Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-03-28
PhiIoteIic News

sion are carried through to
their logical conclusion, the
traditional qualities of United
States postage stamps will be
faced with a new threat. The
danger, now developing, is
that of theoretically new and
novel conceptions of design.
Actually these ideas are as
old as savagery and barbarism.
Their proponents affirm that
they are in revolt against the
past. but the fact is that they
are in rebellion against prog
ress-the increasing capacity
of men to express themselves
constructively in painting,
sculpture and architecture.
The trouble began with the
invention of the camera
roughly $50 years ago. Certain
French artists took fright at
what they considered a me-
chanical interference with
their bread and butter. They
fled in panic from a device
which they mistakenly sup
posed would destroy their pro-
fession as portraitists. In their
distress they invented the
"impressionistic" notion of
representation. Everything
they painted was hazy and
indistinct-a mere impression
of reality. Corot. Monet. Manet
and Whistler we're involved in
the movement; so was Ro-
din. These innovators, accord
ing to the Encyclopaedia Bril-
tannica, introduced a funda-
mental change in color per-
ception. in the treatment of
light and atmosphere. and
changed the point of view Of
painters in regard to art and
nature" They won the sup
port Of Napoleon III and, with
his help. opened the doors of
opportunity to the "neo-im-
pressioniSts" and. still more
radical. Cezanne, Gauguin and
Van Gogh-three eccentrics
who gloried in defying all
social and cultural conven-
tons. Paris dealers in pictures,
however. recognized the spec
ulative possibilities of the in
creasing trend toward anarchy
in art. They bought hundreds
of experimental canVases pro-
duced by the big three of
modernism" and by their
imitators, and they organ
lied campaign to pro-
mote the sale of their &C
cumulated examples of artistic
license to collectors. museums
and galleries as necessary"
specimens of "the art of the
new age" This propaganda
was-and still is-aggressive.
1t aims at the destruction of
"traditionalism" and repre-
sentationalism" as fruits of
conservative and orderly So
ciety; it hotly attacks "aca-
demic standards and criteria":
it is allied with political rad
lcalism.
Inevitably. the "modernists"
quarreled among themselves.
The result was that dozens of
different fads grew out of the
original folly. Whether these
were called Fauvism, Cubism,,
FuturiSm. Symbolism, Dada
ism, Surrealism or Orphism,
the sum total of the confusion
was more confusion. The
latest phase of the revolt
against classic art is what is
known as Abstractionism-a
theory of painting, modelling
and architecture in which the
artist claims for himself COM
plete freedom from the OPP
preston of the subject" Allen
Leepa, in his Challenge of
Modern Art" quotes Pet
Mondrian as saying: After
the impressionists all art
shows a relative negation of
natures aspect; the cubists
delivered a further blow; the
surrealists transformed it: the
abstract artists excluded it,"
In other. simpler words: The
modernists successfully fed
from nature. beat up nature,
destroyed nature and denied
the existence of nature.
For a century the revolt got
nowhere so far as the world
public was concerned. Even
now. modernist artists are a
minority and their admirers a
small fraction of the global
populace. But the power of
these cooperating revolution
airy groups to insinuate their
notions into the normally con-
sentative - and progressive -
fabric of human society is a
force which is out of all pro-
portion to their numbers. To
illustrate the point: A mod
ernistic design for the new