The Democratic Muse: Visual Arts and the Public Interest
Main, Thomas
A good deal of Edward Banfield's hotly debated new book--The Democratic Muse: Visual Arts and the Public Interest--is devoted to a history of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)...
...That is, if art is useful as welfare, therapy, or as an educational tool, there may be a case for supporting welfare, therapy, or education, but not an independent arts program...
...BOX 35, GIFFORD, IL 61847 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1984 39 tribute to the development of a competent citizenry...
...He argues that museums once did try to function as institutions for inculcating the values of our culture, but failed...
...Ask to subscribe to COGITATIONS for 1, 2, or 3 years and leave your name and address with the operator...
...Because critics and museums are not interested in art...
...In other words, whatever beneficial effects art has (assuming it has any, something of which Banfield is not convinced), they are purely private in that they do nothing to inculcate publicly useful virtues...
...It is on this assumption that no one seriously doubts the importance of teaching history--among other things--in the public schools...
...We pay book rate postage on prepaid orders...
...Menard is a twentieth-century author who "rewrites" Don Quixote for modern readers, but without changing a word...
...Among them are: Congressman Philip M. Crane, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Senator Nancy Kassebaum, Congressman Henry Hyde, Senator Charles Mathias, the late Congressman Larry P. McDonald (published posthumously), USC Constitutional Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, United States Courts Judicial Fellow Donald H. J. Hermann, DePaul University Constitutional Law Professor Jeffrey M. Shaman, Harvard Economics Professor Todd G. Buchholz, Mountain States Legal Foundation Counsel Clint Bolick, Washington Legal Foundation General Counsel Daniel J. Popeo, American Legal Foundation General Counsel Michael P. McDonald, Hoover Institution Fellow Gale Ann Norton, League for Industrial Democracy Director Arch Puddington, Free Afghanistan Committee Director Karen McKay, Columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...
...Of course, Banfield is not suggesting that the copies be made by well-known contemporary artists...
...For going to a museum is not a matter of having a string of discrete "aesthetic experiences...
...A similar sense pervades Kennedy's work, except that his concern is the decline of British powerwhow it came about and how British statesmen controlled and managed it...
...It is, of course, a truism that one can understand where we are now only if one has some idea of how we got here...
...it requires a similarly radical argument on its behalf, which is what Banfield devotes most of this book to...
...Hardcover $15.00 each volume Softcover $7.50 each volume Prepayment is required on all orders not for resale...
...The English were ever a parochial race, and many took little interest in imperial affairs...
...So art, even purely qua art, definitely has a public character...
...On the one hand, the Empire summoned forth titanic efforts in two world wars...
...We might ask, for example, why this particular painting was chosen for reproduction--perhaps because it is a challenge to reproduce...
...Jorge Luis Borges dramatizes this point in his short story, "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote...
...This LibertyClassics edition is based on the posthumous edition of 1778, the last to contain corrections by Hume...
...Affording enjoyment to people is not a proper function of organizations serving the common good, whether they be private-foundations, for example--or public...
...Reagan and Mr...
...Would the way we react to these two paintings be the same...
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...In such cases one may at least say that historically informed alienation is more "socially valuable' '--because it amounts to an informed criticism-than an alienation based on ignorance...
...Andropov, now presiding over their own declining empires, may take note...
...To quote Banfield: " . . . A justification for government support of art must rest on the inherent rather than the incidental values associated with it--aesthetic experience that is...
...There is no strictly "aesthetic" aspect of a work of art that is independent of the culture and history from which the work comes...
...The military services themselves have again begun paying attention to the historical study of strategic problems, witness the fine series emerging from the Fort Leavenworth Combat Studies Institute...
...And if we do think about the copy in modern terms, we could raise all sorts of questions that don't come up with the original...
...Finally, Banfield suggests throughout the book that aesthetic feelings, whatever they may be, are relevant only to individual pleasure or welfare...
...He observes that relative to other powers, particularly Germany, Russia, and the United States, Great Britain was in decline from about the last third of the nineteenth cen~.ury on...
...Certainly one can only laugh at some o f the "artworks" the NEH ends up supporting ( " a loop tour of Western U.S . . . . dripping ink from Hayley, Idaho to Cody, Wyomi n g - a n event commemorating the birthplaces of Ezra Pound and Jackson Pollock...
...The decline of British power in this century is a topic at once fascinating and perplexing...
...For suppose that the copy had been made by a weU-known contemporary artist, say Andy'Warhol or the California "body artist," Chris Burden...
...Volumes I and II are already available while Volumes V and VI will be published later...
...DONALD LAMBRO, Columnist and Author 'The editors of COGITATIONS are to be congratulated on their thoughtprovoking journal...
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...Even the public seems more interested in serious studies of military questions, as seen in the widespread attention given the first volume in the Eliot A. Cohen is assistant professor of government at Harvard University...
...This is not an incidental difference--the whole character o( the painting as a work of art would change...
...As he writes, "The art museum was founded soon after the Civil War as part of a long struggle by the Protestant elite, which ran the large cities, to moralize their populations by eliminating vice and inculcating civic v i r t u e s . . . With the rapid growth of the cities, the futility of these efforts became apparent...
...But is it as such at all relevant to developing a more enlightened citizenry...
...A l l this suggests that Banfield is wrong to make such a sharp distinction between art qua art (or, as he thinks, aesthetic feelings) and art as part of the history of culture...
...For the most part he makes this seem a matter of economics plain and simple: The British economy, though growing slowly, was being rapidly outstripped by the new and emerging powers of Europe and the world...
...The market for younger students of strategy (particularly political scientists) is improving steadily, as are scholarly outlets for publication...
...Obviously, in this case the two paintings--even though physically identical --would be two essentially different works of art: one a work of the esteemed Dutch school, the other a Dada-esque joke...
...I f some incidental, "non-aesthetic" aspect of art makes it of public value, this does not justify an arts program...
...If, for example, the playing of chess afforded deep satisfaction to almost everyone, probably no one would claim that the playing of chess is therefore in the public interest...
...Congressman "It has been a pleasure for me to contribute to COGITATKONS and to read its presentations of contrasting positions...
...of The American Spectator and Columnist Morton Kondracke of The New Republic among others...
...Editor-in-Chief of The American Spectator ICONOCLASTIC...
...Banfield accordingly opposes all government support of the arts...
...INVIGORATING...
...STRATEGY AND DIPLOMACY 1870-1945 Paul Kennedy/Allen and Unwin/$24.95 Eliot A. Cohen P a u l Kennedy is one of those infrequent modern scholars who is both prolific and deeply read in many subjects...
...HOW TO ORDER Call our DATATEL 800 Number anytime Weekdays 8am-gpm and Fridays 8am-5 pro...
...A good deal of Edward Banfield's hotly debated new book--The Democratic Muse: Visual Arts and the Public Interest--is devoted to a history of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and other publicly supported arts programs...
...This journal can do much good...
...One reason for this trend is growing concern with the relative decline of American power...
...Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery...
...This theme is obscured somewhat by the book's format...
...It is possible that at least some people, on really understanding the culture they live with, will feel more alienated from it than they otherwise would be...
...And even if one saw past these considerations to think of the copy as a product of Rembrandt's art, one would have arrived at that point only after a long chain of (potentially distracting) thoughts that the origina, does not suggest...
...They have effectively stimulated thought with their pointcoun!erpoint presentation of issues...
...A century ago, alarmed by what they sensed as new threats to their country's world position, a significant segment of British opinion called--and thereafter never ceased calling--for hardnosed policies to check foreign rivals, to protect British industry and markets, to turn their Empire into a self-contained armed camp...
...But even if the copier were an anonymous button pusher in the Xerox corporation, we would still tend to think about the copy as a modern work of art...
...And Banfield is very careful to separate art so defined from all these other activities...
...Aesthetic experiences" could, in principle, be supplied by copies...
...It is not necessarily true that citizens with such a "better" understanding of our culture will be any more committed to it or appreciative of it than they otherwise would be...
...Such a history lends at least a certain plausibility to the policy option Banfield supports--a total cutoff of all direct and indirect government support of the arts...
...We will bill you later...
...Certainly the American Victorians were bound to be disappointed if they felt that museums could cure the pathologies of the urban masses...
...For whatever criticisms one might make about the funding or acquisitions policies of museums, the fact is that the public is very little affected by them...
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...That we have come to doubt whether such an experience makes for more competent citizens suggests not so much the uselessness of museums, but the degradation that has befallen our idea of what a citizen is...
...Harvard, meanwhile, has established what appears to be the first endowed chair in Military and National Security Affairs at a premier academic institution...
...It necessarily involves thinking about the history of culture--usually the history of our (Western) culture...
...To order, or for a copy of our catalogue, write: LibertyPress/LibertyClassics 7440 North Shadeland, Dept...
...At times Kennedy retreats from the simplicity of this argument...
...But his primary focus is on the British Empire in its last phase, when commitments accumulated and capabilities seemed inadequate, when the requirements of power grew beyond the resources available to meet them...
...In COGITATIONS renowned academic and political leaders unite to debate...
...R...
...If it were, then we ought not to react differently to the copy even in this extreme case...
...Many activities contribute to welfare in this sense without being of concern from a public as opposed to private standpoint...
...CHARLES E. RICE, Notre Dame Constitutional Law Professor " . . . COGITATIONS comes as a refreshing surprise...
...Other universities are following suit...
...It is balanced without being ponderous or pretentious...
...Like the horror stories that come out of the Pentagon about screwdrivers costing thousands of dollars, Banfield's book ought at least to serve the useful purpose of keeping arts bureaucrats on their toes...
...All orders from outside the United States must be prepaid in U.S...
...Army's official history of the Vietnam war...
...Further, it is annoying to hear the flimsy justifications for government sponsorship: Art can help promote world peace, museums can help solve the urban crisis and improve race relations, academic humanists and artists deserve to be supported at the same level as scientists, and so on...
...And, contra Banfield, it is on broadly the same ground that one can justify public support of the arts...
...The original and the copy are two different works of art because we think about them in the terms of two very different cultures...
...It is impossible to read these chapters without becoming a bit cynical about government aid for the arts...
...He is against funding of the arts because art is the engendering of aesthetic feelings, and aesthetic feelings are private, and can't therefore serve the public interest...
...His analysis leads him to conclude that the British prolonged the Empire's existence beyond its natural term, and cushioned its inevitable collapse, through the adroit use of appeasement...
...Since wealth provides the sinews of war, declining relative wealth means, ultimately, declining power...
...As might be expected in a collection of essays written over the course of ten or so years, the author sometimes wanders from the point, making excursions into the study of arms races (which do not, as he and others have observed, cause wars) and Japanese imperial strategy...
...The frailest of politico-military webs held the provinces together-scarcely 50,000 white soldiers in India and few administrators (that masterpiece of administration, the Indian Civil Service, numbered barely 1,000 men...
...he admits that historians may have gone too far in positing an ineluctable decline of a century or more...
...Maine residents call collect 236-2896...
...The author of three major works in the past decade or so--The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery, The Realities Behind Diplomacy, and The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism 1860-1914--he possesses a rare taste for the big questions of military power and foreign policy...
...Banfield half anticipates this response in his chapter on the history of the museum...
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...The following passage is characteristic: If aesthetic experience contributed significantly to the welfare (however defined) of large numbers of individuals, it would not necessarily follow that it would serve the public interest...
...Such an impossibly crude conception of what art can do was bound to be refuted...
...at its peak it covered nearly a quarter of the globe's land surface...
...And when we look at art in the context of a museum, its public character is even more clear...
...Writes Banfield: "It would not be unduly cynical to say that many of the thousands who stood in line for a ten-second look at [Rembrandt's] Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer, after the Metropolitan Museum paid $2.3 million to acquire it, would as willingly have stood to see the $2.3 million in cash...
...So in fact, far from helping develop an enlightened citizenry, museums are actually destroying the public's aesthetic sensibilities, something that can hardly be in the public interest...
...He refers to other elements of the problem--e.g., the changing balance of sea and land power (in an essay on "Mahan versus Mackinder: Two Interpretations of British Sea Power"), or the growth of African and Asian nationalism, and changing patterns of relations among the Empire s Great Power enemies-but he returns again and again to the problem of economics and power...
...He has pursued those interests in this latest book--a collection of eight separate essays-with lucidity and occasionally with insight...
...Indeed, the copy would be of interest primarily to "copy buffs" who would THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1984 give most of their attention to the quality of the copy, in the way that some stereo buffs care more about the performance of their equipment than about the music that is played on it...
...It is worth noting that Kennedy was recently hired away from Great Britain to teach at Yale--the first time in several decades that a leading American university has hired a historian of strategic affairs...
...It is in this way that they can conCO G] TAT IONS ON ],,AW GOV ]' M]' ;,N I. "COGITATIONS is a challenging, thought-provoking, and intellectually stimulating journal that can only contribute to a healthy dialogue among students of the law and government...
...However that may be, it is my hunch--and it is only a hunch, as unprovable as its opposite--that the more perspective one has on contemporary Western culture, the more likely one is to extend it at least that measure of respect necessary to keep it and the good things about it alive...
...BOX 35, GIFFORD, IL 61847...
...People who go to these museums come away thinking that art has something to do with being rare and expensive...
...But a position as radical as Banfield's cannot rest on anecdotes...
...they would be two different works of art...
...In an unsettling essay "Why Did the British Empire Last So Long...
...Kennedy's basic view in Strategy and Diplomacy 1870-1945 is that decline came no sooner than necessary...
...We will bill you later...
...But there is a way to bring art to the people, in Banfield's view...
...Hume's History o f England illustrates his belief that the growth of liberty is neither inevitable nor necessary and that the preservation of liberty requires an understanding of the conditions which gave rise to it as well as the institutional arrangements which sustain it...
...they may never learn that art is really about aesthetic feelings...
...Even at the height of imperial power precipient statesmen quivered inwardly at Kipling's 1897 poem, "Recessional," which foretold the day when "Far-called, our navies melt away;/On dune and headland sinks the fire:/Lo, all our pomp of yesterday/Is one with Nineveh and Tyre...
...To the average viewer, a museum provides a vision of what we are sometimes capable of...
...Why then, according to Banfield, do critics frown on reproductions and museums insist on acquiring only originals...
...Banfield's argument must stand or The History of England From the Invasion of Julius Caesar To the Revolution in 1688 By David Hume Foreword by William B. Todd In Six Volumes-Volumes III and IV now available...
...Assuming we know by some means which is the original (and this is a fair assumption since Banfield is not recommending that reproductions be passed off as originals), the answer is no...
...PHILIP M. CRANE, U.S...
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...And so the copy and the original would still be essentially different...
...The typography has been modernized for ease of reading...
...This is Banfield's touchstone for determining whether it is relevant to the public interest...
...At the same time, they never 40 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1984...
...For example, one could think of the reproduction as a creation of the copier's art, rather than of Rembrandt's...
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...On the other hand, the Empire strikes one in retrospect as extraordinarily fragile--indeed, so it seemed to far-sighted contemporaries...
...EMMETT TYRRELL, JR...
...Since a copy, in his view, can be visually the same as the original, it is also the same aesthetically: " . . . It is evident that a copy may be, for most or even all viewer~, aesthetically of equal value to the original...
...its proconsuls and soldiers projected an image of unshakable self-confidence, unshakable because it seemed so well grounded in fact...
...Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed a law journal so sensible a possibility...
...For example, he decries the fact that "much of the public has been taught to see art as part o f . . . [the] history of culture, rather than as something to be responded to aesthetically," as if there were a sharp distinction between cultural history and aesthetic experience...
...Banfield begins by defining art as "that which has the capacity to engender in a receptive viewer an aesthetic experience...
...BOLD...
...But the point is that physical appearance is not, in principle, the only thing that makes a work of art what it is...
...His next step is to argue that in order to justify public support of the arts, art qua art must somehow be relevant to the public interest...
...Thus the appeal of his writings stems not merely from the attractiveness of competently written, broad-brush history, but from our uneasy sense that the phenomenon he describes has relevance for us today...
...Banfield makes no argument for choosing this definition from among the many others that have been made, although he does quote four philosophers (Dewey, Vivas, Dickie, and Goodman) in support of i t - - a n unconvincing device, since it would be easy enough to come up with four other philosophers who support some other definition...
...He claims there are four types of aesthetic experience, each of which corresponds to one of four types of art: ideational, romantic, transcendental, and nihilist, but he does not say what common, purely "aesthetic" characteristics they share...
...Many viewers would be as struck by the wonder of the copying technology as by the original painter's skills...
...Knowing that the copy is by a controversial modern artist merely changes the cultural context of the reproduction very obviously...
...N 101 Indianapolis, IN 46250 38 fall on his characterization of art, rather than on the policy issues he discusses...
...Nonetheless, the two identical texts are taken to have entirely different meanings since readers interpret Menard's version in the context of modern thought, while the original is understood as a product of sixteenthcentury Spain...
...On the book's penultimate page he writes: The final irony, then, is this--and perhaps Mr...
...In short, museums are one of the institutions which can help inculcate a measure of respect and support (critical support, admittedly) to the values and the culture that made its contents possible...
...But it hardly follows--as Banfield seems to think it does--that museums have entirely lost their public character and turned into playthings for the rich and obsessive art collectors...
...SCINTILLATING...
...For what it's worth, Banfield puts forward the following suggestion, more as a rhetorical device than as a real policy option...
...Suppose it is possible (as it probably is not) to Produce an absolutely perfect reproduction of it...
...Looking at a painting, say, necessarily gets us thinking about what other people have thought, and not just about the artist's own ideas, but about the whole set of ideas and values associated with the culture out of which it comes...
...But this entirely unnecessary foray into aesthetics is highly questionable, certainly at least as questionable as some of the arguments for support of the arts that Banfield so disdainfully rejects...
...It may be true that many museums suffer from a mania for acquisitions, but let us return to the Rembrandt...
...In the chapter that has provoked the most controversy, "Collectibles versus A r t , " Banfield claims that modern technology makes it possible to produce near-perfect copies of a great many artworks...
...For while the schools teach one aspect of history--who did what when--the museum introduces its audience to another aspect: What the most creative minds of the past felt about who did what when...
...It further suggests that Banfield is wrong to think of our responses to art as purely private feelings...
...Museums care only about acquiring expensive collectibles, about becoming "repositories of grandeur," rather than about providing the public with opportunities for aesthetic experiences...
Vol. 17 • September 1984 • No. 9
