February 21, 2006

  • "Contemporary
    literary     theory did not emerge in an
    intellectual and cultural vacuum. The subordination of art to
    argument and ideas has been a long time in the works. In     The Painted Word, a
    rumination on the state of American painting in the     1970s, Tom Wolfe
    described an epiphany he had one Sunday morning while reading an
    article in the     New York Times on an exhibit at Yale University. To appreciate
    contemporary art-- the paintings of Jackson Pollock and still
    more so his followers-- which to the naked eye appeared
    indistinguishable from kindergarten splatterings and which provided
    little immediate pleasure or illumination, it was
    'crucial,' Wolfe realized, to have a 'persuasive
    theory,' a prefabricated conceptual lens to make sense of the
    work and bring into focus the artist's point. From there it
    was just a short step to the belief that the critic who supplies
    the theories is the equal, if not the superior, of the artist who
    creates the painting."

    -- Peter Berkowitz, "Literature in Theory"


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    Cover art by Rea Irvin

    On this date in 1925,
    The New Yorker
    first appeared.


    Related material:

    Aldous Huxley on

    The Perennial Philosophy
    (ART WARS, March 13, 2003)
    and William James on religion:

    "James points out that... a mystical
    experience displays the world through a different lens than is present
    in ordinary experience. The experience, in his words, is 'ineffable'...."


    For an experience that is
    perhaps more effable,
    see the oeuvre of
     Jill St. John.


    Related material:

    A drama for Mardi Gras,
    The Crimson Passion,
    and (postscript of 2:56 PM)
    today's Harvard Crimson
    (pdf, 843k)