Letters
A LETTER FROM BEN NICHOLSON
Dear George Morria:
It
was very nice getting your article
and reading how you make your paint–
ings. It is, isn't it, a bit of a mystery
how other painters make their paintings
-1
expect you thought my naturalistic
approach a bit mysterious? I wondered
how much our two articles• might over–
lap:-but not much, it seemed. Gabo and
Barbara Hepworth both liked yours very
much. I enjoyed the orange story, which
wu new to me-but
if
only dear old
Kandinsky had been able to make his
circles
as
quiet
as
an orange. (Wallis is
a good case of a painter utilizing a
strange-shaped board as the key to the
movement in his painting.) Yes
indeed
paintings using representational forms
can be
expressive!
The objectors to ab–
stract art so often say that representa–
tion adds "that much more" which indeed
it does (and loses something as well)
and makes it a different kind of art. Just
because painting
can
be more naturalistic
than music why should they deny the
profound possibilities of 'abstract' ex–
pression in painting, which are no less
profound, presumably, than in music?
The influences of pornography in art
seem to me unsatisfactory, as ideas of
this kind give no solution and do not
endure.
(I
·much prefer Arp's collages
and reliefs to his more recent sculptures.)
The Hartung you reproduced looks well
and for me makes the Gonzalez look a
bit superficial and "decorative." Of your
3 examples it is No. 3 I like best and it
looks
very nice-I would like to see the
original with its colour, which I cannot
guess. . .. I had to go up to London early
in
Oct. on account of some business
which kept me there a month-an abso–
lutely blissful month after two years and
two such years-to see all one's friends
&Dd London was a pleasure indeed. . . .
By
now every one is flat-out and things
are pretty difficult-however we do still
m&Dage to get some "work" done-how
long
we shall be able to I don't know.
Mothers with 14 children seem to get
called
up and old boys with immensely
long beardl!---iln the other hand if you're
a plumber, you're reserved at
25. ...
BEN NICHOLSON
ST.
IvES,
CORNWALL ENGLAND
•Ben Nlcholeon'1 ..Notee on
Abetnct
Art'' ap·
peered in the October number of
Horiaon.
LETTER FROM THE ARMY
Sirs:
This is a twofold letter which makes it
at once an economical one and one which
I
have to write in spite of my military
lassitude.
First, since I am a new subscriber, I
want to add my own to the welter of
opinions you have received on the REVIEW.
1. You are to be congratulated on the
magazine's 'tone.' It does, as you say,
have a "definite editorial character." And
that is good; you have no reason to relax
your standards. In fact, a little more
maturity rather than less ahould be your
aim.
2. But there is one danger in this re–
fusing to talk down to your readers.
Often you talk above your own heads. A
good example of this is the article on
D. W Griffith in the May-June issue.
3. There is a nasty streak in some of
your articles, a puerility which cannot be
quite defined. The article on Jules Ro–
mains is an example of this tone which I
can only call snide. Also the literary gos–
sip column retailed by Victor Serge.
These would be bad in any language.
4. Many of your contributors seem
affiicted with a kind of cosmopolitan
provinciality. The stories of McCarthy
and Goodman in the last two issues are
cases in point. They are drawn from an
infinitely small class experience and they
use for their mechanics certain pleasant
conceptions (such as the castration com–
plex) current among this class. They are,
in fact, trade stories, proper for trade
journals- which may or may not describe
the PARTISAN REVIEW. The Goodman
story is extremely interesting since it
combines a self-corrosive irony with the
kind of wishful thinking which sees sex
as a solution of a political problem.
5. This same kind of irony and ingen–
uousness characterises your political ar–
ticles. Your discussions of "The Mana–
gerial Revolution" were excellent (ex-
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