PARTISAN REVIEW
443
Harold Rosenberg
The cultural revolution of the past hundred years has petered
out. Only conservatives believe that subversion is still being carried on
in the arts, and that society is being shaken by it. Today's aesthetic
vanguardism is being sponsored by the National Endowment for the
Arts, by state arts councils, by museums, by industrial and banking as–
sociations. Foundation grants are made to underground films and maga–
zines, to little review contributors, to happenings and electronic music,
to the Merce Cunningham dance group. The art-historical media have
become thoroughly blended with the mass media and with commer–
cial design and decora tion under the slogan of community art pro–
grams. Reciprocally, commercial movies, thrillers, even TV advertising
spots have become so daringly experimental in the formal sense as to
solicit not the comprehension of a message but the immediate total
response of a work of art.
Partisan Review's
statement speaks of "a growing conservatism in
discussions of what's happening in the arts." Yes, perhaps in the
dis–
cussions,
but not in what's
happening.
For instance, the Sunday
Times
arts page is conservative, but that's why it constantly has its foot in
its mouth.
Advanced art today is no longer a Cause - it contains no moral
impera tive. There is no virtue in clinging to principles and standards,
no vice in selling or in selling out. Decisions on this score depend en–
tirely on how an individual feels about himself - wretches recycled
on the couch can usually be depended on to take the path of uncon–
cealed cheapness. Contemporary culture is in the hands of professionals.
Some of the best writers, thinkers, artists make the most money - so
do some of the worst - but all deliver the goods.
The cultural professionals serve the rich, and have the radical
ambition to be able to tie up the whole "community" in a single aesthe–
tic package for delivery on order. Professionalism is a value in and for
itself, and is neutral in regard to values of the mind or the spirit.
Publishing is quite pleased to be absorbed into the teaching and enter–
tainment industries. Professional art lovers are less interested in their
responses to works of art than in knowing what to tell people about
them - an early example: Leo Stein .lecturing on Matisse the moment
he began to acquire works by him.
Most art collectors today are also art dealers - what better way
to prove that you understand a subject than to make money out of it?
Money is also the yardstick applied to the art critic - what's hap–
pened to the prices of the artists he sponsored?
If
only it were pos–
sible to sell short on the art market! One could make a fortune betting
against the judgment of certain tipsters. Curators whose acquisitions
wind up in the museum's basement ought to be fired for incompe–
tence. Museums gamble with other people's money, and their judg–
ments ought to be at least as sound as those of a mutual fund.
With the cultural revolution at an end, contemporary creations
fall into place as technical ("formal") variations ("advances") on
the art of the past. Every work of art exists under the shadow of the
historian of its genre. Conservative and radical attitudes count for
