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PARTISAN REVIEW
by the spectator through the change from inert matter into a work
of art." From this thought it is a short step to the contemporary
cliche, "What is said to be art is art; what is said about art becomes
true." Cookie jars have recently been the heroes of this esthetic
reversal, when jars identical to ones selling for twelve dollars at
second-hand shops were sold nearby at an auction house for
several thousands because they had been collected by Andy
Warhol. From this kind of Duchampian Dada ethos, the notion
that life and art are inseparable emerged with unconfined force.
The elimination of this dichotomy was a greater revolution than
Cubism or Surrealism. For the final and inescapable conclusion to
be drawn from it was that art could be entirely dispensed with.
Duchamp's view that art had ceased to be a form which ex–
pressed the most important spiritual considerations goes back to
Hegel's famous lectures on esthetics and has gained increasing
momentum over the years. Arthur Danto has written about the
Hegelian view that "art approaches a kind of philosophical cog–
nition," and draws the Hegelian conclusion that "when this
cognition is achieved, there is no longer any point to or need of
art. Art is a kind of transitional state in the coming of a certain
kind of knowledge."
This is a depressing idea. The visual arts, literature, and mu–
sic, at their highest potential, each in its own particular way, in–
vestigate the nature of what we call reality. Their fundamental
motivation may be akin to that of religion or philosophy or sci–
ence, but each is a symbolic system which retains its singularity,
none replaces the other. Painting is a kind of visual philosophy,
but paint cannot be confused with words. Art does change its
forms, and there will be periods of changing emphasis, of deca–
dence and inferior quality; but the arts persevere as does our need
for them.
There are many reasons for the present state of the visual
arts. There is the hustling art market, with its cynicism and
philosophical nihilism; but there is another element which is
even more specific to the work of art. I have in mind art
reproduction and, in particular, the color transparency-the 35-
mm. color slide.
I think most of us recognize that a work of art has a distinct
physical presence. No writer has written more eloquently on this
subject than Walter Benjamin, the German essayist and critic,
