Massachusetts College of Art and Design - Palette and Pen Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 8 text:

The Prologue The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiog- raphy. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cul- tivated. For these there is hope. They are’ the elect to whom beautiful things mean onlv Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all. The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban se eing his own face in a glass. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his face in a glass. The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved. The artist has no ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. ' ice and virtue are to the artist material for an art. From the point of view of form, the ideal type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor’s craft is the ideal type. All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself. W’e can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire It. The onlv excuse for making a useful thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless. Oscar Wilde Preface to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” [ 4 ]

Page 7 text:

PROLOGUE PROLOGUE p

Page 9 text:

FACULTY ACT