DÆDALUS

Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

EDITORIAL OFFICE

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Jefferson Laboratory, Harvard University
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

PUBLICATION OFFICE

Wesleyan University Press
356 Washington Street
Middletown, Connecticut

Please address your reply to:
Editorial Office.

17 December 1958.

Mr. Boris Kaufman
32 West 9th Street
New York, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Kaufman,

Since 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has been a forum for the foremost contributors in science, social studies, the arts and public affairs. Its 1,400 elected Fellows here and abroad constitute a primary nucleus of the opinion and policy-making process.

Through its quarterly journal, DAEDALUS, which reaches all its Fellows as well as subscribers, libraries, and other academies throughout the world, the Academy aims at giving the thinking community a strong voice of its own. The enclosed cover of a recent number indicates the Board of Editors and the level of contributors to the journal of the Academy who have addressed themselves to the important issues around which each number of DAEDALUS is built.

With this letter I am honored to extend to you the invitation of the journal of the Academy to contribute to a special issue devoted entirely to the topic, *The Visual Arts Today*. It is hoped that this number will be produced in the summer of 1959. The issue as a whole may be expected to be an authoritative source for all those whose work lies in this area. As in previous cases, it is also intended that this issue be published through a commercial house.

The authors and suggested topics are listed in the outline which accompanies this letter. It is our particular hope that your contribution will address itself to the general topic, New Principles of Visual Organization. However, the topic and context proposed here should be regarded merely as suggestions; please feel free to make an alternative proposal within the setting outlined.

The preferred length of each contribution is between 3,000 and 6,000 words. Funds have been made available which enable DAEDALUS to offer a token honorarium of one hundred dollars in addition to six free

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copies and seventy-five cut sheets. Manuscripts are due April 1, 1959; line drawings and halftone (black and white) reproductions may be included in the article.

I hope very much that on reading the enclosed prospectus and suggested table of contents you will be able to send me your acceptance to this invitation. Please address it to me, c/o DAEDALUS, Jefferson Laboratory, Harvard University, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts. The whole undertaking will be greatly enhanced by the competence you can lend it.

Enclosures: Summer cover,
Prospectus of issue, The Visual Arts Today.

GK/KY.

DAEDALUS

Tentative Table of Contents

of issue on

THE VISUAL ARTS TODAY

A. *Introduction*. Gyorgy Kepes.

B. *Background*.

1. Art, freedom, and tyranny. Albert Camus.

2. New technical forms and artistic imagery. Revaluation of the impact of technology, mechanization, urbanization. Lewis Mumford.

3. Leisure, work, and creative expression. The function of art in the twentieth-century community. Margaret Mead.

4. Inner conflict and self realization. The role of creative experience in psychological health. Abraham H. Maslow.

5. Urbanization as it relates to the creative experience. David Riesman.

6. New creative tools and techniques. Max Bill. Eduardo F. Catalano.

7. Technical frontiers of visual observation and communication. Edwin H. Land.

C. *Statements and documents*.

1. Short personal statements regarding motivations, goals, and creative methods by: Naum Gabo, Willem de Kooning, Mark Tobey, Mark Rothko, Saul Steinberg, Jean Arp, Charles Sheeler, Alberto Giacometti.

2. Visual documents: illustrations of paintings, sculptures, by the above artists.

3. Portfolio of the New Landscape. Technical and scientific photographs.

D. *Meanings: the new vision in the arts*.

1. The changing concept of visual space. Rudolf Wittkower
   W. M. Ivins.

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2. The changing concept of proportion. O. V. Simpson
Eduard Franz Sekler.

3. Perceptual problems in pictorial communication.
James Gibson. Rudolf Arnheim.

4. Persistent symbols. Sigfried Giedion.

5. The changing iconology. Erwin Panofsky.

6. New principles of visual organization. The creative idioms of motion pictures. Boris Kaufman. Arnold Hauser
Robert G. Gardner.

7. The new reality and the new art. Etienne Gilson.

8. Group concept, symmetry in science and art. Andreas Speiser.

9. Similarities and differences in scientific and artistic vision. Paul Weiss. John Zachary Young.

E. Meanings: conveying of artistic values.

1. The education of the sensibilities. Josef Albers.

2. The new role of art criticism. Herbert Read.

3. The role of the museum. W. J. H. B. Sandberg.

4. The migration of artistic idioms. J. J. Sweeney.

5. The confluence of the artistic ideals of East and West.
Shinichi Hitsomatsu. Daisetz T. Suzuki. Chiang Lee.

6. The artist in the university. Ben Shahn.

7. Art in the street, the role of advertising as a popular art.
Paul Rand.

8. Environmental and fine arts: the interplay of architecture and the fine arts. Condensed informal discussion.
Pietro Belluschi, John E. Burchard, Walter Gropius, Jose Luis Sert, etc.

F. Discussion.

1. Form and content. Gyorgy Lukacs. Meyer Schapiro.

2. The symbolic function in art. Suzanne K. Langer. Charles Morris.

DAEDALUS

Prospectus of issue on

*The Visual Arts Today*

by Gyorgy Kepes (Guest Editor)

Even the most superficial observer can scarcely escape the
conclusion that a fundamental transformation of our outlook, on every
level, is going on. The bold generalization which has brought
formerly unconnected phenomena into a scheme of impressive cohesion
through scientific understanding has, of course, parallels in other
human endeavors as well. The work being done by twentieth-century
artists suggests a new emotional understanding of the expanding world.
We all, but primarily those of us who are artists, being cast out of
a smaller, friendlier world in which we once moved with a confidence
born of familiarity, have been compelled to cope emotionally, through
our sensibilities, with the expanding scale of events. In order to
live freely and fully in a redefined world, we have to learn to map
its new vistas with our senses, and so to dispose our activities as
to conform with its new perspectives and to discern in them harmonic
structures appreciable by our sensibilities. The significant
artists of our time are the pioneers in perceiving this new world
and in discovering within it values and qualities which can help
shape our man-created environment and form our inner world of
sensibilities. In this sense, the central theme of the prospective
issue of DAEDALUS is the complementary relation between science and
technology, on the one hand, and the visual arts today, on the other
hand.

The visual arts of the twentieth century are complex,
sometimes contradictory, and their interpretation requires a greater
tolerance in precision than is demanded by the more disciplined
sciences. To treat generally of this particular subject requires,
it seems to me, a technique of idea-montage as an editorial device.
Such a montage would be constructed according to three basic aspects.
The first is the sociological interpretation of that matrix within
which the creative mind in the visual arts operates today. Important
aspects of this first analysis will be: the impact of mechanization,
of urbanization, of new forms of transportation, and of our increased
sense of mobility, the new techniques and potentials in visual
communication, emotional crises sprung from new types of social
conflicts, "the wasteland," the displaced person (in the broader
sense), "the angry young man" in the arts.

The second aspect of the material is to be the presentation
of important documents, both visual and verbal, by significant artists
today. The emphasis would be on personal statements, disregarding

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any pretense to objective validity. Such rich raw material,
selectively presented, will convey the true sense and scale of the previous
more objective, interpretation of background factors.

The third aspect of the material is to be again a relatively
objective interpretation of the qualities, values and ideas suggested
by the new artistic idioms. Instances are the new space concept
expressed by painters and sculptors, and the search for new symbols,
the struggle to break through the isolation of personal symbols,
to find a common symbolic world, new modes of visual ordering, and the
emphasis of the dynamic sequence order versus the architectonic static
order. The confluence of the artistic ideals of East and West would
constitute another possible aspect. Still another is the examination
of common ground between aspects of twentieth-century scientific
method, and some of the recent idioms in artistic forms.

Despite these guide posts, I feel strongly that the actual
content of the issue must grow out of the ideas of the contributors
to that issue, the issue cannot be cast in a preconceived editorial mold.
Still, the tentative outline of topics and contributors will give
the necessary stimulation for deviations from the preconceived pattern.

DÆDALUS

EDITORIAL OFFICE

Editorial Office

2 February 1960

MEMORANDUM

To Authors of Special (Winter) Issue

"The Visual Arts Today"

Our Winter issue, containing your article, was scheduled for release at about this time. The printer has informed us that despite his best efforts he has not been able to keep to schedule owing to the exceptional problems of handling this number -- twice as large as usual and with many illustrations. He informs us that the issue will be mailed about a month late. We can only express our regrets and our hope that this will not inconvenience you.

On the other hand, arrangements are being completed to release the material in this issue as a hard-cover book as well. Present plans call for publication by the Wesleyan University Press later this year. You will of course receive copies when the book appears.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

77 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

May 25, 1966

Dear Boris:

Finally we made it. Last night we saw *The Pawnbroker*.
I am quite sure you know what you did, but maybe it is
good to learn that your friends know it, too. It is
one of the most magnificent achievements in image-making,
and we have you to thank for it.

When we dropped in a few months ago you spoke about some
new film possibilities. Please let us know what you
are working on so we can wait for it.

With love to both of you and hoping to see you during
the summer.

Mr. Boris Kaufman
32 West 9th Street
New York, New York

GK/so

TELEPHONE UNIVERSITY 4-6900