The Little Review, June 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 4)Various
General
The Little Review, June 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 4)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
The purely Symbolistic artist, on the other hand, grants freedom to the
public. Vague tones, dim outlines, abstract figures, imperceptible
moods, misty reflections, make his art unyielding to a definite
interpretation. All he imposes upon us is an atmosphere, into which we
are invited to come and co-create. Here is a canvas, here are colors,
here are moods; go ahead and make out of them what you like. We are thus
left to our own guidance; we are enabled to put our ego into the
artist's work, we are free to find in it whatever reflections we choose
and to form our own conceptions. If we succeed in solving the problem,
if we make the symbol live in our imagination, we experience the bliss
of creation; should we fail in our task, should the symbol remain
meaningless to us, we conclude that the given atmosphere is alien to our
mind. Music of all arts is the most symbolical. True, Wagner and Strauss
have endeavored to impose upon the listener leit-motifs, to dictate the
public an interpretation of specific tones, but they have failed in
their attempts to introduce a sort of a "key" to music; we remain
autonomous in "explaining" Siegfried and Don Quixote.
Which of the methods is preferable? I should resent any narrow decision
on this point. A crystalline September day or a purple-crimson sunset,
how can we choose? We delight in both, but in one case we admire the
visible beauty, while in the other we make one step forward and
complement the seen splendor with strokes of our creative imagination.
Perhaps my non-partisanship is due to my dilettantism; as it is, I
approach a book or a picture with one scale: is it a work of art? If it
is, then any method is justifiable, no matter how differently it may
appeal to the individual taste.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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