THE DEAN HITS OUT

Taranaki Daily News, 2 April 1934, Page 7

THE DEAN HITS OUT

“NAUSEOUS ART” IN ENGLAND. NegrOid conceptions. Dean Inge declared recently that Buskin’s political economy was by no means aS absurd as the Victorians with bii& voice declared it to be. We might have to return to England befOre the industrial Revolution, “which is what Ruskin desired and Plato would have advised.” Dean Inge Was speaking to the Rdyal Society of Literature hi London on Riiskin and Plato. On Ruskin's economics, Dean Inge Said:— “A very limited number of artisans Would be enough to supply the nbeds Of the whole community In an age of machines. Assuming that we shall lose the greater part of Our export trade—since the countries Will prefer to Supply themselves—We shall be forced to grow Our own food, Which w6 could do if we had no large towns. “How we Should get rid of the useless mouths—perhaps half Our present numbers—l have ho notion. But Ruskin may turn out not to be such a fool as his critics thought. “Many think that now that democracy has failed, as Plato could have' told us that it always would, Some kind Of real aristocracy, deprived of the temptations which have hitherto beset rulers, fnay be the ohly hope for civilisation. Ahd Ruskin’s ideal society is now an inspiration to many. reformers. “For my own part,’’ said Dean Inge, “I heartily wish John Ruskin were alive nOW to scOurge and scarify, as he alone knew how to do; the nauseOuS criticasters .Who Week by week pour out their drivel in the name of art Criticism in the pages of certain publications. “They insult the Greeks; they insult the great Italians; they insult OUr best painters, instead they talk about ‘negroid art,’ and give Us pictures of the human form as delineated by the savages Of Benin or the unknown sculptors of Easter Island. “These poor savages drew as Well as they knew hoW; if they could have made a Greek or ever an Egyptian statue they would have done so. And so we see new buildings disfigured by shapeless figures who appear to be suffering frdffi elephantiasis.” /