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HAROLD ROSENBERG
raised again - this time by a critic who claims that to be avant-garde is
to
promote business as usual.
Duchamp's disruption was short-lived. To him the world, par–
ticularly the art world, aged very rapidly, and once for all. Duchamp
had no idea of a renewal. He was immersed in superannuation, in
dJja
vu.
The absence of novelty made him feel calm, like one transported
into Plato's realm of ideas. This is the reward-punishment for getting
to
the bottom of things.
Duchamp was a model of how an avant-garde dies a natural
death. In contrast to fake avant-gardes that keep agitating and repro–
ducing themselves with the frenzy of micro-organisms.
WAR PAINT
America has the bad habit of insisting that important issues be
dealt with "objectively" and that "descending into personalities"
ought to be avoided. Thus battles of principle are confined to maneu–
vers permitted by professional decorum, and this gives an extraordi–
nary advantage to hired arguers: lawyers, journalists, speech writers,
public relations agents - in sum,
to
those who have subordinated their
sense of values to the techniques and aims of persuasion.
Yet issues affecting human beings are almost always personified
by individuals whom one instinctively hates or trusts. The personali–
ties
are
the issues, and only by grasping an issue in terms of those who
support it is it possible
to
decide correctly which side one is on. Often a
position is obnoxious only because it is espoused by certain people,
and by no one else. Could there be any value in objectively considering
the ideas of Hitler or Stalin - or of Nixon on inflation? Better to
"descend into personalities" without delay and decide whether you
belong with them or with their enemies.
Ahother example is the so-called American conservatism: what–
ever its logic, it never brings forward a person of generous spirit.
THE PLAINS INDIANS VERSUS FALSTAFF
Falstaff: Honor is a mere scutcheon.
George Catlin: " .. . in this country where ... men are the most jealous
