CORRUPTION OF TASTE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 413, 23 May 1947, Page 5

CORRUPTION OF TASTE

Sir,-A,. R. D. Fairburn tells us of our lack of taste and that we have become corrupted in such matters. Most of use know these things well. We know from overseas illustrated papers that we

are being misled. But from Mr. Fairburn we rather get the idea that we hoi polloi are to blame and he goes on to show his bewilderment at such a state of affairs. One would rather have hoped for a diagnosis and a probable cure. We are always being clouted by someoneMorris, Fry, Read, Gloag and now Fairburn. As a very small boy I was told that all art is bought and sold merely for its value as an indication of social status. This in’ an England where the tatters of an aristocratic patronage remained and Leverhulme had cut the head out of his portrait by Orpen to prove that industrial patronage was on a different hasis. ,

In New Zealand there is no patronage or appreciation. I see no reason why there should be; we are middle class and lower. Those in a position to influence matters of design, industrial art, advertising, etc., are those who have got on-generally self-made and in most cases showing the thumb-marks. Such people live in a world of symbols and find in art their richest symbolic currency. In such a world the creative artist and man of science stand isolated; ‘these people above all are up against certain relations which do not stand for something else, but have ultimate value, to be real. The mention of the premechanic age should have made. this clear. Such a period was controlled by a landed aristocracy. The aristocrat by reason of his negative sense of taste was able to deal with the artist; he became a patron and as such a great influence, working in a fully-developed idiom. The artist worked freely, sometimes apt to pull the forelock but always distinguished. Your plutocrat, on the other hand, has no taste but a great desire for polish even if its only on the furniture. He has a great fear of the creative artist. He looks upon creative art as a wanton attack on his system of society; at such times he accuses artists of Bolshevism, socialism, moral depravity and worse. This then is where we stand. For further proof, look at the sign-writing on the walls of any New Zealand city. Note the goods they advertise. We have no say in such matters. As an instance of bad taste with no justification, I offer the cover of The Listener. Our architecture in most cases is a matter of throwing together fag buts of design: it is a desperate assembly to keep face and cover a failure to look deeper into our needs. Our standards are being rotted; such standards are decided by industrialists, or tradesmen from whom clearly we can expect no other behaviour. : The solution is clear, a new aristocracy must be created; the bones could be found and gathered together with an Industtial Society of Arts, similar to the Royal Soci of Arts. (Here note the absence of desmen). Our own local societies have proved quite unable to deal with the matter or perhaps they are not interested; confining their efforts to sales of members’ pictures, quite oblivious to the larger aspect of art; and turning themselves into glorified picture shops, the only difference being that societies do not sell wallpaper and paint, and for this omission they charge more for their work. Might one suggest an exhibition of industrial art. We are not shocked when we discover that society does not encourage art, any more than religion ensures saintliness. Given a chance we

hoi polloi could prove that all we need is an opportunity to buy good things. The lot of a man wishing to buy good simple furniture is desperate. Our exe perience in these matters is extensive, We know of a great demand for better furniture, better this, and better thats we know also that such things are gene erally cheaper than the present rube bish. But we look upon the present state of affairs as inevitable under entere

prise.

VERNON

BROWN

(Auckland).

Sir,-It is exciting to see in The Lise tener of May 2’such an article as A. R, D. Fairburn’s "The Corruption of Taste.’® It is more than exciting, it is highly

-T stimulating, and should raise a peean of thanks from many that someone has at last attacked this horror. j May it be the first of many blows struck at the pretentiousness and the re« sultant vulgarity of our New Zealand furniture . design. :

M. M.

HAYDN

(Auckland). *