feldman, edmund b. man transcends himself through art

8/20/2019 FELDMAN, Edmund B. Man Transcends Himself Through Art

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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.


3/9

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 .

feldman, edmund b. man transcends himself through art

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