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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 1960)
WEDFORD, OREGON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1960 THURSDAY. DECEMBER 22, 1960 THE SHAPE OF THINGS Labels Stimulate Mind to Like, Dislike Paintings By RICHARD HIRSCH Director Allentown Art Museum Labels kill paintings. They Keep us trom seeing them, en joying them or criticizing them properly when a paint ing fails to give us the enjoy ment which is its purpose Labels, that is. work both ways. When they tell us that we are in front of the work by a "great" master, our mind is stimulated to be prepared for admiration. When the la bel indicates a name we are unfamiliar with or, worse, gives us no name at all but merely a date and a "school our mind with frightful fre quency closes our eyes to the work at hand Few indeed are the museum visitors and gallery goers who approach a work of art for itself alone, without expect ing the crutch of a label to tell them whether what they are looking at is "good" or important. And more is the pity. Refreshing Voyage Visiting any museum or gallery should be a refresh ing voyage of. discovery or rediscovery. The only require ment for such discovery is a totally open eye, alive to see what the artist of any . place or time has to say to us. Reliance on labels kills all genuine opportunity for such understanding, for com munion, for discovery. Letting the name of the label tell you whether you "ought" to like a picture is like letting the author s name on a novel propel you to ad miration even though it is a third-rate potboiler. A novel, a painting, a sym phony, a sculpture, have all been created to please. This is their function. They should lift us to another level of perception, open our eyes and .our ears to what we fail to perceive in surrounding re ality. When they do not ac complish this, they have fail ed. Obviously the fault can lie with us also. Blunts .Experience The failure, however, whether it be our lack of perception or the artist's lack of power to communicate, should not be transformed into uncritical admiration just because the label says that the work is by a "great" mas ter. This obscures what art can do for us. It blunts ex perience. Bernard Berenson spent a lifetime unraveling the mys teries of authorship of Italian paintings. He created methods and set new standards for at tributing with certainty a giv en painting to a given artist. The enormous familiarity which ha gained before he died, at 94, last year, made him take a radically different view toward the great mas: ters from that of many casual museum visitors. , Berenson was quite free to speak of Rembrandt having at times produced "unpalata ble daubs." Berenson, who knew by heart every painting of the great "names" in Ital ian art and knew each canvas intimately, inch by inch, was just as ready to suggest that those masters of the Golden Age of painting did not al ways produce "flawless mas terpieces." Judgment Important This judgment by one of the greatest experts should be important in helping the casual museum visitor to un derstand why he fails to get a thrill from a given work. The visitor should reflect that the fault may lie with the painter, regardless of what eminence the label suggests for the artist. In one of his essays, Beren son speaks of a Venus in the Dresden museum which was ignored by hundreds and hun dreds of thousands of viewers until, one day, a friend of his was able to prove that the work was by a great Vene tian, Giorgione. Suddenly, on the strength of this new label the admiration of the crowd became vocal and unanimous. Sadly, one must reflect that the picture was not more beautiful than before, its statement was not clearer. For those with eyes it was still what it had always been. The label-readers, however, had been given sudden assurance that they "ought" to like it. They did, rapturously. Sumptuously Colored The accompanying illustra tion is of a picture which hangs in a gallery filled with famous "names." It was paint ed in Milan about 1520. It is a sumptuously colored work by a painter whose name is in doubt. About 40 of his works have been identified. At one time it was thought that this artist might have been Boccaccio Boccaccino, but this was disproved. He now is known, for lack of better name, as "the pseudo Boccaccino" and it would be unfair to state that one has to push through the throng to gc to see the jewel-like color uypx Wit -r WW imj PAINTED ABOUT 1520 "Adoration of "the Pseudo Boccaccino." If this painting The Shepherds" painted about 1520, prob- earned a more famous signature would you ably in Milan by a painter so far only, ident- like it more? (The Samuel H. Kress Me- ifed by works from his brush. He is called morial Collection, Allentown Art Museum.) of this delightful work. It has, nevertheless, much to recommend . it, a personal touch with overtones from Leonardo, Solario and Milan ese painters of the time. T h e draughtmanslnp Is handsome; the mood, one of great silence. An unprovable theory of this writer Is that it also contains the salf-por-trait of the artist, in the fig ure at the left. Looking at his hand you will notice that he was probably a sculptor as well as a painter. In any event here is a work of individuality and great charm. Think what would happen to its popularity if, by some mistake, it were to be labelled as by Leonardo da Vinci. It's a frightening thought. Museum people wince when some well-meaning person says that "they don t know much about art but they know what they like." We wince because, generally, this cliche is not true. It. could be and it should be; in fact museums would be more useful places if the public would get to know what they truly like. Perhaps this wonderful dis covery could only be made in a museum without labels. It might be worth trying. Copyright 1960, General Features Corp.) Army Develops New Near Instant Bread San Francisco - ItiPD The Army has come up with a preparation which could be described as almost instant, near-bread. Designed primarily for bat tlefield kitchens, the mixture can be prepared and baked In 45 minutes. It contains flour, shortening, a bit of sugar and a chemical yeast substitute called Delta - Lac-tome. But after the Army got together the bread-appearing concoction it ran into the problem of making it taste like something hot out of mother's oven. Quartermaster . authorities called in the firm of Arthur Little, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., and San Francisco, and the food technology depart ment of the University of Cal ifornia at Davis. ' Little's researchers came up with an additive including cottonseed meal and glucose, which give the Army's mix ture a homey flavor. .XX&& - -y i ON WAY TO LONDON Eddie Fisher and his wife, Eliza beth Taylor, are shown as they left Hollywood for London, by way of New York. The couple has been in Palm Springs for several weeks where Miss Taylor recuperated from a scries of illnesses that plagued her during shooting of a movie in England. She is returning to complete the picture. (UPI Tclephoto) Electronic Ear May Be A Cure For Stuttering Paris (Science Service) An "electronic ear, said to cure stuttering and make the learning of foreign languages easier, is being demonstrated at the Salon de l'Enfance here. The subject puts on a pair of earphones, then speaks into a microphone. Adjustment of a few knobs on what looks like a radio amplifier turns an American accent into an Oxford drawl or a guttural German into snappy Parisian French. The research department of the French ministry of educa tion, which is testing the use Hitch-Hikes Across Country to Jail Fostona, Ohio -IUPD- James LeRoy Thompson, 26, Fosto ria, hitch-hiked across the country to go to jail. Thompson surrendered to California authorities and told them he was wanted in Fos toria on a forgery charge. Cali fornia officials released him when Fostoria officials said they would not spend the money to send an officer to California to return the pris oner. A few days later, Thompson walked into police headquarters here and surren dered. He said he had hitch hiked to Ohio, of the machine as a way to teach the French language to foreigners, reports "favorable indications." Foreign compa nies are reported to be seek ing licensing rights. The machine's inventor, Dr. Alfred Tomatis, an ear, nose and throat specialist, uses it in the treatment of many dif ferent types of speech defects -asthma, nervous coughs and those of backward children, and in correcting singers' faults. Basic Principle The basic principle of the method is that vocal troubles are more often than not the result of deficient hearing. Tomatis has established that a normal person monitors his voice with only one ear, which he calls the directive ear. A man or woman may be left-eared or right-eared, just as they may be left-handed or right-handed. If the normal balance is disturbed, then vocal and other disor ders may result. The directive ear is linked to the opposite side of the brain. When it is deficient, the voice-monitoring circuit (ear - brain - speech muscles) passes through both sides of the brain and produces a time lag. This varies in length from individual to individual from one-fifth to one-fortieth of second. Tomatis has found that when the time lag is between one-tenth and one-twentieth of a second, the patient al ways stammers in his speech. The fault can usually be cured by regularly exercising the directive ear. During the re - education sessions, the patient speaks into a microphone and hears his voice amplified through one Carphone placed over his directive ear. For language suition, two earphones are used to start with and then, when the directive ear of the student has been found, the teaching is concentrated on that one alone. Advertising Club Is Rating Commercials Hollywood - IUPD - The Hol lywood Advertising club has started a search for the best TV and radio commercials produced any place in the world during 1960. There will be 15 categories of television commercials and seven classes of radio com mercials in the contest. Awards will be presented dur ing National Advertising week, Feb. 5-11, 1961. Sales of American Automobiles High But Profit Figure Shows Decrease TWl-rt! IHPII Amayinnl W.tU 1 4 1.-. t 1,.. .1. .... Detroit - lUPll - American car manufacturers sold more cars during 1960 than they did in any other year except record-breaking 1955 but their profits didn't live up to even the previous year. Almost complete sales re turns indicate about 6,700,000 new cars will be sold in the United Slates by the time a new year is born. The sales include about 500,000 import ed cars, leaving about 6,200, 000 sales to domestic pro ducers. That's more domestic sales than in any other year except 1955, when sales of 7,169,908 cars in the United States in cluded only 58.465 foreign makes, leaving domestic com panies with sales of over 7, 100,000. Imported Cars Included Last year was the second best year previously. Ameri can car buyers bought 6,026, 500 cars in 1959 but that total included a record of 609,539 imported cars, leaving only about 5.400,000 to the domes tic producers. The previous runner up for sales of domestic cars was 1956 when total sales of 5,- 955,248 new cars included only 98,187 foreign makes, leaving about 5,800,000 sales for American companies. But about 31 per cent of the 1960 sales, or 1,900,000 units, were compart cars and the auto companies don't make as much on the smaller cars 'as they do on the standard-sized cars which made up the vast majority of domestic sales be fore the "big three" of the American auto industry intro duced their new compact cars a little over a year ago. the best example of what compact cars did to the earn ings of the American car pro ducers is the record of Ford Motor Co. During the first nine months of this year, Ford increased the number of cars it sold from 1,585,057 in the first nine months of 1959 to 1,663, 276. Net Income Down Still, during the same per iod, Ford's consolidated net income dropped 6.8 per cent from the figures for the first nine months of 1959 The relationship of compact car sales and earnings at Ford is more obvious than at the other big companies because greater portion of Ford's sales is compacts, But all of the aulo makers are experiencing essentially the same conditions, although less, pronounced. The auto makers have termed this con dition "the prize squeeze." One possible solution to the squeeze" is making compact cars more luxurious. All of the auto makers tried this so lution this year as five new compacts, all of them in the 'luxury class, were intro duced during the year. But by year end it was ap parent still more had to be done and the American auto makers were looking toward the use of the facilities and labor of their foreign sub sidiaries as another possible solution. Components Planned- Ford Motor Co. was seeking to buy full control of the British subsidiary, Ford of England, so it could better coordinate its worldwide auto making operations. Ford ap parently planned to build components for various cars abroad and to market all of its cars on a worldwide basis, rather than primarily in the country where the car was built. The Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River, opened to traffic in 1927, was the first long vehicular underwater tunnel. Its north tube is 8,557 feet long. - i Oklahoma has the largest deposits of asphalt in the United States. "THE ACTOR llllt A m wiiu Immm will PLAY CHRIST" Jeffrey Hunter. . . How was lie affected by this greatest of all roles? Weekly what happens in your December 25th issue with MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE With variations in the methods employed, most pi the other auto companies were looking into, or actively pre paring inr, similar mnvns- Generally, the auto makers considered 1960 a year of ex perimentation, a year in which they were looking for ways to increase their volume and profits. And, although they were optimistic about the year ahead, the auto makers also were generally agreed that 1901 would be another year of major changes and calculated risks. The cabbage loper is a climbing cutworm, which de stroys cabbages. The cabbago looper is so called because it gets into cabbages by looping. 218 EAST MAIN 1 Say . i J J i raS- i r i u lu crva . . ; i trio "u $mm ' ; j Throughout K- j :J ' ' : r Ik T U J k 1 u " I " , tk i ; uiy v ,'.n iiViiiiirr,i'rir1iira n-miiini4" ' ...t...-.fr, irl mm j Yes, throughout the year ahead your MAIL TRIB UNE delivered to YOUR door or in your mail box extends your cheery greetings. 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