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Conflicts of the Artist in Mass Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Mason Griff
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Degradation has been associated with earning a livelihood in the arts since at least Plato, who showed disdain for the sophists who taught rhetorics for money. Aristotle with his concept energeia—which he designated as all activities that do not pursue an end but exhaust their full meanings in the performance itself—infused into western tradition the idea that only what we do for its own sake is noble. The lucre-versus-glory conflict pervades all writings on art from Leonardo and Vasari to the 19th century idea of the “pot au feu” and “making concessions” to the public. Only to paint for glory and immortality is noble, to submit to the whims of a patron is treason to art itself. These attitudes are rejected by many contemporary artists as anachronistic and sentimental snobbishness. Many artists, on the other hand, consider them viable. For them, living up to these ideals and subsisting at the same time is a dilemma. Patronage has virtually disappeared and the public purchases paintings from the well-established artists. Many resolve their dilemma by entering commercial or, as many prefer to call it, advertising art because there is a large and increasing demand for their skills. These circumstances, together with the historical sentiments referred to, led me to ask the following questions: What social-psychological conflicts do artists experience when they enter advertising art? What changes do they undergo in their identity as they mature as commercial or advertising artists? And what are the implications of working in advertising art for the artist, his art and for the mass society of which he and his work are a part? These questions formed the basis of an empirical study of 53 commercial artists who were living in Chicago. Part of that study is described in this paper.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 12 , Issue 46 , June 1964 , pp. 54 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © 1964 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Edward Shils, "The Traditions of Intellectuals," in The Intellectuals, George B. de Huszar, ed., Glencoe, Ill., The Free Press, 1960, p. 55. In this article, Shils discusses the tension between the traditions of the intellectual class and those of the business class. He is more general in his discussion of this conflict than I am in my discussion of the artist and advertising.

2 Ibid., p. 56.

3 Ibid., p. 57.

4 Paul Parker, "The Iconography of Advertising Art," Harper's, June, 1938, p. 80.

5 Contrast this with many fine arts paintings such as a typical high renaissance picture like Raphael's School of Athens. For more technical differ ences, see Paul Parker, The Analysis of the Style of Advertising Art. Chicago, Dec., 1937, pp. 119-122. Unpublished masters dissertation, The Univ. of Chicago, Department of Art.

6 I use this term to distinguish the professional commercial artist from the neophyte.

7 Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904, p. 53. There have been many philosophical treatments of the effects of depersonalization; see e. g. Gabriel Marcel, Les hommes contre l'humain, Paris, Ed. de la Colombe, 1951, English transl.: Man against Mass Society. Chicago, Henry Regnery Co., 1962.

8 This is very similar to the master—apprentice relationship of the past. See W. Martin, "The Life of a Dutch Artist in the 17th Century," The Burlington Magazine, Vol. VII, Part II, p. 126.

9 For a fuller description of these other roles see: Mason Griff, "The Commercial Artist: A Study in Changing and Consistent Identities," in Identity and Anxiety, Stein, Vidich & White (eds.), Glencoe, Ill., The Free Press, 1960, pp. 219-241.

10 Edward Shils, "Ideology and Civility," The Sewanee Review LXVI, Summer 1958.

11 I use this term broadly.

12 For an elaborate treatment of this theme see Geraldine Pelles, Art, Artists and Society: Origins of a Modern Dilemma. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1963.

13 Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty. London, Oxford University Press, 1958, pp. 39-41. (The ultimate contrary possibility is the complete subjugation of the self to others, the frequent theme of many contemporary social critics.)

14 This separation does not occur in many eastern religions and philosophies, See Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, The Religious Basis of the Forms of Indian Society. New York, Orientalia, 1946, pp. 14, 20, passim.

15 Plato Selections, edited by Raphael Demos. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. 1955, Ion, pp. 234-251.

16 Walter John Tomasini, The Social and Economic Position of the Florentine Artist in the 15th Century. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. The University of Michigan, 1953. Also see Jean Paul Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci. Oxford Press, 1939.

17 Joseph W. Krutch, The Measure of Man, Chap. 7, "How Probable is Probability," New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1953, p. 147-158.

18 Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind. New York, Vintage Books, Inc., 1955, p. 164. Milosz refers, in a similar vein, to the fear of poets finding themselves alone before a sheet of blank paper.