Concerning Taste

Cue (NZERS), Issue 10, 31 October 1944, Page 9

Concerning Taste

By

.. The Irishman who reputedly murmured De gustibus non disputandwn est as he kissed his cow, used this Latin tag as a device to answer inquisitive questioners of his taste. There is no arguing ' about tastes] .quoted' in Latin or colloquially, is at best merely a useful half-truth whether applied in the field of demonstrative affections’ or to' paint-

irig, decoration or architecture. There is as much wrangling in the field of art. as grumbling in the army-r—doubtless for the good of both. 'Talk as you will of Taste my friend A you’ll findTwo of a face, as soon as of a mind. ' Pope.

There are basic principles in artistic tastes that have universal appeal and a practical application in everyday life. They are used whenever a selection or choice* is presented, used equally by the critic of a fine art display, by the designer of a walking-stick or a cathedral, or by the purchaser of a teacup dr a suite of furniture. The term design best summarises the practical aspects of art to. which this discussion is limited.

For all manufactured articles, from a pin to a pyramid, there is some sort of previous design, - the essential factors of which must be first the utility of the object and secondly its beauty or good form. This utility-beauty notion is not modem; Plato in the 4th Century BC had a lot to say on this topic and stressed the integration of these two factors in good design. The beautiful consists in utility and fitness for the production of some good purpose. Again he asked the question Are. not the beauty, excellence and correctness of every manufactured article or living thing to-be judged only by reference to the purpose intended in their construction or in their natural form? Excluding the living ’ things and their natural forms fascinating study too we shall answer Plato’s question, according to our tastes, by considering various and familiar articles. The teacup from the utility point of view must hold tea, reasonably retain its heat, and allow comfortable handling in lifting arid drinking and easy cleaning inside and out. Many teacups fail in one or more of these requirements. But the manufacturers produce them because they still find buyers for the wide shallow cup that rapidly cools the contents, the cup with the butterfly in china for an

awkward handle,/ or the one with scolloped sides and indented rim which gives the user much polite difficulty in endeavouring to drink without dribbling. About beauty: the average serviceable, teacup without frills has good form in its traditional shape, exclusive of ugly local-pattern war products, of course. This shape lends, itself to added decoration in line and colour, and beauty is attained without detriment to utility. This added pattern should not, as it frequently does, - destroy or camouflage -the intrinsic good /form of the cup by rambling over -its surfaces like a vine over a wall. It should be light and formal in pattern, unobtrusively enhancing the beauty of the shape as an integral factor of its good form. Frequently in crockery, the good form is spoilt by coloured representations of a bunch of apples, a bouquet of flowers, the Birth of Venus, Walt Disney creations or the local tourist attractions. These are out of taste and completely fail as a decorative design. Paintings from life or reproductions of famous paintings and photographs are subjects for canvasses or flat surfaces; used as decoration on crockery or other manufactured articles, they destroy-the surface form and are themselves distorted. When you have finished a course at dinner and exposed the bottom of your- plate, is it pleasing or appropriate to find- a scenic view inverted and smeared with soup, or Botticelli's Venus sharing the remains of your chicken?

A circular plate should have a circular pattern which does not require any special adjustment of the plate to be fully appreciated; otherwise the essential purpose is obstructed and in the worst cases plates and other crockery articled

become wall pieces. Common offenders against this principle of design are the willow pattern pieces. This pseudooriental patternproduced in England, by the wayhas some pictorial interest, but crockery is not . the proper background for pictures; it is otherwise a heavy, unattractive pattern, usually in a monotonous blue. Like appendicectomy, it was popular with our grandparents because it was fashionable, on the doubtful merit of the good repute of the manufacturers? Apply these forms of good design to other articles such as furniture and home fittings. The Tudor furnishings, like their houses,, were ornate and picturesque, but uncomfortable and awkward. Their modern equivalents, are increasingly plain, but comfortable, and achieve a beauty of form with little or no subsidiary ornament or decoration. The modern internal lighting fittings, if not entirely concealed, illustrate this trend in design. The efficient but plain pastel-tinted lamps, globes or light tubes have developed from the chandelier which was originally constructed to hold a cluster of candles. It was electrified into an ornate complexity of arms, brackets, lamps and dazzling prisms

which, sprinkled conflicting shadows in the illumination, collected a lot of dust and was difficult to clean because of the. danger of breakage. Efficiency and pleasing beauty of form are exemplified in the modern light fittings of chrome and frosted glass, which form an integral part of interior decoration. In modern theatres and similar buildings the light from concealed lamps is now an architectural feature in the decorative design, a pleasing substitute for the frivolous and frothy ornamentation of the pseudo-rococo kind; red plush and elaborate gildings, ceiling murals depicting Cupids blowing kisses or trumpets and nude females in the clouds waving meaningless scrolls or veils. In New Zealand there are good examples of modern interior design. which eschew these traditional ornate escrescences and are based on structural features, flat pastel colours and lighting. In Mediterranean theatres,' churches and mosques one can see the old and the new of interior decoration. In assessing their relative values, Plato’s assertion is worth remembering: the beautiful consists in utility and fitness for the production of some good purpose; and de gustibus non disputandum est is not an adequate statement of your judgment. 1 ‘