LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Prom: Ronald Duncan, Mrs. Marjorie Wallace, Alan Paton, John D. Brimacombe, J. N. Bunting, Dr. Peter H. Walker, Peter Knight, Maurice Bartlett, John Thirkell, L. J. C. Randle, Jeffrey Simmons, Mrs. Rachel Graham, Sir Knox Cunningham, MP, Alexander Walker, Roy elAcott, S. Percival, Michael Brazier.
The Conforming Eye
stiL—May I be among the many who will surely Write to congratulate you for publishing Sir John Itothenstein's article 'The Conforming Eye.' As he points out, taste is not the same thing as fashion. But for The individual to exercise the former, It is necessary for certain artistic standards to be re-established. At the moment, in the words of the late Cole Porter, 'anything goes,' and the con- sequence is chaos and confusion in the jungle of novelty. The problem is: can artistic standards be redefined without there being a whole hierarchy of moral values to support them? Personally, I think this is practically possible. Surely painters should have some aptitude as draughtsmen; playwrights, some ability in dramatic construction; and com- Posers, at least know the range of the instruments before they wander into rehearsals? It is my belief That most of the contemporary poets couldn't con- struct a canzone or a sonnet even if they wanted to do so. The whole of the artistic world has been de- bauched by the hogwash of the do-it-yourself vogue. The piffle of self-expression needs replacing by the discipline of self-suppression. It makes for more durable art.
RONALD DUNCAN
Hotel Blum, Wilhelmstrasse 44-46, Wiesbaden
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