Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1961)
2n THE SHAPE OF THINGS -CS- MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, fffcUt uyj.Qiifb 0 -- Art History Dull Stuff, Methodically Compiled By JHCHARD HIRSCH Director AUentown Art Museum Art history is dull. By a con spiracy of snobbery nobody dares hint at the extent of this extraordinary tedium. But the fact remains. It might, some day. be found healthy to acknowledge it: Art history, as one remembers it from col lege, is dull. The exceptions are pro vided by the rare teacher and the rarer author who consid ers that art history is the rec ord of the evolution of the ideas of man and, hence, live ly in the deepest way. Those are the exceptions. The general rule is quite something else. The general rule includes the survey of "periods" or how to disting uish a cathedral from a py ramid or a Courbet from a van Eyck. It also includes the treatises artist where the shreds of liv ing fact are drowned in a morass of footnotes as far as the eye can reach. . Art Deserves Better This is dull stuff, methodic ally compiled to be as indi gestible as possible. With all due respect to the historical "method," art and the artist deserve better than this. For the work of art is not a scientific specimen which some artist, long dead, con trived in order to exercise the sleuthing talent of a later his torian. Sometimes one might not suspect this obvious fact. Bernard Berenson perfected the techniques and the intui tive approaches by which a given painting is identified as the work of a given painter. Writing at the end of his life, he had harsh words for the people he called the "attribu tors" although he had been the foremost among them for many years. His reason was that he ultimately discerned just how far the writings of the "attributors" sterilized the quest for beauty on the part of the beholder. Certainly, the art historian adds to our knowledge and dis pels the fog of error and mis nomers by which, for so long, much of our art heritage had been surrounded. For exam' pie, not so many years ago. the greater "names" of Ital ian painting were to be found loosely given to hundreds of paintings which these artists could never have had worked to paint if they had worked 24 hours a day. Fall Into Trap This was senseless. In cor recting these hundreds of false attributions, however many art historians fell into the trap of "method" for its own sake. They developed a language that makes a chem- devoted to a given 1 L m$ a T'h , ' oil ' mm I MM : fo, vh, ' , GREAT CHARM - Saint Jerome Penitent, painted In 1515 by Lorenzo Lotto upon his return to his home town of Bergamo, Italy. In spite of what the historians have done to the artist, there is great charm and sat isfaction to be derived from this small work. (Courtosy the Samuel H. Kress Memorial Collection, AUentown Art Museum) The Family Council Kdllor's Notf: Tin Family Council conslxi of a Jurist, a psychia trist, thrre rlercymen, three rriltori and a wonipn'i editor. Karh article a summary or an actual ease history. The t ottncll reports on pron lemi that have been dealt with by responsible agencies and counselors. (Copyright 1061 Central Features Corp.) Frances P. - My husband keeps piling work on me. Timothy P. - She has the boys homo to help her. t ranees p. - we live In a rural community and I'm used to hard work. But it's never been as bad as now. The strain led me to a heart at tack and I'm not supposed to get upset or do heavy work for the next three months. But who'll do it? Tim drinks, so in order to be sure of cash In the house I held an outside Job for eight years, until I got sick. I also must lend the coal fires and take care of Tim's 82-year-old mother. We have two sons nt home, one 17 who'd like to join the Nnvy, another in who wants to lake an outside Job. But my husband expects them to slay home to help me with the house, wait on his motler and do the heavy chores. This doesn't sound fair to them. The goal-grabber Is that my mother-in-law is in good health and can wait on her self. But with the boys around, she won't budge. She pays no keep because her check Is only $36 a month, and I'm even having trouble claiming her as an Income tax exemption. She has a daughter she could live with, hut they don't want her there because she makes trouble. I want my husband and his mother to pitch in more. Timothy P. - My wife just wants to sound like a heroine. I help her with the heavy work most of the lime. I ad mit I go overboard willi a bottle once in a while, but I make up for it. And I hand over money to her too, after I put In a day's work at the gas station. As for my mother, she's a quiet old gal who wouldn't hurt a fly. But my sister doesn't act right toward her, so I took her in to make her last years as happy as possi ble. She can be as funny as a barrel of monkeys and the boys like having her around, especially with their mother away on a job or an errand. Our younger boy can Join the Navy if he wants, but the older one seems contented the way things are. He works part-time at the post office, then does a few home chores and looks out tor Grandma. If my wife can't do the coal stove, she can always ask him or me. But I think she's just mon ey - mad. She wants money from me, from my mother, from the boys, and from her own Job, too. And an exemp tion or my mother's care. Maybe 1 drink too much, but maybe she's driving nie in It. The Councih-The P. house hold seems to be dedicated to the buck, with the accent on passing It rather than earn ing it. For Mrs. P. It's like a game of musical chairs where she's the one left over when the music stops. She'd like to slop the game and bring a few other members of the family to their feet. As a start we suggest that the local family service asso ciation be invited by Mrs. P. to decide what fixed duties be assigned to whom. Carry ing out individual responsibil ities would be the "ticket" for enjoying family member ship. The kingpin here should be Mr. P. but, due to his Irre sponsibility and shirking of his role, all the other roles are knocked off base. We agree with Mis. P. that the boys should be released to make their own way instead of serving as flunkeys to fill In the blanks left by Dad, Mom and Grandma - who can all handle those blanks them selves if pinned down. There arc limits lo which a plucky woman like Mrs. P. can go to hold a shiftless bunch together. Mrs. P. has just about reached those lim its. I ical patent application read like a Shakespeare sonnet. They also took to dissectiong any obscure little work they could find as if it were a lab oratory specimen. This is dull. Worse, it makes the pursuit of some knowledge of art by the non specialist seem a dusty under taking remote from the val ues, the purpose and the un dying meaning of past art. Quite simply, the picture and the artist die in the, pro cess of being anatomized. A fold of drapery is shown to be a borrowing from some oth er master; the droop of some trees is shown to be a Ven etian invention, appropri ated by the artist; the twist of a body was stolen from Leonardo; the perspective in depth repeats something from someone else - and so on. Fine For Training This is fine if you are train ing to work professionally in a museum. It is also fine when you already have your taste fully formed and are in active search of information to per fect it further. But what of the poor col lege student who gets the idea, from some assigned reading, that the artist of the past can only be handled as a dead but terfly in the hands of a nat uarlist. When the great Mas ters reveal themselves to the student through dusty tomes loaded with footnotes, what they have done and what they were loses its very essence. Lorenzo Lotto is a good ex ample of this. Battles of words have raged about the man and his work, not at- all be cause of his importance but because, once upon a time, someone unearthed the fact that he was poorly known and yet a fine painter. Books were written to show who, among the Vene tians of the early sixteenth century, must have been his teachers. No document shows this. So the field was wide open for the men with the magnifying glasses. Other books were written and ar ticles and pamphlets to prove who had not been his teach ers. Torn To Shreds Thus stimulated, the writ ers took on the works of his maturity, metaphorically tearing them to shreds. Every inch of his works was exam ined to find out who had in spired Lotto to paint as he did. Reading the literature on robust Lorenzo Lotto, his personality disappears total ly, diluted in such a catalogue of borrowings that one loses all patience with him. But is this accurate? No thinker has ever pro duced a new thought. We as cribe genius to him because he combined commonplace notions in a new way, because he took ideas that were "in the air" and defined them strikingly. In just this way, no painter has ever been "or iginal." His originality has al ways been and could only be to say something old or something current in his own distinctive way. Your ability to read this article is soemthing which you have borrowed from your first grade teacher. Your last letter was a patchwork of bor rowings from things read, things heard and those expe riences which you have com bined into a personality which you insist, is your own. Could Not Question It And son with Lorenzo Lot to when he sat himself down at an easel in his hometown of Bergamo. Before him is a blank canvas. He intends to paint a Saint Jerome in Peni tence, He paints it. When he has finished, he likes it. He even likes his funny lion, though, clearly, he has never seen a lion. He likes it be cause it says what he wanted it to say. It is said in his way. He could not question that nor, perhaps, should we. For Lorenzo Lotto, In 1515, to lijar&l In Accident Thwrs6? -One person suffered minor injuries in one of two auto accidents reported Thursday, according to state police. Cfcrence Lee Ticer, route 1, box 236, Eagle Point, was treated at the Shady Cove clinic for cuts and bruises and released, police said. Ticer was struck by a van- type truck driven by Stewart Forbes, 71, of 40 North Peach St., when Forbes attempted to back his truck to a ditch near Shady Cove to pull out Ticer'! pickup truck, police said. David Rowell Colby, 59, of 407 Normal st., Ashland, es caped Injury when his car skidded on Highway 99 on Thursday morning and turned over on its side. The accident occurred by the Southern Ore gon Nursery, officers said. PICKETS MARCH Chapel Hill, N.C. - (UPD - White and Negro pickets marched in front of the Caro lina theater Friday night to protest the management's re fusal lo desegregate the the ater for a showing of "Porgy and Bess," the all - Negro movie about Negro life in Charleston, S.C. ANNOUNCING The OPENING of The A.L. Tailor Shop Expert Work in Men's Tailoring, IsWeV fcjili and Coals FlesVci U phon. fcW ! SP 3-3335 NEW Adding Machines OO50 Priced $ rrom j up ELECTRICS, Item $129.50 plus ta Typewriters New & Used Standard Portabls Electric Adding Calculators Fridtn Marchant Monroe Victor Olivetti I Remington Printers Portable Typewriters All makes WE RENT Adders Typewriters Calculators Any make CONSERVE YOUR CAPITAL Ask Abeut Our Leatiig Plai! (ffUfllTt M"""1 Office mmem C, olUlV!! Sf "Tele llri. yam , VjtMr "CftU TAMP, TOO" fit h fas tVlMaM JLD &HI nsn caV - has never heard of a museum and he was not working to get his painting exhibited in one. Across the centuries we hear his statement quite clear ly. Across the centuries, if we close our ears to the bat tles of words built up around his life and work, we sense his charm, enjoy his color, perceive many ideas of his time and fall under his agree able spell. Was it not for this that he studied and worked? And, if he succeeded in giving an elo quence to his Renaissance world and his work has en dured, should we not thank him for his ability to borrow from the world and transmit some of its throbbing liveli ness to us? Art history should not ob scure this. (Copyright 1961, General Features Corp.) Timber Tax Problem "The legislative interim tax committee turned its back on Oregon's tree farmers, who manage 4.2 million acres of the state's private taxpaying forests, when it failed to offer a solution to the timber tax problem," Paul F. Liniger, forester, Industrial Forestry association, Portland, told the Siskiyou Chapter, Society of American Foresters, here Friday. Liniger said that growing I and harvesting trees and man ufacturing forest products pro vides 60 per cent of Oregon's basic economy by bringing in $1.3 billion annually. The forester said that IFA has proposed a taxation sys tem for western Oregon's pri vate timber which would fair ly support county government and allow tree farmers to grow their trees the 60 to 80 years required for harvest. Earned Annually Liniger said-the real timber tax base was not just the trees, but the $450 million earned annually by Oregon's 85,000 forest industry work ers. The taxes they pay on their homes, incomes, and gasoline all support schools, roads and all other state and county functions. Their in come also goes for fishing and hunting licenses which pay for management of Oregon's wild life, he said. "The most beautiful part about these jobs and their many benefits lo Oregon Is their permanence, if we con tinue to grow trees on our tree farms," he said. Liniger called on the legis lature 'to take the leadership in the encouragement of Ore gon tree farming by adoption of a system of timber taxation which will "allow it-not slug it, as we're doing now by more taxes on our trees each DONAS'? gii$ft&fl$ San Juan, P R. Pi to Rico with 544 persons perQnillion sq3re mile is about 000 times more densly populated than Alaska. year than they can stand." Gordon Stephens, appraiser for Jackson county for the state tax commission, review ed development of the state's appraisal program for timber in Jackson county. New Yorik - m - The 4f.7S U.S. mission head quarters for the United Na. tions was dedicate Friday by Ambassador James Wads worth. The 12-story, modern, istic building, which is the only U.S. Embassy office building in the United States, is located directly across from the United Nations In Manhattan. f CHRISTIAN j SOENCE Station K-BOY Sundays -9:45 A.M. ROGUE VALLEY STATE BANK MEDFORD . . . OREGON CONDENSED STATEMENT DECEMBER 31, 1960 RESOURCES LOANS AND DISCOUNTS less Reserve for Losses.. United Stales Bonds ..$2,249,913.50 32,629.96 Municipal Bonds and Warrants Banking House, Fixtures and Equipment.. Cash and Due From Banks . Stock in Federal Reserve Bank TOTAL. $2,217,283.54 2,293,863.19 418,114.19 96,044.43 1,355,399.80 8,400.00 $6,389,105.15 LIABILITIES Capital Stock : : $ 150,000.00 Surplus : , 130,000.00 Undivided Profits ' 43,633.46 DEPOSITS : 6,022,433.09 Interest Collected, Not Earned ; ' 43,038.60 TOTAL , $6,389,105.15 (INCLUDING BRANCH OFFICE AT 701 EAST JACKSON BLVD.) ' 3 Interest Paid on Saving Accounts OFFICERS DIRECTORS Clarence H. Young President W. H. Young Ron E. Cordon .'....Vice-President (Chairman of Board) Ralph E. Pierce Vice-President ' Clarence H. Young Glenn M. Lusk Assistant Vice-President Leonard Bradshaw Richard N. Steele Assistant Ralph E- Pierce Gertrude F. McCorkle Assistant Cashier Darrel R. Stanley Robert A. Flora Assistant Manager, East Medford Branch Frank P. Farrell David H. Holmes Two Offices 1109 Court Street and 701 E. Jackson Blvd. Serving Jackson County Since 1911 Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Member Federal Reserve System Important news for new-car buyers- THE '61 CHEVY BRINGS JET-SMOOTH TRAVEL DOWN TO EARTH Thit i the Impala Sport Coupe and you'll find 19 other Jil-tmooth Chtriet uhere Ihii one came from! HlKft WHAT OlVti CHIVY ITS JIT-SMOOTH MIDI- Full Coil suspension Xolhing cushions like, a coil and Chevy's on of th$ Jew cars to give you a eoil spring cil every wheel. Precision-balanced wheels Each wheel and tire assembly is precision-balanced bejon installation Jor smoother rolling with less vi bration. Sound-huihlni Insulation Hoof, sideualls, doors, instrument panel, hood, floor, and luggage compartment art carefully insulated against drum ming and vibration. SI bullt-ln "shock absorbers" the chassis is cushioned against shock and shakt at every rital point. Live rubber body mounting;; body is joined to the chassis by largs butyl rubber cushions that further isolatt the ridt from the. road. Better just circle your dealer's block the first time you try a Jet-smooth '61 Chevy. Get anywhere near an open highway and he's liable never to see you again. What wa mean, Chevy's ride whets your yen to travel. Wins you over with its delight ful coil-spring smoothness, its hushed comfort and light steering. You find yourself feeling sorry for people who buy higher priced cars, thinking they have to pay premium prices for a luxury ride. That may have been true at one time, but not any more. Chevrolet's ride, its road ability, just doesn't take second place to anybody's. As for the other pluses people usually expect only from costly cars, nobody can beat Chevy's Body by Fisher for fine workmanship. Notice the roominess, too. Space to stretch out and relax, larger door openings, higher seats, and an easier loading deep-well trunk that handles suitcases as if they were hand bags. Unless you work for the manufac turer, can you think of a real good reason for buying i more expensive car? We can't. irr-ooT,i ntrtrr WROLET A aee the new Chevrolet cars. Cicrjf Corivirs and tht xne Corrttte ai your local autliorked Choroid dealer' t COURTESY CHEVROLET ttfc t fetffUtt o MIPFQRD o 0 fWSP 2.6115 0 (IB 3) e
