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Art Criticism
SUBJECT MATTER
BY WOLFGANG STECHOW, OBERLIN COLLEGE
HIS paper does not deal with all aspects of the funda-
mental antithesis indicated in the title. In the first
place, by "art" I mean the fine arts only, more particularlythe
representationalarts, and chiefly painting. The phrase "funda-
mental antithesis" indicates a second major restriction. "Sub-
ject-matter"and "form" are not here consideredas two comple-
mentary terms distinguishedonly for purposesof philosophical
analysis. My purpose is rather to contrast those works of art
and views on art which emphasizesubject-matteras at least one
matter of primary interest, with others which emphasize form
almost to the exclusion of matter. This implies a third restric-
tion, and it is that my concern is with the meaning of the prob-
lem of subject-matterand form to our time. To the people of
the Middle Ages or even of the Renaissanceand the Baroque
period, it would have seemed more or less absurd to speak of
actual contrasts between subject-matter and form. What we
still call representationalart was then naturally and necessarily
representational, although by no means to the exclusion of
formal beauty and the appreciationof it. Not until the period
around 1900 was there any doubt as to the fundamentallyrep-
resentationalcharacterof painting and sculpture nor was there
any tendency to judge the art of any other time by standards
which do not take into account its representationalnature as a
matter of primaryinterest. However, when the problemof ab-
stract art began to command the attention of everyone con-
cerned with art, it became a custom to look at works of art of
the past with eyes sympathetic to their merely formal quality
and apathetic to their subject-matter.
The parallel just drawn between recent creative art and recent
art history will be another major concern of mine. For this
there is ample justification. Artists and art historians are not
always on good terms with one another. Most artists are likely
to look upon an art historian as did the former king of Saxony,
who, when a gentleman of that profession was introduced to
him, hesitated a moment and then remarked in his famous dia-
lect, "Well, I suppose there must be some reason for their exist-
ence"--which is perhaps more than some modern artists will
concede. One of the major faults usually laid by artists at the
doors of art historians is their alleged lack of interest in the
problems of modern art; to which the art historian may well
retort that modern artists care far too little for the great works
of the past. Whatever the truth-or the rrrajortruth-may be,
I wish to point to the fact that in regard to our main problem
artists and art historians have, curiously enough, taken an iden-
tical stand during the last few generations. 'In fact I cannot
see how research in art history can possibly fail to reflect the
main movements of living art if it is carried out by people with
some feeling for art. Art history, after all, is not an exact sci-
ence, but one of the most complicated-and, to an exact scien-
tist, one of the most hybrid-compromises between science and
artistic intuition that can possibly be imagined.
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AND FORM
It was certainly not an "accident" that Velasquez and Frans
Hals were "rediscovered"when impressionismbegan to prevail
as the most influential modern trend; and this rediscoverywas
made by artists and art historiansat the same time. It was not
due to technical parallels only, though these are important and
evident. It was also due to the beginningsof a commonlack of
interest in significant and "dignified"subject-matter,rightly or
wrongly projectedback into the seventeenthcentury. How well
did Frans Hals seem to fit into the artistic creed of people who
claimed that it was just as meritoriousto paint a head of cab-
bage as a Madonna, providedit was paintedwell! Here was a
man whose subjectswere portraitsof ordinarypeople and genre
scenes of everyday life. How beautifully did Hals' practice
seem to exemplify the theories dear to the impressionists!
(However, the naivete of this view, at least as far as the por-
traits are concerned, is now evident to us: The fact that the
sitters of Frans Hals were no longer of any interest to the im-
pressionisticpainters and writers, does not imply that they did
not interest Frans Hals).
When the glory of impressionismfaded away and expressionism
came into being at least in some parts of Europe, new faces
emerged from the still inexhaustible hunting-grounds of art
history. First came El Greco (ca. 1900), and he was immedi-
ately followed by Gruinewald. Medieval works which seemedto
lend validity to the newest theories, such as Ravenna mosaics,
Reichenau book illuminations, and the Gothic vesper images of
the fourteenth century, were labelled expressionisticand were
widely publicized. It is easy to see that the new emphasison
these works was closely related to the work of the German
artists of the "Briicke", such as Schmitt-Rottluff, Heckel, and
Kirchner, of Nolde and Franz Marc whose immediate prede-
cessors had been van Gogh, Hodler, and Munch. Artists of
immense spiritual scope like Diirer, Michelangelo, and Rem-
brandt were now viewed from different angles, and one aspect
of their art was rediscoveredand extolled at the cost of others
equally important. A noteworthy case is the neglect and even
condemnationof Duirer's Renaissance period and the extrava-
gant praise of his Gothic-expressionisticearly works, such as the
Revelation of St. John. Subject-matter was highly valued
again for some time-at least hectic subject-matterwas.
The contempt for subject-matterwhich marks the last thirty
years or so of modernart-as far as it has been characteristically
modern art-is clearly reflected in the art history of the same
period. Picasso and Braque painted their first experimentsin
abstractart-to be exact, of cubist art, which was the immediate
forerunner of purely abstract art-around 1910; that is, prac-
tically at the time of the climax of expressionism.A few years
later, German expressionism,in one of the strangest metamor-
phosesin the history of art, collapsedinto similarly abstractpat-
terns in the later works of Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky.
An artistic movement which might have contributedmuch to a students was-and sometimesis-equally true of many art his-
revival of the interest in subject-matter, yielded, for reasons torians in responsiblepositions, e. g., of directorsof public col-
which are worth investigating, to the abstract-constructivemind lections, although this is much more frequently true in Europe
of the Franco-Spanishschool. But they lacked the vigor of the than in this country where museumsare infinitely better adapted
French, and thus it happened that the decorative pillow-cover to their pedagogicalaims. Many of these people were-and are
loomed large over the deathbed of expressionism. Art history -of the opinion that they can expect their visitors to be inter-
followed closely. Overwhelming though the enthusiasm for ested in the attribution of some painting to "Compagno di
Gothic Pietas, Greco Madonnas, and Griinewald Crucifixions Agnolo" or "The Master of the EmbroideredFoliage" or, as
seemed to be, the interpretation of them by art historians showed Mr. Berenson is reported to say, to "Don't bother me of Fie-
the same tendency to turn expressionistic vision into a subject sole". At the same time they would not even indicate the
for the analysis of pure form. In France, where expressionism subject-matterof the painting on exhibit, let alone explain it a
had never played an important role and where art history fol- little more thoroughly. They are not too lazy to do so, but they
lowed either the traditional archaeological path or the connois- consider it unartistic to be interested in subject-matter,and a
seur line, abstraction caused an immediate revival of interest in wrong policy to yield to people's natural curiosity in this re-
Poussin, David, and Ingres, although this became less evident spect. I do not wish to be misunderstood. I am not pleading
in the writings of art-historians than in exhibitions and the for a return to outmodedliterary perceptionand novelistic inter-
preferences of collectors. Of outstanding importance and influ- pretation of works of art. But I do think that neglecting
ence in art history everywhere became the books, and in particu- subject-matteraltogether will not get us anywhere except to an
lar the Principles of Art History, of Heinrich W6lfflin, a great ever greater and more disastrous chasm between an esoteric
scholar with an infallible sense of artistic form and an equally circle of artists and art historianson one side and a public stub-
infallible sense of literary form, the master of a concise and bornly prying into subject-matteron the other.
lucid style. Most art historians of this generation-and, I ven-
ture to say, of many generations to come-are, and can be ex- What about abstractart itself ? Here I am moving on treacher-
pected to remain, strongly influenced by Wolfflin's theory which ous ground. I am quite aware that purely abstract art con-
sees the development of art as a development of the eyes of the
sciously eliminates representationalsubject-matter,but not some
artists and explains the resulting changes of form in terms of sort of "content". An abstract painter and sculptor would at
some essential categories of seeing and shaping. Wolfflin himself least claim that the content of his work-which after all is not,
has admitted that the subject of his analyses was not art as a or is not intended to be, a mere decorative pattern-is some
whole (and not even the whole art of the sixteenth and seven-
general feeling of movementor rest, of joy or sorrow, of grand-
teenth centuries to which his examples are confined); he only eur or pettiness, and so on. I have said "at least", because I
wanted to show, according to his own words, "the pattern, the know that some abstract artists are still under the impression
possibilities of seeing and forming, within whose range the art that the person who beholds their works should, if sufficiently
of those times remained and was compelled to remain". I am
gifted and properly educated, be able to recognize in them the
convinced that even with these restrictions, many parts of this artist's first love or his views on war and peace. In 1923,
admirable book remain highly controversial; and if this is true Picasso was quoted as saying: "The fact that . . . there are
of W6lfflin's own work, how true is it apt to be of a host of
people who cannot see anything in cubism means nothing. I do
books that came in its wake, overemphasizing, as was to be ex- not read English . . . but this does not mean that the English
pected, the most controversial points of it. language does not exist." Quite so, but we used to think that
art was an internationallanguage; and I would prefer to draw
Purely formal analyses of this kind tend to sever the natural a different analogy. Asking the public to appreciatean abstract
relationship between subject-matter and form, and to play as it painting with representationalaims is like publishingan English
were with particles of form, which is what some abstract paint- poem in Chinese characters and then blaming the reluctant
ers did and still do. Great works of art were thus analyzed to public for not knowing English. If abstract art has any mean-
pieces. They often seemed to consist of nothing but horizontals ing at all, it is an honest attempt to abandonsubject-matterfor
and verticals, lines and values, plane and recession, without any the sake of emotional expressionof the most general kind, but of
reference to the underlying subject-matter, which alone can pro- some specific intensity. Kandinsky has presented this view in
vide the key to an understanding of their formal structure. The his writings as well as in his paintings. But here anotherdanger
result was that students of art history, and eventually art lovers looms large, namely the danger of confusion between the nat-
in general, would frequently be found arguing and quarreling ural spheres of the visual arts and of music. Ten years ago I
about chimeras. A favorite topic of such debates was whether ventured to call abstractpainting an unfortunate encroachment
some third-rate picture of the latter part of the sixteenth cen- by the visual arts on the territory of music, and comparedit to
tury was "still" a Renaissance painting or "already" a Baroque the reciprocal encroachmentmade by program music-which
painting-a good guess being that it was neither, but a typical does express subject-matter-on the territory of the visual arts.
work of the manneristic style between Renaissance and Baroque, At that time, a furious counterattackwas launched by artists
which had been neglected in Wolfflin's scheme. On the other and musicians. I suspect that those counterattackswould now
hand, these same students would have stood in embarrassed be far less violent.
silence if asked to indicate even the most essential points of the
subject-matterof Raphael's School of Athens, Rubens' Medici In fact the general trend seems to be toward restorationof the
Cycle, or Rembrandt's Night Watch. What was true of the importance and dignity of subject-matter. And this applies to

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 creative art as well as to art history. May I emphasizeagain tremely interestingfield of researchas well as of artistic inspira-
that by this I do not mean that there is, or should be, a general tion, but we now are asking differentquestionsof these artists as
trend toward a simple repetition of the novelistic art or art in- we do of Hals and Griinewald. The mere husk of their work,
terpretationof the 1850's and 1860's. Piloty and Leutze are- their formal structure as such, has been sufficientlyinvestigated.
we will all agree-as remote from our artistic creed as they We are trying to penetrate more deeply into that which re-
were from Franz Marc's and Lyonel Feininger's. We continue uired and producedthat particular formal structure. This is a
to analyze works of art to our students with a good deal of difficult enterprise, since it involves a good deal more than
emphasis on their basic formal qualities. We certainly do not formal analysis; it requiresan additional understandingof the
encouragecalling abstract art bad art becauseto our mind it is most varied currents and aspects of the cultural milieu of the
no longer the absolute perfection of art. We do not encourage artist and of his individual predilectionsin matters other than
replacing it with mere novelistic productions,which would be merely formal. It requiresconcentrationon a host of seemingly
called bad art with much better justification. But it seems to non-artisticmatters, and this, too, in the face of an overwhelm-
me that the visual arts are definitely,maybe definitively,return- ing increase of materials for the study of art history that seem
ing to what after all is the visual world of all of us, and that to call for more and more specialization. Yet, if we really want
this development shows all the signs of a wholesome process, to give our own view of those problems,as every generationup
even if it takes on such strange forms as surrealism. Recent to now has tried to give its own, we have got to face that chal-
works by some of the former deriders of subject-mattershow lenge; and it seems to me that a good deal of working time
that they do not mind following this trend. Even Picasso has could be saved by turning more definitelyand passionatelyto the
turned back to more definitely representationalpainting. I great masters. We have got to revise our interpretationsof the
know that in Picasso's imagination there is room for many greatest masters in the light of new researchinto the meaning
styles at the same time, and that he continues painting abstract which they wanted to put into their works, or rather which im-
or semi-abstractthings. But I think it should not be denied pelled them to create those works, investing them with beautiful
(although Picasso himself does deny it) that his more recent forms. Great works of painting and sculpture are, after all, an
representational,classicisticworks form the logical climax of an expressionof the artist's creed and view of the universe, stated
evolution which started with his "blue" and "pink" periods, and in one particular subject and exalted into eternal values by
within which his abstract works, though perhaps not his earlier virtue of beautiful form; in other words, subject matter trans-
cubist works, appear as an irrelevant episode rather than a muted into content through form. This, however, presupposes
necessary step towards the final goal. More important still are understanding on our part, as it presupposesintelligibility on
those modern artists who firmly and unequivocally believe in the part of the artist and his work. A monologueby the artist
subject-matter and who by virtue of their own ability, and with in a language intelligible only to himself is no concern of ours,
the support of intelligent patrons, are adding more and more but we cannot help listening when we are addressedby an artist
evidence to the belief that it is they who represent the best in with a universal message. However, the message may come
modern painting-and, perhaps to a lesser degree, in modern from a time which is not ours; and this is the everydaypredica-
sculpture. In this connection, the art of this country is of para- ment of the art historian. It may come from the Middle Ages,
mount importance, not only because of the artists concerned, but when "realism" in art did not exist because our realities were
also because of the large-minded and farsighted collaboration of not consideredreal and things were consideredreal which to us
the government. If American artists are now in the forefront have become very unreal. The message may come from the
of those who would effect a long-overdue reconciliation between Renaissance,when our realities emerged for the first time, but
artist and public, that is due to the fact that they are restoring so intermixed with traditional ideas that artistic expressionbe-
subject-matter to its former dignity. Is there really anyone now came extremely complex. The message may
come from the
who would blame the public for wanting "a story" instead of a Baroque period which is a little nearer to us but still remote, so
mere pattern in their post offices? Is there anybody who denies that we must recover and understand its passion for religious
that the representation, the artistic representation of course, of a and mythological expression before we can grasp the very es-
local saga or historical event or of a human allegory is a digni- sence of the art of Rubens and Rembrandt and Bernini. No
fied task for a modern painter besides being a natural desire on verticals and horizontals, no lines and values alone can give us
the part of the public ? access to Rembrandt's greatest artistic achievements if we do
not know the biblical stories-and who knows them well
enough?-which he wanted to convey to us in his very personal
As far as art history is concerned, a very similar tendency to- Let us not be deceivedby the popular concep-
interpretations.
ward revaluation of subject-matter cannot be overlooked. This tion of the great artist of the past who did not care whether his
has become evident, as it did before, in the objects of researches
spiritual message was understood or not, if only the beauty of
in art history, but even more so in its methods. As to the ob- his brushstrokeswas
appreciated-a fake conception put for-
jects, there have been hardly any new discoveries such as those ward and sold cheaplyby 'art pour l'art minds of the nineteenth
of Hals and Velasquez by the impressionists, and of El Greco
century, but utterly false in its applicationto an artist like Rem-
and Griinewald by the expressionists-possibly because the
brandt, lonesomethough he was in his old age.
"frontier" has been reached. Poussin, David, and Ingres had
not been actually rediscoveredby the abstractionistseither; they
Once more I must insist that I am not advocating any neglect
merely emphasizedcertain aspects of their work and studied it
of form, either in creative art or in art history. Particularly as
from new points of view. The same is true of the present situ-
ation. The art of Poussin, David, and Ingres is still an ex- (See page 122)

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 BOOKS RECEIVED:
E. & A. SILBERMAN
MIDTOWN UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREEby
GALLERIES, Inc.
GA L LER I ES Thomas Hardy, with wood engravings
A. D. DIRECTOR
by Clare Leighton. The Macmillan
GRUSKIN,
Company, New York, 1940. x and 237
pp., $3.50 PAINTINGS
Objects of Art
LEONARDO DA VINCI THE BIOSO-
PHER by Frederick Kettner, with a
foreword by Hughes Mearns. Biosoph-
ical Series, no. V, The Biosophical Insti- 325 East 57th Street
tute, New York, 1940. 20 pp., $0.10
New York
HISPANIC GLASS, with Examples in
the Collection of The Hispanic Society
of America, by Alice Wilson Frothing-
ham. The Hispanic Society of America, First exhibition in 7 years
New York, 1941. xviii and 204 pp., 125
ill.

ANCIENT CHINESE BRONZES AND SPEICHER

CHINESEJEWELRYselected from the
EXHIBITION
DORIS PAINTINGS
Collection of C. T. Loo of New York
City; ExhibitionCatalogue, The Toledo Through March
ROSENTHAL Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 1941.
131 entries, all illustrated.
Through March 2nd Frank Rehn Gallery
605 MADISON AVE., N. Y. THE PAGEANT OF ART by Bernard 683 Fifth Ave (bet. 53 & 54 St.)
(Between 57th & 58th Sts.) New York, N. Y.
Myers. Columbia University Press, for
the National Broadcasting Company,
New York, 1941. 72 pp., 32 ill., $0.25

TYPE SPECIMENS FOR LAYOUT,

PRINTING, LETTERINGby William
DURAND-RUEL Longyear. Watson-Guptill Publications,
Inc., New York, 1940. 16 pp. of text,
KANDINSKY
100 pl., $2,50
Established 1803
Through March 22

SUBJECTMATTERAND
FORMIN ART by NIERENDORF
Wolfgang Stechow 18 East 57th Street, New York
PAINTINGS (Continued from page 106)

far as the educationof the public at large

is concerned,I am perfectly aware of the *^<~k
tremendousneed to emphasizeform as a
counterbalance to the public's natural BOSTON
preference for subject-matterand to the
inadequate aesthetic concepts and prin- MUSEUM
ciples resulting from it. Yet only new
ways of thought will successfullyprevent SCHOOL
12 EAST 57th STREET us from resting on our laurels. Thus the ? painting ? fresco
aim I should like to proclaim is by no ? drawing ? anatomy
NEW YORK means one of great originality, but rath- ? sculpture ? advertising
er the inevitable one, namely, synthesis ? design ? perspective
of subject-matter and form. If this is * silversmithing ? jewelry
37 Avenue De Friedland Paris (8e) eclecticism,we may afford to be eclectics. tuition and traveling scholarships
I do not believe that this path necessarily
illustrated catalogue 229 fenway
leads to dullness, whether in creative
work, in research,or in teaching.

PAGE 122

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