Читать книгу Cubists and Post-Impressionism онлайн

13 страница из 70

We admit England was wrong when it ridiculed Turner, that France was wrong when it ridiculed Corot, that Paris was wrong when it derided Millet, Manet, Monet, Degas, and a host of other great men, but we are not wrong when we deride the new men. Why? Because we think they are newer and stranger than the men named.

ZAK

The Shepherd

We accept Wagner as a genius, but Strauss—oh, no, he is too strange, but there are stranger composers than Strauss already at work and we must travel fast to keep up with the procession.[3]

Be very sure the Cubists, the Futurists, and all the other queer “ists” would not make the impression they are making if there were not a good reason for it, if the times were not ripe for a change.

Broadly speaking we are changing from the perfections of Impressionism to the imperfections of Post-Impressionism; from the achievements of a school, a movement, that has done the best it could, to the attempts, the experiments, the gropings, of new men along new lines.

It is the purpose of this book to describe some of the changes that are taking place and try to explain them in plain, every-day terms.