The New Job Of Art

It Was Van Gogh's Madness That Prevented Him From Working; The Paintings Themselves Are Ineffably Sane, If Sanity Is To Be Defined In Terms Of Exact Judgment Of Ends And Means And The Power Of Visual Analysis.

Indeed, The Idea That Doubt Can Be Heroic, If It Is Locked Into A Structure As Grand As That Of The Paintings Of Cezanne's Old Age, Is One Of The Keys To Our Century. A Touchstone Of Modernity Itself.

We Have Entered A Period Of Intolerance Which Combines, As It Sometimes Does In America, With A Sugary Taste For Euphemism. This Conjunction Fosters Events That Go Beyond The Wildest Dream Of Satire- If Satire Existed In America Anymore; Perhaps The Reason For Its Weakness Is That Reality Has Superseded It.

We Want To Create A Sort Of Linguistic Lourdes, Where Evil And Misfortune Are Dispelled By A Dip In The Waters Of Euphemism

It Is Hard To Think Of Any Work Of Art Of Which One Can Say 'this Saved The Life Of One Jew, One Vietnamese, One Cambodian'. Specific Books, Perhaps; But As Far As One Can Tell, No Paintings Or Sculptures. The Difference Between Us And The Artists Of The 1920's Is That They They Thought Such A Work Of Art Could Be Made. Perhaps It Was A Certain Naivete That Made Them Think So. But It Is Certainly Our Loss That We Cannot.