
or ar
t the hum
n adven
ture is w
hole; its b
eg inning s
as
go
od and
as valu
able as its
end. When
a
rt
chang
es
it
consol
id tes. Its
tec
h
nical a
dapta t io ns
proceed
fr
om a c
ombinat ion
of
inne
r
necessity and
ex te rna
l circum sta
nce
b
ut i
t is
n
ot n
the ch r cter
of
art
to violate human
n tu
re
because
art
is
part
of
hum n n ture.
Th
a t is why
notw it
hs tandin g the
t rem en
dous claim
s
of
th e phys
ical sci
ences in
edu
cat ion art
is the gen tl
e
an
d effe
ctive teach
er.
We
can
onl
y
h
ope that
its ro l
e wi l l
be en
larged .