THE SECRET PURPOSE OF ART

Jed Pearl, ed., Art in America 1945-1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism (New York: Library of America, 2014) (From "Excerpts from an Unfinished Manuscript Titles 'Art'": "If you examine all existing tapestries of the fifteen century, you will find that they are all beautiful and perfect in every aspect of craft, composition and art. How do you account that today in ten thousand paintings you hardly find one palatable? There must be an explanation. It is because the epoch itself was better, stricter and the craft itself was more rigorous and exclusive, and men were inspired not by 'art' but by a religious fervor or craft fervor. All this is to show that instead of trying for greater so-called 'freedom of expression' or destruction of the world around and of themselves, so-called 'artists' should try to devote themselves to a detached subject and to their own craft, try to convey a message and not to produce a pretty decoration. The purpose of life in society, art and civilization, is: the greater order, discipline, control and inhibitions to produce and organize culture, a culture that functions in concert, like an organism. In Zen, the archer must reach such technical and spiritual perfection as to identify himself to such an extent with the target, that the target becomes himself. Perfection means that the arrow, sent out by the archer, hits the archer himself, square in the solar-plexus, this realizing the perfect Sunburst, because self-immolation is the ultimate aim of archery, and of itself. The Greeks knew it and so did the Egyptians. Hence the secret of Egyptian and Greek statuary is that every male figure of a divinity or warrior is always wide-open, defenseless, ready for the great Ritual Immolation, the secret purpose of all arts, of all endeavor! This heroic task is not for the feeble-minded, soft, scheming, pettyfoggers, doubledealers and scavengers. The artist's job is a Hector's task and nothing less. Those who are not equipped with Hector's heart, aim and perspicacity, should keep their profane hands off the domain of art." Id. at 316, 320-321.).