The Social Context of Art ed. by Jean Creedy (review)

292 Books ‘intelligentsia’, from which one might expect most support, is often most implacable in its opposition to the avant-garde. Paradoxically,the most significant and practical supportforthe avant-gardecomes from the capitalist bourgeoisie. The typology of avant-gardism is succinctly catalogued by Poggioli-its nihilism, its destructive force, especially of self-destruction,its puerility, its infantilism. The first spasmof the revolt born in the cataclysm of the first world war, ‘Dada’, displayed allthese featuresto the full. Turning its iconoclastic fury equally upon society, morality and art, it generated the spiritual and social ambiance conducive to fresh manifestationsof I’espritnouveau. Alienation and rejection are the lot of the human condition, part of our zeitgeist. In a section of his book, entitled ‘Agonism’, Poggioli reminds us that writers, musiciansand artists of the avant-gardecannot avoid their tragic destiny predicted by the ‘philosophersof tragedy’from Pascalto Dostoevsky and must tread the ‘path to perdition’ offered by Rimbaud. ‘God is dead’, so all that remains is to celebrate ‘death,flesh and the devil’. Hopeless, too, isthe fate of the avant-gardeat the hands of political leaders. It is easy to comprehend the enmity of Hitler for what he called ‘degenerate, Jewish art’ but more difficult to understand is the blind hostility of the left-for all avant-gardism tends towards leftish ideologies in politics. Lenin above all expressed an implacable hatred for all forms of artistic extremism. Poggioli (in 1962)saw some evidenceof a compromisebetween artists and politiciansin Poland. Societyhas as little sympathyfor the avant-garde as the politician, for it clings to the false myth of a state of idealconditionsfor both artists and patrons, which reputedly flourished during the Renaissance, and it will admit no change. The alternativesforthe artist areequallyhopeless, he is doomed like Van Gogh to social suiside or, in an attempt to live with his alienation, is driven to assumethe mask of caricature, to become a figure of mockery, a scapegoat for all of society’s aesthetic sins of omission. Falsely expected to be a producer and professional, he is denied the regular clientele of the doctor and lawyer. Societytolerates him and isindifferent,and forthe artist indifferenceisthe kiss of death. Socialalienationdemandsalsostylisticalienation, hencethe feveredexperimentationof avant-gardism, the unceasing attempts to extend the borders of artistic experiencethat have characterized the idea sincethe beginning. Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstractionism and Surrealismare but a few of the better-known movements to take fire successively and burn furiously during the half century between 1870 and 1920. Poggioli is concerned only with the theory that animates them all. Readers interested in their individual methods and products must seek this information elsewhere. The effect of most of the movementsof the avantgarde has been to dehumanise artistic expression andtheworshipof scienceduringthepresent century has servedonlyto increasethis tendency. Under the heading of ‘scientificatism’the professor quotes the recurring taste for ambiguous and equivocal scientificmetaphors,the bizarrenumerologyandthe esotericcults of the machine, so characteristicof the movement. He concludes his monumental survey with a few maxims for criticstoday, which everyoneconcerned with avant-gardismcould take to heart. First, they must be aware of the zeitgeist in which the artist functions. They must be capable of reconstructing his ambiance and offer an intelligent interpretation of his environment before they turn their attention to his works of art. Then they must speak out fearlessly ,regardlessof the riskthat theymay themselves be equated with the bourgeoisie shouldthey dare to be truly critical. Above all, they must be on their guard lestthey provethemselvesmore reconditeand occult than the creations they criticize. Yet Poggioliisconsciousof the layman’sdilemma in all this and, good critic that he is, he offers reassurancethat there is an aestheticuniversalto be elucidated and that tradition need not be defended as a fortress of aesthetic values, for tradition itself is always in a continuous process of change and reformation. A poet of the left himself, a dedicatedadmirer of Rimbaud, Poggioli does not share that poet’s negation, I’art est une sottise-for all our sakes, I hope he is right. The Social Context of Art. Edited by Jean Creedy. Tavistock Publications, London, 1970. 217 pp., €2.25. Reviewed by: Peter Lengyel* Here are eleven papers mostly relating rather narrowly to the specificsituation of the arts and art education...