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PARTISAN REVIEW
R osen berg:
Well , I'm making an aggress ive criti cism o f thi s aggressi ve
term .
T umin:
Let's see if we can go after some of the di mensions tha t you
think are impo n anl. Let me tell you why I as k thi s. Fo r beller o r fo r
wo rse, people read you very ca refull y. Lo ts o f peop le read you ,
maybe no t as ca refull y as you 'd like, but they read you. Fo r beller o r
for wo rse, you ' re said to be a very influ enti a l person in the world o f
a rt. Thi s means tha t in some sense peopl e are saying th a t H a ro ld
Rosenberg is the kind of person who, if you foll ow him, h e can tell
you the difference between a good work o f an and a bad wo rk of an .
Yo u chroni ca ll y absta in from ever being willing
to
assume th at
pos ture publicl y, a ltho ugh you 've been willing to comment about
a ll kinds of things a bo ut parti cul a r an wo rks. But let's n ow ta lk
abo ut some of the thin gs th a t you look fo r when you 're es tima ting a
work of an . One whi ch you menti oned in an ungua rded moment
was the impo rtan ce o f the idea th a t the ani st is confronting o r the
probl em h e is trying to so lve. Is th a t a fa ir phrasing?
R osenberg:
It's perfectl y a ll righl. Wh a t you have in mind is the a im or
intelllion of the artisl. But I don 't like the wo rd probl em. T ha t's
ano th er loaded word because I kn ow tha t a rti sts have probl ems. I
know th a t they struggle with vario us probl ems. But I don 't beli eve
an arti st as arti st tri es to reso lve probl ems. I'm inclined to agree with
Picasso when h e says he finds , he does n 't seek. T here's been a terribl e
developmelll, as a result of university a rt educati on in th e last twenty
yea rs, in whi ch art has been presented as a probl em- so lving acti vit y,
and beli eve me some of the probl ems tha t have been trumped up we
could have very well done witho ul. Th ey' re no t rea ll y probl ems for
arti sts. They' re p robl ems for peopl e who a re in universiti es.
T umin:
Then what do you mean when you say one of th e criteri a you
look fo r when you 're looking a t a work of an is the idea tha t the
arti st has, wh at he's trying to do, and one o f the dimensi ons of tha t
idea is how impo rtalll it is?
R osen berg:
Th at's ri ghl.
T um in:
Wh a t do you mean by an impo rtant idea? Is it a lways relevant
to the hi sto ry of previou s ideas in the wo rld o f an ?
R osenberg:
Th e phrases tha t you add a re helpful , a t leas t in th e
approach I'd like
to
take. The hi sto ry of an , es pecia ll y in the las t
coupl e of hundred yea rs, has to uched on a lmos t every conceivabl e
fo rm o f thought, on physics, on soc ia l probl ems, on psycho logical
p robl ems and a ll kinds o f thin gs rega rded as intell ectua l acti vities.
Now, some of these probl ems, o r a reas of thinking and imagina ti on ,
