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University Daily Kansan
Monday, Jan. 7, 1963
Modern Art Misunderstood-
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tions and purposes which of these professors can influence by this abstract form of art stressed in drawing and painting classes.
Drawing and painting courses are coordinated with the School of Education program for elementary and secondary school art teachers and with the design department.
The design department trains the commercial artist, the fashion illustrator, the industrial designer and a variety of others.
UNTIL WORLD War II architecture students received all their art instruction in the drawing and painting department. The great influx of students after the war forced the School of Architecture to employ its own teachers.
Nearly 400 students are enrolled in the drawing and painting courses. About 30 of these are pure art majors—the modern artists.
John Q. Citizen says he doesn't understand the modern artist. He questions the value of the modern artist because he fails to understand him. Yet indirectly the modern artist influences how he thinks, what he buys and the kind of home he lives in.
"MODERN ART determines society." student artist John Brewer, Lawrence senior, said. "It influences advertising and architecture." He explained that the French abstractionist Piet Mondrian had had a pronounced effect on the simplicity of today's architecture.
Richard Schira, instructor of drawing and painting, said most of the colors used in women's clothing and interior decoration have been borrowed from Henri Matisse's pure colors.
"AND WHAT did society ever give Matisse but starvation?" Schira asked. Schira criticized the popular notion that the modern artist ex-
peeps society to support him, while he contributes nothing.
"Modern art is the ultimate o freedom of expression in our society." Brooks Eubank, Crosscut, Tex., graduate student, said.
"But when do they violate the bounds of freedom and paint at random?" he questioned. "I think they have gone as far as they can when they can spill the paint on canvas just the right way and call it art." Eubank said, stressing the importance of meaning in modern art.
"Painting is not knowing. It is giving," according to Robert Green, associate professor of drawing and painting. "The average layman expects art to have all the answers," he said.
"IF IT IS a great work, its first message comes by way of colors and shapes. Its impact comes when the viewer is in a contemplative mood. If the viewer doesn't receive the painter's message, there is something lacking in the viewer.
"Modern art gives to you what you bring to it." Prof. Green said. He explained that a mathematician could write Einstein's theory on a blackboard. It would be there in black and white for all to see. Yet only the person with an extensive mathematics background could understand it.
A PHILOSOPHY graduate student suggested that John Q. Citizen's understanding of modern art might be linked with his emotional experiences.
"Art means different things to different people. A painting might stir remembrances of an unhappy experience for one person. The person who has been assaulted might have a different reaction to a painting than the person who has not been assaulted." he said.
Gerald Bernstein, instructor of art history, said "We're dealing with a
language problem. The Baptist sister looks at the portrait of the 'nekid Lord' and she doesn't appreciate the work of art.
"A PERSON interprets or appreciates art according to his capacity for understanding it. His main criteria for judgment is whether or not the work is pleasing," Bernstein said.
At a recent art exhibition a four-year-old was asked which painting she liked best.
She ignored all the brilliant colors and eye-catching abstractions and pointed to an oil done in the Grandma Moses style.
"She picked that one because it is the one she understands," her mother explained.
THERE IS A kind of professional joke among artists that the way to spot a layman at an art exhibit is to watch for the person who glances at the work and immediately looks for the title.
"It is like the man who hears a bird singing. He goes up to the bird and asks him what he is singing." There is no answer but the song," Schira said.
There is a huge chasm of misunderstanding between the artist and society.
The layman questions the artist because he cannot explain what his paintings mean.
"IF THE ARTIST could express himself in words, he would not paint a picture. He would write a book." Prof. Green said.
Brewer said he felt he had failed if viewers could immediately understand his works. He said a painting represented the sum of hours of concentration and years of thought.
"If they can understand it immediately, I'm a little slow."
(Tomorrow's article will discuss the attraction of the KU art department for art students.)
Feuding KU Demos Factions To Hold Election Wednesday
Remember the KU Young Democrats?
They are re-organizing after an intra-party feud that began last spring.
An open reorganization meeting of the KU Young Democrats Club will be held at 7:30 Wednesday night in the Kansas Union.
Three temporary directors will be elected to serve until February or March, when new officers for the year will be elected, Dan Hopson Jr., associate professor of law and YD adviser, said yesterday.
He said the constitution will be suspended for election purposes and that all membership cards would be recognized.
Barry Bennington, Cheney senior and Pete Aylward, Ellsworth senior, met with Prof. Hopson before Christmas to plan Wednesday's meeting. Both Bennington and Aylward have claimed election to the club's presidency.
"I feel that Mr. Bennington's election was tainted by irregularities and that Mr. Aylward's election resulted from a meeting called by Pete of his own supporters," Prof. Hopson said this fall.
Irregularities concerning the is
P-T-P Travel Program Applications Are Due
P-t-F plans to send about 1.000 college and university students abroad this summer under the plan.
Applications for the People-to-People "American Student Abroad" program are due at 4:30 p.m. today in the Kansas Union P-t Office
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Aylward said he did not know yet, but a senior could run because the directorship will be only of about a month's duration.
suance of membership cards surrounded both elections. Bennington claims election at a meeting held March 14, and Aylward maintains he was elected March 28.
Bennington said he would no longer take an active part in the Young Democrats because he will be working for the Dean of Men's office as a counselor in the dormitory system.
Aylward and Bennington agreed to the pre-Christmas meeting after Prof. Hopson called them.
RISK'S
613 Vermont
Catholic Masses, 7:00 a.m. 11:40 a.m.
catholic Catholic Chapel, 1910 Strat-
ord, Rei
Official Bulletin
UK Exchange Scholarships 1963-64 to England, Scotland, France, Germany and Australia. Applications due January 15. Information and application forms at 366 Fraser.
Ph.D. Reading Examination in German.
Saturday, January 12th. 9:30 a.m., 411
Summerfield. Candidates must register in
Fraser 306 by 4:00 p.m. Tues., Jan. 8th.
Nurses Club Meeting, Fraser Hall Dining Room. 7:00 p.m.
TODAY
TOMORROW
Episcopal Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth Chapel.
Analytical Chemistry Seminar. S. Chas.
Owens, "The Exchange of s35 between Elemental Sulphur and Sulphur Monochlorida." 122 Malott. 3:30 p.m.
Tau Sigma, 7:00 p.m., Robinson Gym.
Schedule Corrected For Physics Finals
QUILL
THE WINTER ISSUE OF QUILL IS NOW ON SALE AT THE INFORMATION BOOTH.
SINGLE COPY — 50c
B-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION $1.25
Architect's Life Depicted in Film
The final examination time for classes meeting at 4:30 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is 3:10 to 5 p.m. Friday, January 25. The final examination for all sections of physics 3, 4, 5, 6 and 116 will be at 3:10 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 23; the examination will be held at 5:10 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 23; for students who have 12:30 TTS examinations at 3:10 to 5 that day. The Kansan regrets that typographical errors were made in the printing of these times last Friday.
A film, "The Life of Ero Saarinen," will be shown at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union under sponsorship of the department of architecture and the art forum series of Student Union Activities.
Saarinen, an internationally known architect, designed the new TWA terminal building at New York's Edlewild Airport, the General Motors Technical Center, and the Kresge Auditorium and chapel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Profs. Eugene George and Curtis Besinger of the KU department of architecture will lead a question period after the film. The program is open to the public without charge.
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German Reading Test For Ph.D. Degree Set
Ph.D. candidates wishing to take the reading examination in German may register in 306 Fraser until noon Wednesday. The test will be given at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in room 411, Summerfield Hall.
Good Voices Not Required
ST. LOUIS — (UPI) — Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal) Dean Ned Cole called for increased interest in the church choir, with the comment that "a good singing voice is NOT a requirement."
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