MELVIN M. TUMIN
547
T umin:
Well , but for you a prac tical problem is that you have a
column to do. And you h ave
to
say somethin g about something
you 've seen . You h ave
to
as k yourself, Wha t shall I say about it?
Now, you 're no t going to ta lk about how the canvas was made of
Belgian lin en, whi ch was extracted by a p rocess known to the ancient
Assyri an s. And you 're also no t going
to
talk about the whiten ess of
the wa ll s around the frame, unl ess it gets in the way of you 're no t
being abl e to see it. There are lo ts of things tha t are excluded from
your view when you take on the practi cal tas k of the criti c, aren 't
th ere?
R osen berg:
By practical tas k, you mean ?
T umin:
T he things that you require of yourself, g iven your enterprise.
R osenberg:
Yes, sure.
T umin:
Okay, tha t doesn 't settl e anything. But it leads to an impor–
tant ques tion to as k you . Please go into the make-believe realm with
me.
If
somehow you could have the power
to
determine what should
be hung in museums, would you like tha t?
R osen berg:
You mean , would I like the res ponsibility of deciding?
T umin:
T he power to decide wha t sh ould go into museums .
R osen berg:
T he thing th a t complica tes tha t is the ques tion of what I
think about mu seums and their fun ction s.
T umin:
Well , I don 't want to ge t into tha t.
I'll
put it more generall y.
If
you could sh ape the tas te o f a genera tion , would you like to do tha t?
R osenberg:
T he tas te? No, I don 't beli eve in tas te. Tha t's an o bsolete
concept.
T umin:
Wron g word ?
R osen berg:
Yes. No t tas te.
Values,
yes.
T umin:
If
you could shape the values of a genera ti on with regard to
works o f a rt , would you like tha t?
R osenberg:
Would I like it?
T umin:
Yes, would you reli sh tha t prospect?
R osenberg:
Do you mean , do I feel sufficientl y confident in my own
views to want
to ...
T umin:
Yes, tha t's one aspect of it. Do you fee l sufficientl y confident
in your own po int of view
to
say tha t if onl y o thers were abl e
somehow
to
sh are my po int o f vi ew the world of art would be better
o ff? I don ' t think it would be a rrogant of you to say that, if that 's
wha t you felt like saying.
R osenberg:
Yo u 're trying to lead me to .. .
T umin:
I'm coming to a rt and po litics. Tha t's where I'm coming .
R osenberg:
Your ques ti on is no t one I can answer because if I did , as
you say, shape the va lues of a genera tion , the ques ti on is, wha t
