Art
Responses to Painting
Is it true to say that beauty is the only communicable quality in art ; that this, in fact, is what makes it art, and not litera- ture, philosophy, science, or religion ? Do two people ever give quite the same reason for admiring a picture ? Or if they do, do they mean the same thing by the words they use ? A very slight knowledge of the history of art-criticism makes it quite clear that the reasons given in different ages for admiring an admitted masterpiece are quite different ; but are we to conclude that the masterpiece had really failed in its effect because it was discussed, at the time of its creation, in language which now seems to us stilted, in words which seem almost to prove that what we now think is the whole point of the work had been missed ? Surely not ; and when the wise man, at Zwemmer's Gallery in Litchfield Street, Charing Cross Road, at the Leicester, at Tooth's or Lefevre's, hears old and young, painter and layman, talking of the same pictures in the tongues of Babel, he turns to the pictures them- selves and realizes how far from the world of language they stand. Pictures are just as impossible to analyse in words as Nature herself.
The Zwemmer Gallery provides a catalogue in which each painter answers five questions-a questionnaire, in fact, arranged by the organizers of the exhibition, the title of which, Objective Abstractions," was rightly thought to make explanation desirable.
Fortunately the answers in the questions are not worded in such abstruse terms. In fact, to anyone who has thought at all about the workings of the artist's mind, these answers seem to give the most honest possible explanation in words, not only of what these particular artists do, but of what every genuine artist really does when he produces a picture. " You learn nothing at an art-school," one is often told, but these men, under whatever stimulus, have learned to think ; and their manifesto is not that of one of those minorities of protesting theorists of which Mr. Clark, since appointed Director of the National Gallery, wrote so wittily in an article in The New Orford Outlook last year. The pictures, too, are pictures, and not propaganda.
It must not be supposed that these artists claim even to have learned to think ; they do no such thing. They do not even claim to have learned to paint. Did Cezanne ? Is art on the same footing as a game or a craft which can be learned once for all and then put into practice ? Is there a formula for beauty ? Unfortunately not. That is why the inspired amateur like Cezanne is liable to arrive in the National Gallery in his home-made car, while the Rolls-Royces are left behind. From Aix-en-Provence to Trafalgar Square !- in this race, as in the Monte Carlo Rally, the competitors can start from anywhere. The only rule is to arrive, and even arrival is not victory : that is a question of what has happened between the goal and the starting-point. But what, then, if anything, can be taught ? Children under thirteen at the L.C.C. schools are being encouraged to make explorations among shapes and colours which might give them a chance of developing the artistic powers which every- one really has. But the grown-ups who leave art-schools generally know that much of what they have been doing has not been much fun to, do, apd would, if they went on doing it, certainly not be much fun for others to look at.
Still less is it likely to have any emotional appeal or spiritual value, since professional art-teachers wisely refrain from including such dangerous ingredients in their curriculum ; indeed, it is only rarely that those who teach art wish to pass on any spiritual cloaks they may have to their " disciples," who, after all, are not of their choosing, and apart from being unsympathetic, may be unworthy recipients.
The exhibition at Zwemmer's Gallery, unlike many that I have enjoyed in the past ten weeks, such as Mr. Trevelyan's, Vanessa Bell's, and the "Seven and Five" at the Leicester, will last until April the 14th. Tooth's choice little collection of French masters will be open till the 7th. But they can look after themselves, and for horses to back at long odds, I recommend Zwemmer's.
W. W. WINKWORTII.
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