Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1917 — Understanding Art. [ARTICLE]

Understanding Art.

A writer in the New Republic makes this very sensible observation : “To believe it important, as people continually do. to •understand’ art rather than to look at it. is absurd. Such understanding has no value either as mental or esthetic culture and is merely the satisfaction of a facile curiosity. It is a soothing sirup for a mild agitation. I have more than once been told, when I have given a trumped-up explanation that the oldest man in -the world could not have understood. ‘Thank you so much, that makes it perfectly clear.’ In all except spelling and mood such Explanations are just like the blessed word ‘Mesopotamia.’ ”