The Republican., 1963-01-31
Art Discipiines Rejected


# 81
Art Discipiines Rejected
Having neglected disciplines in
education it was quite logical that
we should reject disciplines in art.
The great painters and sculptors
of the past studied anatomy so
diligently that they often indulged
in their own body snatching And
today, after many centuries, we
stare at the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel or at the walls of the Reich
muSee and marvel at their works.
But this self-discipline is of lit
tie concern to the modern non-ob-
jective painter. All he needs is
pigment and a press agent. He
can throw colorS at a canvas and
the art world will discover him.
He can drive car back and forth
in pools of paint and Life maga-
zine will write him up.
Talent is for squares. What YOU
need is vast effrontery. If you un-
dertake to paint a COW it must
look something like a COW. That
takes at least signpainter's abil-
ity. But you can claim to paint
picture of your psyche and. no
matter what the result, who is to
say what your psyche looks like?
So our museums are filled with
daubs being stared at by confused
citizens who haven't the CUTS to
admit they are confused.
Moral Standards Collapsing
But the Age-of-Fakery in art is
mild cross that American civil
lization bears. Much more serious
is our collapse of moral standards
and the bunting of our capacity for
righteous Indignation
Our Puritan ancestors were pre-
occupied with sin. They we're too
preOccupied with it They were
hag-ridden and guilt-ridden and
theirs was a repressed and neu-
rotic society. But they had horse
power. They Wrested livings from
rocky land, built our earliest col
leges, started our literature, caused
our industrial revolution, and
found time in between to fight the
ish. to bawl for abolition, women
suffrage and prison reform, and
to experiment with graham crack
ers and boomers. They were a
tremendous people.
And for all their exaggerated at
tention to sin. their philosophy
rested on great granite rock. Man
was the master of his soul You
didn't have to be bad. You could
and should be better And if you
wanted to escape the eternal fires
you'd damned we'll better be.
In recent years all this has
changed in America We have de-
cided that sin is largely magma
ry We have become enamoured
with "behaViOriStic psychology"
This holds that a man is a product
of his heredity and his environ
ment, and his behavior to large
degree is foreordained by both.
He is either a product of happy
combination of genes and chromo-
somes or an unhappy combination.
He moves in an environment that
will tend to make him good or that
will tend to make him evil. He is
just a chip tossed helplessly by
forces beyond his control and,
therefore, not responsible.
Well, the theory that misbehavior
can be cured by pulling down tene-
ments and erecting in their places
elaborate public housing is not
holding water. The crime rates
continue to rise along with our out
lays for social services. We speak
of underprivilege. Yet the young
men who sWagger up and down
the streets, boldly Haunting their
gang symbols on their black jack
cts, are far more blessed in crea-
ture comforts, opportunities for
advancement, and freedom from
drudgery than 80 percent of the
children of the world We have
sown the dragons teeth of pseudo
scientific sentimentality, and out
of the ground has sprung the legion
bearing switch-blade knives and
bicycle chains.
Clearly something is missing.
Could it be what the rest of the
worlds children have been given
the doctrine of individual response
bility?
Relief is gradually becoming an
honorable career in America. 1t is