12
PARTISAN REVIEW
fusion.
It
is !Ytill not clear who concocted the anticommunist policy used
to justify Vietnam, but even if we grant its political premises, it should
have been clear from the beginning that sporadic military adventures
and systematic backing of the most complacent forces would not work
as a substitute for comprehending the nature and appeal of communism,
particularly in the backward regions of the world. But this much, at
least, must be said: that the official thinkers in Washington were no
worse than the run-of-the-m.ill politicians in their understanding of
America's role.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW
It
is fashionable to proclaim the death of modernism, of the
avant-garde, of everything associated with the idea of the new. But
Barbara Rose's forceful piece in this issue is the only one I've seen about
any of the arts that attempts to show concretely why what seems radical
in painting is really a regression. Her argument, largely formal, is that
the new realism is reopening a question - the problem. of realism–
that has been already solved by modern painting. She also ties this into
the social scene with the observation that the new realism has con–
verted painting into an object, a celebration of the moment, to be felt,
enjoyed, discarded, like other objects - all part of a throw-away culture
given to instant gratification.
I don't know whether Barbara Rose is right or not, but the question
hinges not only on one's taste but on one's sense of the direction of
modern painting. And she has a definite idea of this direction, influenced
to some extent by Clement Greenberg, who was one of the first to chart
the history of contemporary art, and whose views have formed either
the basis or the point of departure for much current thinking about
painting and sculpture. Many people would question not only the kind
of map Barbara Rose has drawn, but also the idea of determinism be–
hind it. Still, unless we have some sense of the main currents to supple–
ment our taste, I don't see how, as John Weitz suggests in his review of
Harold Rosenberg in this issue of
P.R.,
we can make intelligent judg–
ments of new work. And though there is a strong movement today to
abolish judgment, it seems to me to be an act of bad faith, since sensi–
bility itself involves judgment, and to pretend we are not always judging
is an illusion masking bad judgment.
The situation in writing is quite different from that in painting,
perhaps because it is a less formal art and because the lines of force are
more varied and less clear. And the question of realism in fiction is
more complicated. In fact, many of the younger and more innovative
writers are turning against the false realism of storytelling.
A common view of the situation, held by writers critical of the
current scene, is that the modernist and avant-garde traditions have
been taken up by the popular media and assimilated by the culture as
a whole. There is, of course, much to be said for this view, even though
