632
PARTISAN REV IEW
Jules Olitski:
I have no difficulty with art that comments on something
else. What I have difficulty with is lousy art.
Joan Bamberger:
I thought that's in the observer's eye.
Hilton Kramer:
What I would call "fai led art" is not necessarily just in
the observer's eye.
It
might be a failure of the observer, but it also is
likely to be a failure of the artist. I mean, the idea that because some–
thing is a violation of decorum or taste it necessarily represents a sig–
nificant statement on the condition of our society or culture is not
supported by the evidence. Much of the art of that persuasion is just a
gesture hoping for attention, preferment, and advancement. We now
know, since Marcel Duchamp, that it is one of the roads to advancement
in the art world . It's a very crowded highway, thus all the more reason
to judge them severely. When it comes to making significant statements
about the moral tenor of our society, the newspapers do that well
enough. There's enough in the newspapers to outrage us, why do we
need it in the museums?
Robert Brustein:
What would you do, Hilton? Would you suppress it?
Hilton Kramer:
No. I wou ld try to persuade people to ignore it. But I
want to comment on what you said, about how one artist makes a dif–
ference. That's certainly true. But, in many cases, it's one artist plus one
patron. I think of Lincoln Kirstein bringing George Balanchine to Amer–
ica to establish the New York City Ballet, which tota ll y transformed the
history of ballet and dance not on ly in the United States, but through–
out the world. And Lincoln Kirstein was himself a poet, a writer, a con–
noisseur of art, and he had the aesthetic intelligence and the courage to
act on his taste, to bring Balanchine to Amer ica, provide him with
funds. He made it possible for one of the greatest twentieth-century
artists to create his greatest work. And a lso to create one of the greatest
institutions, the New York City ballet, now, a las, in the post-Balanchine
period, not what it once was, but that is the nature of institutions.
Robert Brustein:
The unsung and little-known hero of our culture is the
facilitator, someone who faci litates the creation of works of art, moni–
tors and mentors the artist, and helps the artist get the work out to the
pu blic. We need more of those.
