Plain and Fancy

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 539, 21 October 1949, Page 11

Plain and Fancy

"HE 1ZB discussion "Can ordinary people appreciate modern art?" demonstrated that people used to looking at contemporary paintings come to accept as axioms what many others regard as extraordinary concepts. There were so many definitions to be made and so much background to be filled in that, despite capable chairmanship, thesession ended with the parties still shouting at each other in different languages over‘a desert of misunderstanding. The best points for the "plain man" were made, I thought, by R. Isbey who lucidly explained the grounds of his bewilderment, and those for the amateur by J. McDougall who argued ably for values neglected in most , representational art. Pascoe Redwood, however, sold the pass! by stating that, where he could not understand, he trusted the art-\ ists completely, as the ordinary man. should (thus proclaiming a field day for poseurs, imitators and frauds), while F. Pinker, a strange "ordinary man" who quoted Rimbaud and Plato, brought a touch of totalitarian ideology to the session by his demand that art be realistic and "useful" and by his proposals for State tontrol of the artists’ work. A drawn match, leaving listeners happily confirmed in their various prejudices. |

J.C.

R.