In Art There Is No Progress, Only

Nevertheless, What Was Made In The Hope Of Transforming The World Need Not Be Rejected Because It Failed To Do So – Otherwise, One Would Also Have To Throw Out A Good Deal Of The Greatest Painting And Poetry Of The Nineteenth Century. An Objective Political Failure Can Still Work As A Model Of Intellectual Affirmation Or Dissent.

It Is Hard To Think Of Any Work Of Art Of Which One Can Say 'this Saved The Life Of One Jew, One Vietnamese, One Cambodian'. Specific Books, Perhaps; But As Far As One Can Tell, No Paintings Or Sculptures. The Difference Between Us And The Artists Of The 1920's Is That They They Thought Such A Work Of Art Could Be Made. Perhaps It Was A Certain Naivete That Made Them Think So. But It Is Certainly Our Loss That We Cannot.

It Was The Basilica Of Gossip, The Vatican Of Inside Dope.

There Is Virtue In Virtuosity, Especially Today, When It Protects Us From The Tedious Spectacle Of Ineptitude.

Indeed, The Idea That Doubt Can Be Heroic, If It Is Locked Into A Structure As Grand As That Of The Paintings Of Cezanne's Old Age, Is One Of The Keys To Our Century. A Touchstone Of Modernity Itself.