512
ILYA EHRENBURG
other theoreticians of cubism, but the canvases of Picasso, Braque
and Leger are alive; they delight us, upset us and move us. Picasso
considers himself the heir of Velasquez, Poussin, Delacroix, and
Cezanne, and he never saw electric trains or jet aircraft as the legiti–
mate heirs of art.
It
stands to reason that art has always gradually become part
of everyday life, changing buildings, clothing, vocabulary, gestures
and household utensils. Medieval poetry with its chivalrous cult of
womanhood helped people to find forms for the expression of their
feelings. The canvases of Watteau and Fragonard became part of
life, altered the layout of parks, men's suits, and dances, and have
had an effect on divans and snuff-boxes. Cubism has helped modern
city dwellers to free themselves from over-ornamented houses, it
has had an effect on furniture, even on cigarette packages. The
utilitarian use of art or its decorative use cannot be the aim of the
artist, but it is a natural by-product of his creative flights. The op–
posite process is evidence of creative sterility. An abstract ornament
is quite in place on fabric or on pottery, but when it claims the title
of a work of art in itself, this is not the resurgence of art but its
decline.
I was recently at a retrospective exhibition of Malevich
in
Brussels. His early work ("Jack of Diamonds" period) is very good.
In 1913 he painted a black square on a white background. This was
the birth of abstract art, which forty years later cast a spell on
thousands of western painters. It seems to me to be ornamental first
and foremost. Picasso's paintings represent a world with so many
thoughts and feelings that they either arouse delight or genuine
hatred; but the pictures of the abstract painters remain designs on
fabric or wallpaper. A woman may put on a scarf with an abstract
design, her scarf may be pretty or not, it may suit the woman or
not, but it will never make anyone think about nature, man or life.
The headlong development of technology demands from the
painter a more profound understanding of man's inner world. This
was quickly realized by those advocates of "left-wing art," who were
the champions of industrial aesthetics. After seeing America,
Mayakovsky stated that industry would have to be muzzled. He was
thinking, of course, of the part played by the painter, but he was
