The Art Crisis by Bonnie Burnham (review)

258 Books reminisent of a Gothic rose window. But does one need to identify these images with those experienced with the unaided eye? Or are they of interest in themselves as visual art, as the title suggests’?There is no doubt that many artists will find delight in many of the structures shown. Indeed, the first magnification of ‘Moonrock’(400X) looks almost like a palette knife painting. To a geologist or minerologist a messagemay beconveyed regarding the material’s properties, but to artists the appeal is distinctly pictorial It is an interesting collection of photomicrographs. but it could be improved by the omission of those few that have little artistic merit and the inclusion of others. For example in the case of crystals of Vitamin C. a more striking image may be seen under illumination in polarized light. All in all, the book is a useful reference for artists and designers. Meeting of Experts on the Place and Function of Esthetic Education in General Education, 2-7 Dec. lw4. Final Report, No. ED74/CONF. 644/COL8.(Also in French.) Unesco, Paris. 1975. I 1pp. Paper. Reviewed by Peter Lloyd Jones* This is a piece of considered advice by a specialist panel of educational administrators from many countries, addressed, largely. to national governments. Ranging over such difficult matters as the relation of art to national identity and cultural diversity in developing countries as well as the difficulties of alienation and anomie, which are the now familiar blight of ‘advanced’ technological societies’. it is lucidly written and free from the jargon of committee compromise. If one grants the major premise that esthetic education can conceivably carry the load of counteracting the negative effects of rapid social change in all parts of the world. then one must concede that its pronouncements are sage. pertinent and civilizing. But can one grant this premise’?I wonder. In advanced technological societies there have been large investments in esthetic education at all levels from primary schools to universities. There is precious little visible return in terms of improved physical and cultural environment. Raising the level of ‘taste’ has not done much for cultural heritage that is daily destroyed by public indifference and private greed. Nor, in authoritarian regimes of today does one find career-bureaucrats with the desire and ability to patronize the arts on the scale practised by their predecessors as kings. princes and clerics. Ideology overwhelms ‘taste’ as easily as money. But this is no reason for giving up. Perhaps enough people will he aw;ikcned t o their vocial responsibility toward art in time. not only to wve the surviving vestiges of past cultures but to save themselvc\ from shrinking down to residual ‘economic’ or ’patriotic’ or ‘fraternal’ humans. It is in the Third World where rapid technological innovation so easily disrupts social patterns that have hitherto stabilized ‘esthetic’ traditions. Once this change has destroyed time-honoured methods of production at their economic and social base, it seems that the only alternative to natural and unconscious artistry is conscious art. And this is bound to he elitist because it is so very difficult. Just imagine, in 100 year’s time, trying to recover say, the lost arts (crafts, music, dance) of India. by setting up a nationwide system of subsidized adult evening classes, staffed by university graduates of the cultured elite. Ridiculous? Yet, industrial societies once had their own vigorous indigenous cultures too. Central to the thoughts ofthe UNESCO group are the notions of universality and democracy inherent in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community and to p;irticip;itc in the arts. . . .’. The obvious sort of impediment to implementing this aim is. 1suppose, the suppression of art forms in some societiesthat do not conform with the esthetic prejudices of the ruling elite. No doubt, continuing esthetic education for all (where this is encouraged or permitted) will do something to reinforce the individuality of everyman and, perhaps, make it easier to resist such impositions. More difficult by far, is the construction of those new forms of social life that could produce *School of Three-Dimensional Design, Kingston Polytechnic. Kingston upon...