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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1961)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY S, 1961 THE SHAPE OF THINGS Art Boom Started With Hungry Myth - By RICHARD HIRSCH Director Allentown Art Museum Leonardo da Vinvi, Floren tine, did not die poor. Praxi teles, sculptor, did not die poor in ancient Athens. Wat teau made a living. Delacroix was comfortable. Corot was well off. Rubens was rich. -Van Gogh died in poverty. So did Gauguin. -Why? Art historians have end lessly pointed out that Van Gogh and Gauguin died poor because they were ahead of the taste of their times. They died poor because they were different and, because they were different (and gifted), their works are now univer sally revered, desired and fought for at auctions. ' Over and over and over this has been repeated. The result: a Van Gogh sold, In London, for $350,000 not long ago. It was, rather, a poor picture. A Gauguin did much better than that last year. The beautiful, beautiful boom is on. 'Starving Artist' Myth It all started with "the starving artist" myth. Actual ly, it has only been in the last 125 years that artists with fine talents and much to say have had any difficulty, dur ing their lifetime, in making a comfortable or handsome living. But the cold garret and the struggling "artist make good copy for historians and critics. Further, the starving artist myth was most satis factory for a few recent gen erations of artists. It gave them the feeling that, since they were poor, inevitably I, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE J HEMSyg . Station K-BOY Sundays 9:45 A.M. they must be possessors of su perior talent. For the art market it has proved helpful that the gifted artists of the last century died though rarely of starva tion. The melancholy event clearly put a limit on the production of-their brushes. Thus, they currently fetch five and six figures on Madison- Avenue and on streets running into it above 57th, in the borough of Manhattan. It was pretty predictable, probably. Less predictable was the unconsidered enthusiasm and the ignorance which has occa sioned the boom. Nothing of the sort has happened, in this country, since the Florida real estate bubble of the 20's. Florida real estate in the 20's had positive value and posi tive growth potential. Never theless speculators brought ruin in the wake of their frenzy. , Something of the sort also occurred in Holland, in an otherwise reasonable seven teenth century, when the thought of a black tulip made sensible burghers buy and buy and outbid each other in the hope that someone had de veloped a glorified onion into a bulb that would bloom as a jet-black five petalled flower without fragrance. In the visual arts, right now, the same aberration is being exploited. Destined to Appreciate Since a minor Van Gogh brings a third of a million and the artist never sold a hun dred dollars worth of painting in his entire lifetime, our art market has suggested, con- JFK Reveals Program To Aid Refugees Washington -fllPD- President Kennedy has set up a million dollar -a-month program to help 66,000 Cubans who fled oppression under the Fidel Castro regime only to find hardship in the United States. Kennedy Friday night un veiled a $4 million four-month program to provide jobs, hous ing, jobs, health care and schooling for the refugee Cubans. vincingly, that all art is de stined to appreciate in money value. As a result, we have an unbelievable boom concerning work by living artists, spurred to an alarming extent by this supposition that all of our DeoDle who arp purrentlv armed with brushes and paint will provide goldmines for their patrons In future years. This could be a dangerous as sumption. Reminiscent of the tulip craze in Holland, serious busi nessmen, right now, are ham mering at the doors of gal leries to get in "on a good thing." Quite recently, as a very typical example, a well known New York crallprv an nounced an exhibition of 15 paintings by Franz Kline. By 4 p.m., when the show opened, only one picture remained to be sold. The first sale had been made at 8:30 in the morning. The prices, reported ly, were between $8,500 and $14,000. One could cite 50 such examples within recent months. The critics have helped in this inflation o f the living artist. So have the art maga zines. A shocking case in point is the inclusion in a re cent issue of a supposedly serious art quarterly of a new feature. It is titled: "Market Letter." It is designed to look like the business trend out lines in some of our national business weeklies, even to facsimile typewritten copy. It starts off "Capital gains continue to be enjoyed by holders of Jackson Pollock." It introduces Andrew Wyeth with: "Living American painter sets new record." (It was $35,000 for a slim visual message.) This amazing "art" feature goes on: "Look for up swing in prices of Max Ernst." It also presents the "find-of-the-year." (a lady who does things in leather and canvas). "Marketwise," the Old Mas ters will continue to increase in value because the buying public has enormously broad ened while the number of canvases by departed artists remains, obviously, constant. There is logic in this market The Family Council Edltor'i Note: The Family Comu'lt consists of a Jtnlee, a psychia trist, three clergymen, three editors and a women's editor. t:at-h article Is a summary of an actual ease history. The council reports on prob lems that have been dealt with by responsible agencies and counselors. (Copyright 1961 General Features forp.) TYPICAL OF ART Typical of the art that has attracted many speculators is this canvas, entitled "Ritual" by Elaine Hamilton, contemporary American painter. When such works are bought for the pleasure of living with them no one can complain. When they are bought because of the boom, there is cause for fear. rise of tested masters. For the living artist the same logic need not neces sarily apply. In the realm of the spirit, to which living art should be long, the dollar sign might prove a poor guide. (Copyright 1961. General Features Corp.) Bradford S Mv ivlfn doesn't want to work in my lusiness. Hallie S.-I've always want ed to try catering. Bradford S.-Hallie is still a young woman and, now that our younger child is a high school junior, she wants to ac cept an outside job and get started on a real career for herself. I have a small paint and lacquer store and if Halli'd help me there, I could branch out. She could learn the stock and how to sell and order. Then I might leave ,her in charge, while I go out on ac tual decorating and refuush ing jobs. But she says no. She'd rath er start at the bottom in some thing completely different. If she worked with me, though, she'd make things easier for me, add to our income, and get to know an interesting business, all at the same time. I don't want to force her to do this, but I can't understand her refusal. a Hallie S. - Brad and I have been happily married for 18 years and I'd like to keep it mat way. Ana . I tmnk we should continue as husband and wife, friends and sweet hearts to each other, rather than boss and helper, or even business partners. In the first place, I've al ways had a yen to be a pro fessional caterer, and now I have a chance to serve as an apprentice with a concern which specializes in children's parties. I'm eager to learn the little touches and tricks that make all the difference be tween a plain meal and a fes tive celebration. Honestly, I don't feel any real "call" to become a paint salesman! Of course if I really had to, I could and would. But her at his side day and night, with visions of what-might-have been constantly in her head. And who knows? The paint and lacquer game may A 3 look awfully good to her, af ter a few years of radish roses, melon bails, and drunks who dip shrimp into the cherry mousse. PLAN AHEAD Brad can break in a man to assist him. And that way, we'd both have a chance to grow. The Council: - Hallie ought to have her fling. She's bided her time, meanwhile filling her commitments and enjoy ing her role as wife and moth er. Now she's eager to turn her interest in gracious enter taining into a remunerative vocation, and Bradford should cheer her on, rather than make her feel guilty and re miss as a helpmate. For a husband and wife to work happily together in the same business enterprise, one or two pre-existing conditions must obtain. Either the wife has no special business or pro fessional preference and can give her full enthusiasm to the job at hand, or it just happens they're both in the same line from 'way back when. Thus Miss RN helps out as Mrs. MD and Alfred Lunt joins Lynn Fontanne for a smooth-as-silk theatrical partnership. Or Miss Post-Deb marries a furniture dealer, and then be gins to bone up on Hcpplc while and Chippendale, to be helpful. Even then, being together 24 hours a day can lake the sheen off a romantic relation ship. There can be few sur prises, no illusions. Yet, these are often the stuff from which the freshness and adventure of marriage can be renewed. For this and oilier reasons, some universities and corporations which employ husbands and wives, insist that they work in unrelated departments. 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