What Art Is OnlineWhat Art Is OnlineThe critical neglect of work by contemporary painters and sculptors who are perceived as merely "traditional" or "academic" was a major impetus to our writing What Art Is. Though our application of Ayn Rand's theory in Part II of the book focused more on discrediting the avant-garde than on analyzing legitimate works of art or championing neglected artists, this website may serve, in part--as did our former journal Aristos--to redress that balance.
Recent evidence of critical bias with respect to figurative sculpture can be found in an article by critic Michael Kimmelman in the Sunday New York Times Arts & Leisure section about the projected World Trade Center Memorial ("Out of Minimalism, Monuments to Memory," 13 January 2002). Arguing that the most appropriate (even inevitable) memorial to those lost in the September 11 terrorist attack on New York City would be abstract or "Minimalist" in conception, Kimmelman frequently cites the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., as a model. His article prompted us to write the following letter of objection to the Times (the bracketed portions were omitted by the Times when it published the letter, on 27 January 2002):
[Michael Kimmelman's prediction that any memorial built at the former World Trade Center site will have a "Minimalist" look--which he clearly favors--may unfortunately come true. But he ought not have distorted the historical record about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington to make his case.]
Four times Mr. Kimmelman refers to the memorial as being by Maya Lin. In fact, only half of it--the black granite wall bearing the names of soldiers dead or missing--is by her. The other half consists of a bronze group of three soldiers in combat gear by Frederick Hart, one of America's leading sculptors until his death in 1999. Mr. Kimmelman does not even mention his name.
In a dismissive allusion to the Hart piece, Mr. Kimmelman conveys the impression that it was merely a "realist art contingent" led by Ross Perot and the former Interior Secretary James Watt that "managed to get a figurative sculpture installed" near Ms. Lin's wall. [He ignores that] this "contingent" included countless veterans of the Vietnam war [who had fought--often at a terrible price--and survived.]
Our letter appeared (under the caption "The Other Half") with five other letters on Kimmelman's article--none of which questioned his preference for a minimalist design or mentioned Hart. But the editorial omission of our opening paragraph had the unfortunate effect of downplaying our main point, which was to call attention to Kimmelman's critical bias.[*]
On the positive side, however, our letter prompted the Times to publish a sizable photograph of Hart's Three Soldiers with the letters, thus reminding the public of his critically neglected work. Even this single image demonstrated what distinguishes Hart's work of figurative art from Maya Lin's minimalist design.
Lin's Wall, with its seemingly endless succession of names carved into polished black granite, suggests the magnitude of the war's losses in relatively abstract terms--which can be personalized and made emotionally meaningful only through each visitor's introspection. To her credit, it has proved to be a remarkably powerful design.
Hart's sculpture does something quite different, however. It does not require the viewer to supply emotional meaning from his own memory or imagination. It directly embodies something about the actual experience of the war by those who fought in it. (We will never forget the immediacy and intensity of its emotional impact on us when we first approached it on its site above the Wall some years ago.) The vulnerability of these young soldiers is palpable--a vulnerability made less terrible but more poignant by their expression of cautious vigilance and by the loyalty and comraderie Hart conveyed through the group's close-knit composition and subtle gestures. As he once told an interviewer, their physical contact and sense of unity "bespeak the bonds of love" common to men at war.
February 2002
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* For some unaccountable reason, the Times also took the liberty of transposing the order of our names (originally "Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi"). In addition, it omitted the relevant fact that we are the authors of a book on the nature of art--further indication of its bias, it seems, since other letters published in the Times not infrequently carry information about the authors even when it is irrelevant to the topic.