New-York tribune., 1922-04-02

.'oi mace aruculate. There is nothinc
known TO or vaguely OWNED hv no,
MY" cannot be expressed in word.
'"' al 'hlhgs have not yet oeen e3-
pressed, | admit; but that they can,o.
be, ] doubt.
Is here that l tilt with MANY mod
ern @sthetlcians. Since the time or
later 1T has been the fashion IA ,o,.
mat music is the highest form OF art
lhis is to me like saying that the
amocbs is the highest form of an;ma !
l'e. IL there is "highosto form Of
art that form must be literature. be
cause literature is the most con,p,ov
OF ali arts 1t embraces the others
III is also the fashion among critic. 70
say Of niece of music or of PAINTING
that Ut says something" II YOU press
them for meaning, which is often
olhcuit to gct out, you discover that
TINS "something' is 4 very elemental
thIng, such ne Lite is happy" "Iife i,
sad, There is 3 God" "There is NO
God Like dcxterous deaf and
ou'ho person the piece OF music or
lhe painting conveys in pathetic and
, ingenious fashion its ideas and emo.
t'ons by signs and by inartculate muir
murt
Do not mistake my intention. am
not d'sparaging music or painting or
sculpture, which are, like drugs and
st'mulants among ljfc's beneflccncc..
am merely pointing out the limita-
Nons OF these arts. | mean merely to
Snow that all the other arts are less
artlcu'ste than literature.
century ago people did not doubt
1t, and even now when writers on es-
thetics are attempting to denv it thew
are only proving it in al ingenious man
ner They say that painting or music or
literature need not be, indeed must not
DC recommendation or representation.
leahsm or romanticsm: that Il must
not be this or that which art ha. in
the past been mistaken to be. They
nave told us very explicitly what art
must not be, but they have hardly
mnted at what 1t must be. Thus Mr.
Jay Hambidge say. it must have the
'oynamic symmetry of the Greek vase;
Mr.. Give Bell says it must have "sir
nficant form M. w. H. Wright saws
1t must have "form and org. 1ization," :"
and NJ Charles Henry says it must
conform to geometry and rules Of
physics asccrtaned from Chinese pu2-
2lc. and from the cards children plav
with which produce optical illusions.
do not affirm that any Of these cy-
ctllcnt men arc wrong | merely sus-
pect that they IRE not rosourceful with
words. regret their disparagemert Of
literature. for they might earn so
much from it. For, after all, they are
attempting TO explain art in the terms
@ literature, thereby showing an un-
w.tting Difference to literature as the
most precise and convenient mode of
cxrre.sicn
Did they know words, or, to be
truthful, if they bad their IDEAS clearly
formulated and properly ordered. they
would have no difficulty in telling us
just what they mean. That Mr. Bell
does not get out crayons and a black
hoard. that Mr. Wright does not whig-
lie composition, and that Mr. Henry
does not employ prisms and compasses
Ven they set out to tell US about art
but that they And words expcdicnt, is
q fact from which suspect a superi-
ority Of literature over the ether arts
they have in mind
Mr.. BELL. for instance and he is
now quite the cock Of the critical
walk in London-tells us that literature
IS not art q; all True enough, he trips
himself every few hundred words after
that astounding statement by pointing
out that Aristophsnes, Ibsen. Shake
spesre and a few others achieved great
art. but he has elaborated a thesis,
which is taken with great seriousness,
wherein he concludes that the only
genuine works of art the world has
yet seen are some canvases by Giotto
and CeZsnne, & wood carving or so By
PClynesian ssvages and g few pots and
pans designed by primitive peoples.
This comes from rationalizng too
much about art. 1t derives from a
mania for rules and standards. 1t
makes man cranky and opionionated,
Listen to Mr.. Bell, for instance page
245 Of his "Art'D: "Unless it be Thorn
as Hardy, there is no first rate novelist
in Europe there is no first rate poet.
;. Since Mozart music has just
| kept her nose above the slough Of real
| ism, romance and melodrama.'
! That is opinion and nothing more,
and very queer and dubious opinion,
I coming. as it does, after this confe ssion
| on rage 80 of the same volume: Il do
not understand music we'll. | find Inu-
seal form exceedingly difficult to ap-
| prchend, and | am sure that the sub
! tleties OF harmony and rhythm more
cftcn than not escape me. The form Of
4 musical composition must be simple
! indeed II ! am TO grasp 1t honestly.
! As will be seen aboy. this Goes cIt