Fifty-third year of publication
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A PERSONAL MATTER—
Man's Art Imitates Nature, Adler Tells Crowd
liiwiu LUtt.ii line
art” and what is and Isn’t art is
!'■ personal matter, Mortimer J.
Adler, Chicago university profes
sor of philosophy of law, told
nearly 1,000 persons Tuesday in
tlie SU ballroom.
Adler presented what he termed
a cure for artiness by relating
how things look from the- point of
view of man and the view of God.
A painting by Mlchaelangelo
and one by a child are very close
from God's point of view, he said,
but from-man’s point of view, they
are very far apart. Both views are
true, he said.
Art and Nuture
“Art must imitate nature or it
is unintelligible,’’ Adler empha
sized. He contrasted contemporary
art, which has become divorced
from human form or imitation of
it, with older art forms.
Ai t should be broader than just
fine arts, Adler said, and should
lnf.juae ovory human undertaking.
He .laid he detested the use of the
word “creation” in referring to
what man made.
“Man does not create,” Adler
said, in the sense that he takes
nothing and makes something out
of it.
Only God does that, the speaker
said; and this is the difference be
tween God and man.
Two Kinds
Adler defined the two types of
art as cooperative art and fully
operative art.
The cooperative arts are farm
ing, healing and teaching, he said.
These artists work on living sub
stance, helping nature do what
she tends to do herself.
It is a type of imitation and
therefore art, he said. The farm
er, doctor and teacher act as na
ture acts after observing nature,
d he doctor heals after observing
how nature heals.
In the operative arts the artist
works on dead matter, making
forms which nature herself would
never tend to make.
There are two types of operat
ive arts, he said, those that are
ends in themselves and those which
are means to ends.
Shoe and automobile making are
useful operative arts, but fine arts
are an end in themselves.
Fine arts are given proper
names, Adler observed, and each
piece of fine art has an individu
ality, while useful objects are not
given this distinction.
Free and Enslaved
Adler differentiated between
“free” and “enslaved” fine arts.
“Free” art, like music has be«n
liberated by the written symbol.
The plastic arts are enslaved by
matter.
Adler emphasized that all these
arts are imitations; the useful arts
imitating natural functions. The
Ross to Speak
On Architecture
Marion Ross, associate professor'
of architecture, will speak at 7:30
p.m. in the browsing room on “Con
temporary American Architec
ture.”
Ross will discuss the character
isli<of American architecture and (
review the significant buildings
that have been erected since 1915.
He will show slides representing
examples of residential, education
al and commercial buildings.
This lecture is one of the fea
tures of the 1953 Festival of Con
temporary Arts which is in its sec
ond week on the campus and will
run through March 13. Ross is the
third lecturer to speak here this
week.
Hill-Billy Music
On Capitol Hill
What this country needs is a
national hill-billy day, according
to Democratic Congressman Ar
thur \\ instead of Mississippi.
The representative, a great lov
er of mountain music, asked Con
gress to set aside May 26 of each
year in recognition of the contri
butions made to American music
by the writers, singers and play
ers of hill-billy music.
Award Error Made;
SAM's Get Tea Set
Sigma Alpha Mu, not Alpha Tau
Omega, won the silver tea set for
second place in the number of
dads registered for Dads Day,
John Gamiles, general chairman
has announced.
LEO HARRIS
Who Runs the UO?
Leo A. Harris, athletic director, was appointed in 1947 to his pres
ent position. ^
Harris graduated from Stanford university with a bachelor of arts
degree in 1026 and a master of arts degree in education administra
tion in 1929.
At Stanford he played football,
| basketball, water polo and also
boxed. After graduation he
coached football, basketball and
baseball at Fresno high school for
five years. He was varsity basket
ball coach at Fresno State college
for one year and football coach
t for four years.
| Harris then returned to Fresno
I high school and served as prin
| cipal for six years. After two years
in the Navy and the National
Guard, he was then appointed su
| perintendent of schools at Carmel,
Calif. He was at Carmel for two
years before coming to the UO.
As director of athletics, Harris
makes all sports schedules and is
responsible for the athletic budget,
all physical facilities and the pur
chase of all equipment. He also
maintains inter-institutional rela
tions through the PCC and NCAA.
Ballet to Feature
Dance Favorites
Selections from “Swan Lake,’’
“The Blue Bird’’ and other popu
lar ballet numbers will be fea
tured by the Ballet Russe de
Monte Carlo at its Friday evening
program at McArthur Court.
Admission to the concert, which
is to be held at 8 p.m., is by stu
dent body card or Civic Music As
sociation membership card. The
CMA is the organization sponsor
ing the appearance of the 15
dancers.
Gounod’s “Faust’’ is the basis
for the finale number' of the
troupe. Entitled “Cirque de Deux,”
01 Circus for Two,’’ the produc
tion is a satire on the graces of
foreign balerinas.
Friday Deadline
For Billiard Team
The deadline for students to sign
up for the Oregon billiards team
to compete in the Inter-Collegiate
Billiards tournament, March 5
through 19 in the Student Union,
is Friday, according to John Shaf
fer, committee chairman.
There will be four teams com
peting in the tournament—Pocket,
straight rail, three cushion and
co-ed.
Students picked for the teams
will receive free use of the SU pool
tables and instruction from Louis
Bellisimo, recreation director,
Shaffer said.
Direct news wires will be kept
open from the SU to Chicago to
cover this national college tourna
ment.
Students interested in working
on committees should contact John
Shaffer. Publicity, promotion, ar
rangements and contract commit
tee members and chairmen are
needed, he said.
Order of 0 Meets
The Order of the O will meet
Thursday at noon in the Sigma
C'hi fraternity house for Oregana
pictures.
shoe, for instance, copies the cal
lous of an unshod foot.
The fine arts also imitate hu
man characteristics, Adler said.
Aristotle's definition of fine art,
ho said, was that all art imitated
actions of men.
Nature and Passion
Adler said that fine art imitated
human nature and specifically hu
man action and passion. This ex
planation would cover music, lyric
poetry and the dance.
Modern art, however, does not
fit the pattern and is not an imi
tation of anything human, he said:
He described modern art as a
revolt against nature, a “pure
art”—“purified of nature.”
The finest art imitates man, he
said, and the more human it is,
the better art it Is. It is when art
goes to the other extremes and
loses its human form entirely that
it is unintelligible.
"But this does not exclude the
bananas entirely,” he said.in ref
erence to still life painting,
hove and Desire
Human minds need a mixture of
nature and pure form, Adler said,
and he felt modem art needed to
■ be reminded of that fact. He
urged a compromise between the
two extremes.
Adler also discussed beauty, de
♦ «
MORTIMER ADLER
Aesthete
fining it as something which
pleases upon apprehension, and
need not be seen. Something beau
tiful must have integrity, propor
tion and clarity, he said.
A beautiful thing which brings
pleasure satisfies a desire, de9ire
being a wish to know, he said.
Something too simple gives no
pleasure and a thing, too hard to
understand also will not. be plea
surable. When a thing is in .pro
portion to your skill and ability to
understand, it -is then pleasurable.
He differentiated love and de
sire, -stating that desire was the
wish to consume but - that 1 ove
meant wanting to know.
Art Includes Freedom
“Art is all the things that would j
not exist without human interven
tion,” according to the definition
of Mortimer Adler who spoke at
the coffee hour forum Tuesday aft
ernoon in the Dads' Lounge of the
SU.
The idea of freedom must also
be included in one’s definition of j
art, he continued. Since the bea-1
ver s dam is not constructedj
through a sense of freedom, its
cannot be classified as art, he said.
“Modern” art is the result of an I
attempt to escape from the imita
tion of nature, Adler stated. Al
though the resultant art may be
more complex than its convention-'
al predecessors, he remarked that1
its very “unintelligibility” may1
add to the appreciation of the'
viewers “It is a greater challenge
to the intellect,” he added.
Turning to the field of educa
tion, Adler stated his belief that
the only great teacher in the his
tory of the world was Socrates.
Socrates was a teacher in the
sense of a midwife, he stated.
“Just as a midwife makes it eas
ier for the laboring mother to have
a child, the good teacher facili
tates the birth of ideas in his stu
dents.”
Adler concluded the coffee hour
forum with his opinion on present
motion pitcures. “Movies have
tried to discard entertainment in
a conscious attempt to become ar
tistic.” They have now lost both
qualities and have become merely
dull, he declared.
Demos Hear Lawyer
The Rosenbergs received a fair
trial and sentence under the law,
but there is reason to doubt the
, appropriateness of the death pen
! alty declared Charles Porter, Eu
gene attorney.
Porter spoke to Young Demo
crats Tuesday night on “The Legal
Aspects of the Rosenberg Case.”
The attorney, who formerly prac
ticed law in Boston, told the club
that the Rosenbergs legally have
no loophole because they are be
yond a doubt guilty of espionage.
“Treason has been proved to be
easy,” said Porter, “but it is doubt
ful that the death penalty will de
ter future spies.”
Porter felt that the responsibil
ity for selling secrets should be
shared by all of the atom spies,
and held that it was fallacious to
hold only the Rosenbergs respon
sible.
“The statement by Judge Kauf
man that the spying of the Rosen
bergs led to aggression in Korea
was broad and has little founda
tion,” he said. He believed that
this statement has caused some
of the reaction against the harsh
sentence.
Porter commended the courts in
New York that tried the case as
“some of the finest and fairest in
the country.” Judge Kaufman, he
believes, acted only after long and
thoughtful deliberation.
Air Force Films
Open to Public
Two films will be shown by the
Air Force ROTC in the main- lec
ture room of the. Science building
Friday at 3 p.m., according to
Capt. M. A. Salemi, assistant pro
fessor of air science.
The first film, about the Con
stellation, illustrates Air Force
equipment and its use. Subject of
the other film is air safety. Pre
cautions taken with flight equip
ment is shown in this movie.
All interested persons are in
vited, Capt. Salemi said.
What Do You Think...
... of Student Government?
George YVeseman, senior in Spanish, said:
“It’s too remote from the students. Just a few people take part
and only a few are interested in it and participate in it.”