Abstract: I N ONE of his most eloquent moments the author Thomas Wolfe laments the difficult and seemingly tragic position of the artist in American culture. He finds himself placed by fate in an unprecedented situation with an almost torturing conflict. As he turns to Europe and the past his mind is burdened with awe for the great achievements of previous authentic cultures. Possessed with the most advanced technology in the history of mankind, and mrith the heritage of Beethoven, Michaelangelo, Shakespeare, and other integrated and vital intelligences in his mind and heart, he must attempt an authenticity of his own from the most meager native tradition. He must choose a half-fulfilled grandeur through attachment to the traditions of other cultures or the ignominious labor of pulling himself up by his own bootstraps in a culture just beginning and only vaguely aware of its destiny, its potential of vital meaning. Although this view is distorted with lyric self-pity which must be understood and evaluated, it still does point to environmental facts, and it is a significant observation. Because of the diverse population which has filled the continent and because of the recent formaHtion of our cultural unities and awarenesses, we are in truth the very youngest culture in the world: we are at a very beginning stage; it is more difficult for us to find our own traditions and integrations; there is much elaborate artistic experience artificially applied. Even the most primitive of tribes among eskimos or pygmies has made its own beginning steps generations ago toward truly organic atistic manifestations. As a nation we have yet really to achieve this for ourselves. This judgment is aimed not so much at the artists, who have often struggled more valiantly than is known. It is aimed rather at the practices of the general lay culture and the attitudes within the world of education. Certainly in literature and architecture we have widely recognized authenticities, but in the visual arts and in music particularly there is much misunderstanding or lack of a focused purposivends. Is a so-called authentic art of atlXr importance to us? Can e ''define to ourselves in such a way as to clarify and energize educational purpose? In this era, while our cultural expressive function is at a nascent stage, we have been thrust by fate into a sink or swim opportunitv of world political leadership. Is a vital artistic expressivity of any importance to this role ? There are some xvho deny the possibility of cultural definition and point up the dangers inherent in doctrinaire statements. They say, in effect, (When you have strictly defined a living organism it becomes only a static or dead thing. All rational structures are mere ladders to temporary understanding. What we are is what *^re shall become. This attitude is defensible, but do we really want such a cultural Laissez faire ? Does our group life in fact comprise a sort of non-culture we should avoid seeking to define? Would not such avoidance leave the dool open for the mere endless repetition of old
Publication Year: 1955
Publication Date: 1955-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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