Contrast William's attack on "Miller to reserve for himself the passive expectation that art will speak to him" with Louis Sullivan's declaration in Chapter III of "Kindergarten Chats":
"Every building tells its story, tells it plainly. With what startling clearness it speaks to the attentive ear, how palpable its visage to the open eye, it may take you some little time to perceive. But it is all there, waiting for you; just as every great truth has waited through the centuries for the man with eyes to see" "But I can never learn to do this. I feel that it requires the eye of a poet" (responds the young graduate of architecture school) "Never fear. We are all poets. You do not see things now; but a little later on things will begin to see you and beckon to you -- so when I tell you that this wretchedly tormented structure, this alleged railway station, is in the public-be-damned style, is degenerate and corrupt, I repeat to you only what the building says to me" Actually, William said much the same thing when he once reported how quickly a judgment of visual quality can be made (I would dig back through the archives to find it -- but since William has already promised to disown any quotations of himself, why bother?) Come to think of it, contrary to his assertion, below, that "Genuinely good art is demanding and even arrogant .. It can be confusing and paradoxical" .. he told us, just two days ago that "the work should evoke more content and more nobility than any artist can claim" So, go figure --- one paradox or double-speak follows another -- just like in the dark, dreadful "dean world" from which William would now like to be comfortably distanced. ____________________________________________________________ Jumpstart your accounting career! Click for free information. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxP0wynbw3itOlIgNIyEwTbqY N62Y7O6S7PoPaL8uJADzT63VkOveQ/
