Art and the Problem

Mr. Fairburn's own address on the revelance of the arts to the congress theme directed attention to the subjective aspect of the situation. One of the strongest factors making for war was the vacuum in our bored minds. Life is a search for meaning. Our experience has meaning when we can find order in it. Art exteriorises the order and thereby enables us to participate in a life of fuller meaning. We live in two worlds—the world of nature and time, and the world of idea imagination and value. Human capacity for abstraction has caused this rift in our experience. This rift extends to the division between process and imagination, the building up of tensions, which, though necessary to civilisation, have consequences which need to be guarded against. Our problem is to live so as to belong properly to the world of process and also be aware of value. Suggested that language, of which art is one particular form, may be the clue to achieving this. In works of art we find a fusion of abstract and concrete, of idea and image. Unless you can put thought into imagery it is unorganised and useless. (Is this so?) We hope to enjoy life, i.e., be involved thoroughly in it. This carries the consequence of imposing or finding order on or in it. (Is this a true picture?)