New worlds for old: A plain account of modern socialismWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
General
New worlds for old: A plain account of modern socialism
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Socialism
But now, suppose you are an artist--and I use the word to cover all
sorts of art, literary, dramatic and musical, as well as painting,
sculpture, design and architecture--you want before all things freedom
for personal expression, and you probably have an idea that this is
the last thing you will get in the Socialist State. But, indeed, you
will get far more than you do now. You will begin as a student, no
doubt, in your local Municipal Art Schools, and there you will win
prizes and scholarships and get some glorious years of youth and work
in Italy or Paris, or Germany or London, or Boston or New York, or
wherever the great teachers and workers of your art gather thickest;
and then you will compete, perhaps, for some public work, and have
something printed or published or reproduced and sold for you by your
school or city; or get a loan from your home municipality for
material--if your material costs money--and set to work making that
into some saleable beautiful thing. If you are at all distinguished in
quality, you will have a competition among public authorities from the
beginning, to act as sponsors and dealers for your work; benevolent
dealers they will be, and content with a commission. And if you make
things that make many people interested and happy, you may by that
fortunate gift of yours, grow to be as rich and magnificent a person
as any one in the Socialist State. But if you do not please people at
all, either the connoisseurs of the municipal art collection or
private associations of art patrons or the popular buyer, well, then
your lot will be no harder than the lot of any unsuccessful artist
now; you will have to do something else for a time and win leisure to
try again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account