I've finally received my copy of "Art Reconstructed: A New Theory of Aesthetics" by Theodore L. Shaw (published 1937)
And here, for those who are interested in such a topic -- is the Introduction: ************ EACH TIME that we see some great dogma of Art- some supposedly universal law or principle crash to oblivion, we say to ourselves, "there goes the last one; we've learned our lesson this time; there must never be another; henceforth Art shall be forever free" And yet hardly has the dust settled before our good resolutions are forgotten, and we find Dogma again in authority, again dictating the laws and principles within which the artist supposedly must create, if that which he creates is to be acknowledged as Art. The cause of this extremely unintelligent and apparently endless procedure is that we are cherishing in our bosoms-without realizing it - a Parent- or Super-Dogma, which automatically breeds these sub-dogmas within us, and will continue to do so to Eternity unless we harden our hearts and cast it from us. This Parent-Dogma is the Dogma that Art is an Elevation, that Art is the expression of the finer part of ourselves, that Art is the path by which mankind isleaving behind its man-ness and is ascending towards divinity. I know no centre of thought where the authority of this remarkable Dogma is now in the slightest degree questioned, where the barest suspicion of its validity has been even whispered. Art still is everywhere regarded as a sort of crusade; "Genius," so called, is still everywhere conceived as an approach to godlikeness-as a kindling of the divine fire. In a world where geologic concepts of time are now universally accepted, that which we call "a masterpiece of Art" is still everywhere , proclaimed as eternal, timeless, imperishable. In a world which has existed hundreds of millions of years and will exist more hundreds of millions of years, the favorites of a few paltry centuries- Homer, Phidias, Dante, Shakespeare, Beethoven- are still everywhere hailed as "immortal"; a few words, a few sounds, a few bits of clay flung together in the year one hundred or one thousand are still everywhere confidently expected to delight and thrill men of the millionth and the ten millionth century as fully as they delight and thrill men of today. The purpose of this book is to initiate revolt against this ancient, this powerful, this nevertheless rather ridiculous Dogma-to eject from our minds all the preposterous blarney and false glamour that have gathered about Art, and to reveal Art as that which it actually is, not a crusade, not an ennoblement, not a deification, but simply a phenomenon of life, in the same way that Gravity or Space or Time are phenomena of life. And as a first step towards this purpose I propose to turn my back on the past, abandon romance, sentiment, vaporous moonings, face directly the more animal, earthy realities. and define Art in one short, simple, homely word which nobody can fail to understand. ************* ******************************************** So .. what do you think ? It reminds me of Derek -- in that the author proposes to set aside the Philosophy of Art as we now know it -- and strike out into new territory. His attack on "Art as Elevation to the finer part of ourselves" seems to be stridently non-traditional - but he also does not share the " model based on a Hegelian (and later positivist) vision of stylistic development" and "modernism's vision of progress." Like Mando (and everyone else - except me) he wants Art to be "forever free" from dogma. Like William, he also has a scientific bent -- i.e. he is interested in the world as the sciences - like geology (and possibly neuroscience - have been describing it. He wants a concept of "art" that is "a phenomenon of life" -- like "Gravity, Space, or Time" (which sounds like an ambition that Boris would appreciate) Stay tuned for "CHAPTER II : ART DEFINED IN ONE WORD" I'll bet nobody can guess what that word will be ! Alexandrianism, an academicism in which the really important issues are left untouched Outsider Artists Is this category currently important anywhere outside the visual arts? There's 758,000 hits on Google for "outsider art" -- but only 68,000 for "outsider music" -- and 1,700 for "outsider poetry". There's also absolutely nothing listed as an "anthology of outsider poetry" --- or an "anthology of outsider music" -- while there are many galleries and exhibits that claim they are presenting outsider art. Any speculations on why this is the case ? It's especially relevant to Chicago -- because the most famous Chicago painter of the last 50 years, Henry Darger, is considered the quintessential outsider artist. He currently gets more hits on Google than all the other Chicago artist names combined. But he also wrote a 15,145 page fantasy novel, and I'm really doubting anyone has ever read every page -- it certainly has yet to be published - and without his bizarre illustrations - it would probably now rest in a Chicago landfill with all his other humble possessions. There used to be a small publisher called the "Outsider Press" -- and they printed the work of some now famous writers like Keroac and Bukowski --but that seems to have remained a phenomenon of the 1960's. Perhaps the importance of outsiderness in the visual arts is connected to the enduring ideology of the perpetual avant garde - the need to be "constantly redefining what art is, and that each redefinition requires new criteria, new ways of seeing" It appears that the worlds of high-brow literature and music have already abandoned that severe requirement -- or when it is attempted - it's only recognized as such when only done by highly trained insiders. (there's no more Moondogs in classical music) superior consciousness of history -- more precisely, the appearance of a new kind of criticism of society, an historical criticism soberly examined in the terms of history and of cause and effect the antecedents, justifications and functions of the forms that lie at the heart of every The Goldlman Collection, more than 30 years old, is rich in works by Raphael and his school, Roman and Florentine Mannerists, the Carracci, Pietro da