CONTEMPORARY ART
Sir-The letters. om "modern," or rather contemporary, art interested me greatly. To hear the work of a great atmy of sincere and honest men and women dismissed with the firm assurance thet it is all "just a gigantic bluff" really staggered me. It strengthens one belief which I have held for some time, that there is no other subject which will drive people to express sich violent opinions; the most reserved and taciturn of men will react with amazing energy if caught in a discussion of its merits or otherwise. Hardly anyone is willing ‘to sit on the fence, Contemporary art, and indeed all art, be it painting, sculpture, poetry, music or architecture, is to me something to be felt, and frankly I cannot feel about a thing and dissect it simultaneously. All works of art seem to me to be* capable of rational analysis up to/a certain point. But in the final assessment logic breaks down, for that which makes a work of art something to be enjoyed, and something else a daub of paint, heap of stones, medley of sounds or a tangle of words, is unexplainable. Finally, I myself am very wary indeed of expressing an opinion about anything unless I am sure I have something substantial upon which to base it. To me, to hear someone ask, "what’s all this about?" and in the next breath say, "I think it’s all bunkum" instead of bothering to try and see what it is all about-well, I just go back to my
book:
R.
WARD
(Auckland),
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 541, 4 November 1949, Page 5
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260CONTEMPORARY ART New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 541, 4 November 1949, Page 5
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