JOHANNES MOLZAHN

Professor, Art Department, University of Washington

THE REASONS and THE AIMS OF MY CLASS WORK:

because I love Art - and I love Art - because I love man whom Art has to serve.

I do not need to speak about the ways and the reasons of the gradual decline Art has undergone during the course of the past centuries as a consequence of the developing civilization, a decline at least as far as Art in its purest and original sense was at stake.

However, I do need to speak about, and to state the decline of man's sound senses that had to perceive Art and still more, I do need to state the decline of these very senses with which Art has to be done - with which Art has to be produced. With this there will be at the same time designed even that fact of Art's decline itself.

However, since without the sound and living sense of man's vision there will and can be no possibility to produce, and consequently - none to perceive Art, nor will nor can there without that - be produced anything in spheres which are attached to Art, even the most modest function in one of the fields of the applied Arts must be based on that sense. Therefore, there cannot be distinguished, as to Art Education, between exercises referring to "definite practical problems" and such which do not. There as well will be NO "standard of artistic excellence" - there will be no possibility of "meeting practical needs of today" - there will and cannot be a genuine "individuality" of students without regeneration, without the rebirth of these most precious senses that have to have the supremacy in everything that concerns Art - and in everything that concerns any method - if there can be any generally - in Art Education.

Therefore, to regenerate, to revive the senses - to let ascend these senses it will and must be the predominant - the supreme task of Art Education to provide the only sane basis upon which can be built an essential Art again - an Art which may be capable to fulfill again its proper and adequate function within the history of man. Such a regeneration, such an ascension does moreover represent

THAT FIRST CAUSE of an actual Art-Education.

There is no reason to do Art otherwise than it has been done up until now - merely in order TO DO IT OTHERWISE, there is no reason for this - unless there exists an actual and deeper cause that stands for it. And indeed, here there is one - one indeed worthy to be put in the very heart center of the educational task, one whose first PIONEER has already been CEZANNE, one who was living with all these MODERN MASTERS WHO FOLLOWED HIM until our very days.

Indeed, an actual and proper Art Education has to start with the rediscovery of the sublime WONDER - with the ALIVE PHENOMENA that the HUMAN EYE really represents, provided of course, that we succeed in releasing it from the deadening civilized restrictions and limitations - from the tightening and overwhelming domination of the civilized intellect - WHICH SELECTS BUT THE FACTS, (leaving the "music" untouched). But facts do not concern Art, nor is Art concerned with mere descriptions - nor with pictorial contents. Art STARTS exactly there, where SCIENCE HAS ITS LIMITS. Art aims at man's soul - it aims at its mental inward BEING while science at least generally aims at men's mind - at his physical existence, this indeed makes some difference as to the eye that is engaged in both spheres. As a matter of fact - caused by the over-strain of this civilized world of hard facts - even the eye of man has become lowered to a TOOL for civilization's ends; facts indeed are dominant over the whole civilized front. Man's living senses have become blunt, they have become absorbed with the

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civilized processes. To be sure this does not mean anything against these processes. They are indeed alright. Moreover, it will be the duty for Art and Art Education - and even civilization itself to fight for an adequate and proper "living space" - to fight for its proper mission on the whole for the benefit of civilization itself. And in such a regard it might be permissible to say: as far as man's innermost and actual being is concerned - the true and proper being of man - mere facts are of none or of secondary weight - they may be a motive - nothing else. There is no significance whatsoever within facts themselves but therein EXCLUSIVELY AND ALONE WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE TO CAUSE FOR THE INTRINSIC BEING OF MAN.

In having just stated the decline of Art, during the historical developments of the past centuries, there might be a necessity to add as well: that the decline of man's senses and consequently of Art is indeed a fact - however, it is as well a fact that no acts of man's will and desires will be capable to enforce Art's immediate new rise - as indeed such cannot be more accelerated as it is due to laws of its growth. Art cannot live ahead of the actual historical facts - it has to be adapted to these facts and thus it will be insured; since for instance - an actual Art Education will start out from the very roots - will begin at the very bottom - at the very basis of the phenomena. It has to comprehend the proper significance of the lesson which Cezanne and any of the modern masters who followed him have taught; to wit, their demonstration of PURIFICATION OF ART - from any of the ART STRANGE ELEMENTS - from any of these odd elements that have actually caused the gradual distortion of the proper meaning of Art, of its original inborn contents, namely, by leading Art more and ever more toward mere factual description, toward mere "pictures" toward mere anecdotal contents. It has been Cezanne who has been demonstrating a TURNING POINT in Art - he has performed THE PURIFICATION - THE ACCOMMODATION OF ART and of ITS MEANS at the MODERN EPOCH, designed THROUGH CIVILIZATION. He has been recreating for Art SOUND HANDIWORK MEANS. HE HAS PRESENTED TO ART A NEW AND MODERN TRADITION, one that did not any longer SELF-WILLED explode Art - one that did not any longer SACRIFICE THE INTRINSIC BEING OF ART for THE SAKE OF AN INDIVIDUAL ARTIST - and not for the SAKE OF THE PERFORMANCE OF ACROBATIC SKILL - but a tradition which has been derived - one which has been put in order again for the SAKE AND THE BENEFIT OF ART. CEZANNE, indeed means for our modern epoch, in a qualitative sense, exactly the same as, for instance, GIOTTO HAS MEANT FOR HIS, the difference does concern but indeed - different historical predispositions. Thus Cezanne and the modern masters who followed him and continued his mission in our present time, they, indeed, designed through their works and their example, THE ACTUAL ART EDUCATIONAL MISSION DUE TO OUR MODERN TIME. It is up to us and our educational work to comprehend the significance of that mission.

FORM OCCURS AS THE FINAL RESULT OF THE INVOLVED EFFECTIVE FORCES; IT REPRESENTS THE STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM OF ANY OF THESE FORCES BEING INVOLVED; IT REPRESENTS THE DETERMINATION OF THE LIMITS OF THEIR EFFECTIVENESS.

These sentences perhaps might be able to encircle a sort of an APOTHEGM - of a MAXIM that ought to govern the Art educational task as a whole, FOR pursuing the very meaning of them might actually lead at the very roots of Art - at THESE ROOTS at least WHICH ARE ACCESSIBLE TO BE ATTACKED THROUGH ART EDUCATION; these roots from whence may run the adequate substantial strength for the educational possibilities in Art, and in those practical spheres which are attached to Art - to wit, including even the so-called applied Arts. An actual and proper Art Education has, indeed, first of all, to trace - it has to consider those FORCES WHICH HAVE THEIR PART IN CAUSING A FORM. Those are the basic elements WITH WHICH has to be built - and NOT as it occurs sometimes still today - AGAINST WHICH the building is carried on. And indeed, at THAT VERY POINT occurs THE VERY FIRST "JOB" of an actual Art Education - and of any Education concerning FORM - the more since there is really to be found the most far-spread negligence in our very days - not only as to Art itself - but even as to

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so many periphery spheres of Art. By the way, it is this very same point from where the BAUHAUS has derived its mission, and from whence it has earned its international credit in carrying on so successfully that mission: namely, departing from the inherent possibilities of the production machinery on the one hand and on the other from these inborn but still dormant qualities of the raw materials - raising those toward their optimate - since inborn form; - of course this is a very simplified explanation. But anyway, thus the Bauhaus has been unlocking so many, many new qualities of new materials providing new possibilities for their application - but it has as well re-discovered qualities in the old ones - and it has with this created a new and truly objective standard of industrial forms.

As to my own educational work, I might say there does exist a certain analogy. There, of course, are no new materials and no new implements either - to be discovered. However, there are indeed, TO BE REDISCOVERED THE OLD ONES, which altogether have been drawn into that decline of Art - which altogether did succumb the fate of our vision. And, of course, NO TOOLS, NO PLANE, NO PAINT, NO SUBJECT will and can be of any significance - they will mean nothing, without having regained that EXTREME SENSITIVE VIVID EYE that WATCHES - that LEADS ON the performances of those tools, those matters - in the plane in which they occur - lead on there to their maxim of effectiveness in order to affect to attack the eyes of those - who are living at the other side of the "shore," to wit, the eyes of the people.

Indeed, the very heart point - the center of my educational attack, to wit, THE FIRST CAUSE OF THAT ATTACK - the truly SUPREME AGENT OF THIS ATTACK, it is represented through the redevelopment of that certain LATENT STRENGTH of the vision of the students - through the rediscovery of the sublime wonder - of the alive phenomena of the eyes. Under supreme leadership of that powerful agent, the entire class-work is carried ahead. The materiality of the subject lives its resurrection, lives its conversion into the LIVING SENSUAL SIGN which has to stand FOR the subject - as the SENSUAL CONDENSATION of its inward qualities - thus attacking - challenging the human eye...in turn again. However, there will be none - and even not the simplest form will occur without starting - without arising simultaneously plenty of new problems: that of the plane - that of the tools - that of the material to be employed - each one endowed with a life of its own - each one with its INNERLAW - which has to be considered - to be analyzed - which has to be released being converted, conform to its inborn qualities. In short, since it is impossible to exhaust the endless problems, such as:

THE HUMAN VISION as THE FIRST CAUSE of anything that concerns form and Art -

THE SUBJECT, as the point of departure -
THE TOOLS, brushes, pencils, and so on -
THE MATTER to be employed, as paints, charcoal, and
THE PLANE and the forces occurring there,
they all and each of them are endowed with potential life - each of
those having its dormant - its inherent possibilities tending to its optimate form;
to study - to set free these - to raise these as to their endless qualitative varieties - to elicit from them their natural possibility to live - THIS IS WHAT I MYSELF CONSIDER AS MY PRINCIPAL EDUCATIONAL TASK, excluding everything which does not represent real solid, pure, proper, and objective quality - and excluding everything which originates merely in my individual belief -

since I am convinced when this will be attained - when this will be ensured - everything else will occur almost by itself. A student who has been led in such a way, for a sufficient long time of course, he will know whatever a task he may be faced with, that he will have to attack it at the very roots of it - he will know that - the more - the more mature he is - and the older he grows - the more he will conceive the intrinsic truth and the significance of this lesson - I do not doubt.