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Home , Herbert Read, Roger Fry, The Green Child

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ED 369 686 SO 023 778

AUTHOR McWhinnie, Harold J. TITLE Sir and Education History. PUB DATE 89 NOTE 14p.; Paper presented at the Annual Conference of History of Art Education (University Park, PA, October 1989). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150) Historical Materials (060)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Aesthetic Values; *; *Art Education; *; *Educational History; Foreign Countries; Higher Education IDENTIFIERS Bell (Clive); *; Fry (Roger); *Read (Herbert)

ABSTRACT In order to understand the place of Herbert Read both in 20th century and art education, one needs to carefully consider the entire field of English art and aesthetics from 1900 to the beginning of the Second World War. This time frame was dominated by the thoughts of Roger Fry and , and works both literary and visual, of the . This p lod in English art and design was characterized by the response o!: Roger Fry to cubism and the work of the avant garde in Europe. By 1912 Fry had his postimpressionist show at the Crofton Galleries. English art at the time either reflected the of the Royal Academy, mysticism, or the crafts traditions of . It was a time of not only artistic ferment, but an aesthetic revolution. The modern movement entered into England and was interpreted through the eyes of Fry and Bell. They gave it a peculiar English . Sir Herbert Read reflected much of thL Fry and Bell points of view as he developed his artistic philosophy in the 1930s. Read's basic philosophy can by found in his now classic work, "Education Through Art." Read assumes that is the essence of art, and his account of beauty brings together but fails to unite various strands. On the one hand, he is a Platonist claiming that beauty consists in the conformity of forms to mathematical norms which also underlie the appearances of the natural world; but, on the other hand, heinsists that pleasure is the essence of beauty, reducing judgments about beauty to mere expressions of personal likes or dislikes. (Author)

***********************************************:,AA********************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ,-,%A:,********************************************************* Sir Herbert Read and Art Education History

By

Harold J. McWhinnie U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Otioce ol Educafional Research and Improvement Department of Design EDVCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Thts document has been rsvoduced ,eceved 1rorn the perSon or organtzahon Department of Curriculum andInstruction ong.nafing .1 C Minor changes have been made 10 Improve reproduction puahty University of Maryland Points of vfew or opmons slated thasdocu- ment do not necessartly represent official College Park Campus OE RI posifion or pohcy

-PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

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Running Head: Sir Herbert Read Prepared for: Second Conference onHistory of Art Education, Penn StateUniv., Oct. 1989. Herbert Read eic Art Education History

Abstract In order to understand the placeof Herbert Read both in 20th century aesthetics as well as art education, oneneeds to carefully consider the entirefield of English Art and Aesthetics from1900 to the beginning of the second war.

This time frame was dominated bythe thoughts of Roger Fry and CliveBell and the works, both literacy and visual,of the Bloomsbury Group. This periodin

English Art and Design was characterizedby the response of Roger Fry to cubism and the work of the avante-garde inEurope.

By 1912 Fry had held his post-impressionistshow at the Crofton Galleries.

English Art at the time either reflectedthe romanticism of the Royal Academy or the Mysticism of Pre-Raphalehes andthe crafts traditions of William Morris.It

was a time of riot onlyartistic ferment but an aesthetic revolution.The modern

movement entered into England and wasinterpretated through the eyes of Fry and Bell. They gave to it a peculiar Englishquality. Sir Herbert Read reflected much

of the Fry and Bell points of view as hedeveloped his artistic philosophy in the

1930's.

Read's basic philosophy can be foundin his now classic work, Education

Through Art. In 'Education Through Art'Read assumes that beauty is the essence

of art, and his account of beautybrings together but fails to unite variousstrands.

On the one hand, he is a Platonistclaiming that beauty consists in theconformity

of forms to mathematical norms whichalso underly the appearances of thenatural

world; but, on the other hand, he wants toinsist that pleasure is the essence of

beauty; and this view, notoriously, reducesjudgements about beauty to mere

expressions of personal likes or dislikes.This second view must result in

about art qua art being onthe same footing as any other expressionof

personal tastes and as such 'would seemultimately to deny the possibility of art at

all'. Page 3

Background Almost a quarter century agoJohn Keel (Keel, 1963)demonstrated the importance of Sir Herbert Readfor American as well as BritishArt Education history. Read emerged fromthe years between the 1900 -1940. In England the ideas of CliveBell (Bell, 1913) and RogerFry (Fry, 1932) still dominated British critical andaesthetic thinking as well asBritish art education. What Read did was to infuse theideas of Jung into art and arteducation thought where they merged with Bell'sformalism to produce a synthesiswhich was greater than the past. Let us turn to someof the resent research done onsir Herbert thoughts and influence. Meeson has considered some ofthe inconsistencies in Read'sthought by an examination of his"Education ThroughArt". Read attempted the mergerof formalism with Platonic thought andin Meeson's veiw failed.

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by his failure to The use to which Read puts Platois, in any case, put in doubt . come to terms with, or evenconsider, 's attitude towards art as why Meeson exposes other incoherencesand discusses possible historical reasons simultaneously, and Read tried to ride his philosophicalhorses in opposed directions

why the book has been so influentialin educations circles where anunsustainable

burden was placed upon it. (Meeson,1974)

The article by Meeson (1974)which clearly outlined Read's theoryof art and

detailed its' platonic traditions probablycoming from both Bell & Fry. Theallusion

to the mathematical naturesof not only Read's theories of art butof the mathematical basis of platonic thoughtitself brings us to a heretofore unnoticed

influence of the American design theoriest,Jay Harnbidge. (Hambidge,1968)

Hambidge was well known in Englandin the 1920s for his theories ofdynamic

symmetry and his ideas werefamiliar to both Fry and Bell. TheGolden Section

was used in the worksof many of the Bloomsbury group,such as and

Duncan Grant (McWhinnie, 1987).

In the decade before the SecondWorld War, was a microcosmof

much that was new and vital in Europe.An exhibition celebrating that decade at

the Camden Centre in Jan.1975, organized by Michael Collinsdemonstrates

the mixture of ideas and activitiesthat typified Hampstead of thisperiod. The list

of 'Hampstead Artists and Designers'includes Naum Gabo, Paul Nash, Herbert

Read, , , and the architects Weis

Coates, Colin Lucas, andMarcel Breuer. The list of writers is

nearly as long as that of the 44 artistsrepresented in the exhibition. Happily many

of the buildings by Hampsteadarchitects are still well preserved inthe borough. In terms of the development of BritishArt Education, the ideas ofFry, Bell

and Read stood firmly against theacademic traditions of the RoyalAcademy.

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Regional schools of art and design wereformed and the influence of the Glasgow School of Art was merged with thedirection of the modern movement. Read was a complex figure to say the least.If he had one foot in the more formalworld of the Hampstead Group which reflect theystructure of the Bauhaus, theinfluence of the Vortist Group, and the ideas of WhydomLewis; he certainly had his other foot, clearly in the Bloomsbury world of Clive andVanessa Bell. He also shared the strong ideas and goalsof the English Marxists thought with the painters of the day. The art historianAnthony Blunt of course was at the center of so much that occurred inthe 1930s, both in the political as well as aesthetic worlds. , the art historianand sometimes spy, relates Sir Herbert Read to at least some of the more radicalsocial and political thoughts of the Group of Blunt, Keyes, andTuring. Part of Read's idea of the foundation of art and education in societyreflected both the social consciousness of British Marxist thought as well as thepsychological insights of Freud and Jung. Blunt has recalled in a sketch for an intellectualautobiography, discussing the friends and places which acted asformative influences. After a childhood spent in Paris and at Marlborough,where Blunt met Louis McNeice, he discovered Bloomsburyism and at Cambridge, where he cameunder the influence of Berenson. He would later come into conflict withHerbert Read and over the meaning of Picasso's 'Guernica'. Hampstead in the 1930s was a vital center ofinternational art, and thinking. Refugees came, assured of a warmwelcome. Paul Nash and others in 1933 founded 'unit one' and called for'the expression of a truly contemporary spirit'. Herbert Read's 'Unit One Book' and'Circle', edited by Leslie Martin, Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, followed. There was no'Hampstead Group' but there Page 6 was a common attitudemarking the artists out as modernists. Intotality, their work was to be of immense influence inthe post-war years. Read's early marxism has caused problemswith subsequent acceptance or rejection of Read's ideas, A recent article in aSoviet journal is of interest here and it in essence views Read as not being true tothe ideas that he first achievedin his book, Art and Society. The Soviet criticobserved that knowledge and enjoyment of art cultivates the sensibilities,develops and arouses a wide variety of needs which characterize the humanpersonality, but little is known about they psychological processes wherebybeautiful things are appreciated. However, it seems that some mental effortis required, some exercise of the imagination, which results in increased creative drivein many spheres of life, including science and politics. The author pressesfor more of the curricula in Soviet schools to be devoted to art, and criticizesthe elitist and consumer orientated aspects of art in the capitalist westernstates. She specifically denigrates Herbert Read for a Utopian faith in artin education as an adequate means for producing a truly spontaneouscreative society. In American Art Education the influencesof Read can be seen clearly in the writings of Vincent Lanier (Lanier, 1968,1987) Lanier has recently observed that the DBAE (discipline-based-art-educationavocated by the Getty trust) can be faulted for its' elitist point of view towardsthe nature of aesthetic experience. I believe that one problem most oftoday's marxists critics have with Read and his ideas is that they are a very strongblending of aesthetic journalism of the l3loomsbury group with the socialist doctrines ofthe Cambridge side of Anthony Blunt. Also Read's clearly Jungian point ofview does not, as expressed in the Russian article, seem to relate to the socialpoint of view of his positions. The

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writings on this point. They Soviet's have been especiallycritical of Read and his accepting his critique of discuss the aesthetics ofHerbert Read. While partly Bourgeois Society, the authorrejects his Freudian andJungian bias, anti-rationalist stance, and implicitsuggestion that art is essentiallyin opposition to society, stating that he makes anunsuccessful attempt to combine asocial and a psychoanalytical approach. Evenalienation is treated in a non-marxist sense,and appears as a permanent state,rather than being sociallydetermined. His attempt to link man with hissocial context is so abstractthat it is doomed to failure. I think that some of these recentreviews of Read's importance andhis position in the development ofmodern art and aesthetic, fail onthe grounds that that Read made they view as being essentiallyinconsistent the very real attempts to attempt to reconcilethose alternate positions. Oneneeds to consider the components of:

(a) English Formlatism of Bell & Fry

(b) Marxism of Blunt

(c) Psychoanalytic theories of Jung aesthetic and one The conflicts in Read'sthinking between a purely personal which relates to social issueshas troubled many who havediscussed Read and his writings in recent times. An article entitled "TheFailure of Modernisms in theVisual Arts", discusses wide variety of the difficulty of defining'', a term which embraces a styles excepting realism andnaive . Herbert Readargued that the modern of which are more artist presents symbolicalyseveral levels of experience, some important than the imitation ofexternal phenomena. This implies,the author considers, that such imitation isthe ultimate goal of representationalart, a Page 9 representational element in thework of Cezanne, Van Goghand Gauguin, overestimates their role as"Revolutionary' Fathers of ModernArt'. Arnheim (on An article by Donnell(Donnel1,1975) appeals to Gombrich and the basis that the thesis, whichthey share, that we mentallyconstruct our own , means that we can seethings however we like), attacksH. R. Rookmaker, Sven Lovgren, HerbertRead and Roger Fry, and concludeswith some observations based on the writings andSuzanne Langer and R. G. Collingwood. I think that the article oyDonnell demonstrates thatnon-marxism critics and historians also have trouble with the3 components of Read's theories,with what I shall describe as the "Read Triad". An article by Woodcock(1972) has address some of the problemswith Read's thought that seemed to grow out of apparentinconsistencies in not only the events of his life, but from his writings aswell. Described by its author as a pre- biography, this book is in fact acharting of Read's intellectual lifeand critique of his achievement as poet andanarchist, novelist and autobiographer,critic of art, literature and life, aesthetic philosopherand revolutionary theoristof education. The author demonstrates howRead's mental world assumedthe form of the Mandala, that symbol of theeverlasting return which had peculiarsignificance for him; the circular pattern of Read'sonly novel, '', wasrepeated in the author's own life when hereturned to his native ,and the same pattern can be detectedin his , in his , evenin his art criticism which presupposes a constant return tothe archetypal. Following abiographical introduction, the chapters deal seriatimwith his imaginative prose(including autobiography), his poetry, his literarycriticism, his aesthetics, hisview of the social role of art, his anarchism,his educational theories, and, inthe final chapter

9 Page 10 entitled 'The Stream Returns', Read's workconsidered as a whole. I think that it also is clear fromthe writings of those whom I have citedthus far in this paper, that part of the troublewith Read's views and theories is in the

fact that he attempted to apply ideasof child development and education in art to the widder issues of art criticism and arttheory. In an article by Luckett (1979) with referenceto Herbert Read's 'Education

Through Art' (1943), the author analyes its'approach and its' influence on the

development of art education since the SecondWorld War. He proceeds to examine

the role of museums and art galleries ineducation and the problems of achieving

the kind of environment ideal for the encouragementof aesthetic development. In

terms of this, he discusses 'The ArtMuseum as Educator' (1978), a compendium or

art gallery education work inthe U.S.A. compiled over the previous six years,'A Child's Guide to Looking at ' byTerence Measham and and Frances Kennet, 'Looking at Pictures with Rolf Harris','Enjoying Pictures' by Helen Kapp,

'Museums and Galleries' by Molly Harrison,and 'Mein Museumsbuch' by Renate

Friedlander. A critical study by Lutchmannsign(1974) has taken a valuable general look at

Read and his development. In that studyhe argued that Sir Herbert Read's advocacy of between the early1930s and mid-1960s was based onthe

critical approaches of several thinkers.Read was a synoptic interpreter of art,

open to various and sometimescontradictory ideas, and convinced that nosingle formula could illuminate the diversity ofmodern movements. Consequently his

own writings are neither artcriticism nor art history, but what he called 'Philosophical Criticism'. For Read, modern art nolonger presented the truths of

tradition and culture, but those of evolvinghuman consciousness and experience.

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Thus, modernism was revolutionary, andlooked beyond the post-Renaissance mode for inspiration. This study examinesRead's principles, and finds them sometimes to be ambiguous, too strainedand too procrustean; yet at othertimes illuminating and felicitous. After the SecondWorld War, a final ambiguity in Read's position occurred when he opposed the attempt by someartists to merge art and life and to reduce the image to its pure visibility.

Read's influences and observations have goneinto multiple directions. His ideas about formalism caused him to make somehighly original observations about

visual forms and math. An article by Levanto(1977) discusses mathematical

concepts of art from Durer's Melancholia1' to the 20th century, referring to Jung's theories about the role of numbers in the humanpsyche and suggesting that these

ideas have not been seriously applied to thevisual arts. Herbert Read's definition of a mathematician as an abstract artistwho has not put his ideas in plastic form

and the ideas of Joseph Schillinger, whoalso tried to identify the position of

mathematics in art, are mentioned and artistswhose work is discussed include

Malevich, Mondrian and Duchamp.

The humanization of art was a continuedtheme in Read's writing's and its

power seen from the socialand marxist base. A study of Bernheim(1974) has explored this avenue in depth. This study ofBrosh's polyhistorical method

concentrates on the multipleinfluences on his aesthetics, and their reappearancein

'Die Schlafwandler' as stylistic indicationsof naturalsim, romanticism,

expressionism and neue sachlichkeit. Thekey issues of ornamentation and

abstraction are traced through their developmentin Worringer, Kandinsky, Gropius,

Herbert Read and 13roch's friend Adolf Loos,the Viennese architect. Profoundly

affected by alienation from certainty ofbelief, Brosh strove in his styLstic

1 1 Page 12 experiments to reestablish a unified'rehumanized' for the artist.Brosh's are seen to trilogy is examined, and its keyobservations of art and architecture of cognition and style as reveal the :omplexities of hisoften contradictory theories

forces needed to combat aestheticssterility and alienation, and thus to prepare

western man for ethicalregeneration. work has to be This is almost both pure Read aswell as pure Marx. Read's

viewed within a political and socialcontext. Afassishew hasdocumented clearly (Afassishew, 1979) He argued the plan of Read and otherswithin such a context. of the social that a strengthening of theideological function of art in the context societies. Art conflicts and contradictions beingencountered in western capitalist barrenness of is seen increasingly as a'compensation' for the alienation and sphere as one everyday existence. By 1800,Schiller had described the aesthetic

where the faculties of mancould develop harmoniously.'s analytical Thomas Munro work of the 1930s and 1940s onthis subject is also described. Experience' ('Toward Science in Aesthetics') saw arteither as contributing to 'Good ideas reduced art to a or as providing arefuge of the imagination. Freud's throttled by therapeutic medium, sublimatingthose drives and desires which are Burrow in his book the structures of Bourgeoiscivilization. Finally, the ideas of examined and 'The Neurosis of Man' and HerbertRead in 'Art and Alienation' are

criticized.

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Summary the current wave of There are some importantimplications of Read's thinking for interest in DBAE. Lanier andothers have raised questionsthat the excessive eliteism. As this paper dependence on formalism inDBAE opens it to charges of failed to reconcile has tried to show, Sir HerbertRead attempted once probably doctrines with one basic conflicts between an arteducation based on formalistic failure of DBAE if as a which more clearly related tothe social. Can one predict a

movement it persists with aformalistic aesthetic as a foundationfor education in

art.

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References Auty, G. The Failure of Modernismin the . Tract, No. 28(N).), pp. 9-22. Afassishew, M. The Function of Art inBourgeois Society. Die Funktion der Kunst in der Burger licher Gesellschaft.Kunst und Literatur, Vol. 27, Pt.11 (Nov. 1979), pp. 1145-56. Bernheim, M. A. The Monastery andthe Fortress: Broch's 'Die Schlafwandler'and the Rehumanisation of Modern Art.Ph.D. Disseration, Rutgers University. State University of New Jersey(1974), pp. 436. (Dissertation Abstracts International: Order No. 74-27, 585). Black, Sir M. "Hampstead Roots." Design,No. 312 (Dec. 1974), pp. 68-73. 22 Illus. Blunt, A. "From Bloomsbury to Marxism."Studio International, No. 960, Vol. 186 (Nov. 1973), pp. 164-8. Collinge, J. A. "Herbert Read's RomanticAnarchism: The Political Basis of 'Education Through Art'." Journal of theAustralian and New Zealand History of Education Society, Vol. 10, Pt. 1(1981), pp. 35-46. Donnell, C. A. "The Problem of Representationand Expressionism in Post- impressionist Art." British Journal of Aesthetics,Vol. 15, Pt. 3 (Summer 1975), pp. 226-38. Kuchin'ska, A. "Flight From Reality."Begstvo ot Deistvitel 'Nosti. Tvorchestvo, Pt. 12 (1973), pp. 10-11. Leontjewa, E. "Personlicheit." Kunst undLiteratur, Pt. 6 (1979), pp. 582-9. Levanto, Y. "Pictures and Figures."Kuvat Ja Luvut. Taide, Pt. 2(1977), pp. 34-40, 54. Summary inEnglish. 17 Illus. Luckett, H. "Education Through Art: ElevenYears After." Oxford Art Journal, Pt. 3 (Oct. 1979), pp. 50-3.1 Illus. Lutchmannsingh, L. D. "Sir Herbert Read'sPhilosophy of Modern Art." Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell Univeristy (1974), pp.232. (Dissertation Abstracts International: Order No. 75-6739). Meeson, P. "Herbert Read's Definitionof Art in 'Education Through Art'."Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 8, Pt. 3(July 1974), pp. 5-18. Stanton, C. H. "Microcosm of a CommittedDecade: Hampstead in the 1930s." Country Life, No. 4141, Vol. 160(Nov. 11, 1976), pp. 1420-2. 5 Illus. Thistlewood, D. "Herbert Read's AestheticTheorizing 1914-1952: an Interpretation of 'The Philosophy of ModernArt'." Art History, Vol. 2, Pt. 3 (Sept.1979), pp. 339-54. Woodcock, G. Herbert Read: The Streamand the Source. London: Faber and Faber (1972), pp. 304.

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