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ideas, since they are very important together, but tha t no body's doing
it right now .
R osenberg:
Yes, and I started to say that someone else I know, a
professional art educator, shares the same view.
T umin:
Why?
R osenberg:
Because, he sa id, when he sta rted his an department, they
found
artists
whom th ey brought into th e university and they
produced a generation of MFAs. The next thing was they got rid of
the visiting a rti sts, and th ey hired the MFAs, so the second genera–
tion was taught by MFAs. The first generation of MFAs had been
taught by a rti sts. But the second genera ti on of MFAs was taught by
MFAs . So the standards kept going down. That is, I think , a
description of wh a t has ruined teaching in our a rt departments, the
requirement of admini stra tion s fo r degree-holding facult y. By this
time nobody hires an art ist an y more, and th ey have es tab lished the
kind o f approach to a rt which comes out of a universit y, n o t o ut of
artists ' studios.
Tumin:
In
that same regard, would you be willing to say , in general,
th a t criti cs serve a rt well , o r serve it poorl y, or we'd be better off
without mos t of them? Wha t's your sense of th e impact of criti cism
on art?
R osenberg:
Criticism today is also coming out of the universiti es to a
very great degree.
If
you look a t the a rt magaz ines, you will see that
they are fill ed with young people who have gotten MFAs and who
are dying to get some recognition , and their approach is the same as
th e approach of the MFA a rtists.
T umin:
Induding that of the criti cs of the leadin g papers and the
lead ing magazines?
R osenberg:
Well , there are no leading papers and magazines. What are
you talking about?
Tumin: The New York T imes.
R osenberg: The New York Times
we don't have to discuss.
Th e N ew
York Times
has a cultural program, and th e peopl e who write for
Th e New York Times
are about as apt for tha t program as can be
imagined. It 's all summed up in the titl e o f the Sunday
Times
cultural section: " Arts and Leisure." You wouldn't want to bother
people with serious ideas when they' re enjoying that leisure, would
you ?
Tumin:
Should an yone pay any a ttention to what a rti sts themselves
say about art ?
R osenberg:
Oh , absolutely. But you have to know how to pay a tten–
tion.
