The Use and Abuse of Art by Jacques Barzun (review)

340 Books considerations are limited to shapes alone. as found in their own geometric pictures. The Use and Abuse of Art. The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts 1973. Jacques Barzun. Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, N. J., 1974. 150 pp. $6.95. Reviewed by Henry Abramovitch* This book consists of Barzun's six talks delivered at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. But as great teachers have said, there is a very important difference between the spoken word and its written counterpart. Though Barzun is very much concerned with 'art' as a religious experience (Ol" the co~temporary failure for spiritual revitalization through art), the wntten remains of these lectures, for my taste, fall far short of their noble purpose. Nor does this book measure up to earlier and personally inspirational efforts in the Mellon Series such as Kenneth Clark's The Nude, Gombrich's Art and Illusion, Bronowski's Art As A Mode of Knowledge and, more recently, Heydenreich's study of Leonardo Da Vinci. So much for my disappointment. Barzun's cultured elitism ('art is of all subjects the last on which one should defer tojudgements ofthe crowd, even a crowd waving paint brushes or T squares in their hand'), for example, leads him to wonder at the modem artists' hatred of the insti~utions of art, indeed of society as a whole, but never to consider the contemporary capitalization ofart as an investment, turning artists into laborers for the collector-bosses. Barzun, speaking as the advocate of the art-consuming public, is exas~erated by art's adversary position toward society, espeCially the bourgeoisie, a tenn he finds particularly offensive. Barzun is frustrated, for he feels that 'western civilization has not had a new idea in fifty years'. Indeed, he concludes his first lecture: 'How did we get from the art of Botticelli and Palestrina to lasers and mirrors of "Light-piece" and the wooden concussions of "Knocking-piece"? By what sequence of aims and purposes has sculpture transformed itself from Michelangelo's "David" to Oldenberg's "Ice Bag"?' These current examples of artistic endeavor, Barzun feels, clash with the original and authentic ennobling, uplifting power of great art. Though it is clear that Barzun does not like what he sees these days, he does make a few valuable observations. Lack of a common core ofbeliefs has led to a confusing profusion ofstyles. Without 'stylistic clustering', the art consumer does not understand what is 'coming off when he stands in front of a blank canvas. In this 'vacuum ofbelief', there are no public ceremonies, no common redemption. Contemporary art stands as an institution without a clear role, serving as a 'detergent' ('art for natural life') rather than, according to its classical roles, as 'sanctuary' ('art better than life') or 'enhancer' ('art for better life:). By embracing the techniques of 'systematic inversion', in which common sense is always wrong ('... tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'), artists spawn a selfrenewing 'avant-garde' in which the unconventional becomes a value in itself. In art criticism, it would be progress to be able to say: 'It is because I understand this work of art that I dislike it.' The new_ man and his art, Barzun prophesies, will not be individual, at least at first, but communal, because the West is at the end of a historical era beginning with the Renaissance. Perhaps, as a herald of a new 'communal art' founded on collective creativity in an effort to refashion communal values, these lectures will be of service to the artistic community. Causing, Perceiving and Believing. Peter H. Hare and Edward H. Madden. D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland, and Boston, Mass., 1975.211' pp. Dfl. 70.00; $26.00. Reviewed by P. T. Landsberg"" Hardly a philosopher known to the man in the street, C. J. Ducasse was .nonetheless a member of the philosophical establishment in the U.S.A. in the I950s and the 1960s. Born in "Dept. of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, U.S.A. "'Dept. of Mathematics, The University, Southampton S09 5NH, England. France in 1881, he experimented with various business jobs, including representing...