189. It does not follow, even when our minds, in consequence of the
study and the practice which I have described, are richly stored with
the terms and the motives of Design, that we shall produce anything
important or remarkable. Important work comes only from important
people. What we accomplish, at best, is merely the measure and
expression of our own personalities. Nevertheless, though we may not
be able to produce anything important, it is something to appreciate
and enjoy what is achieved by others. If our studies and our work bring
us to the point of visual discrimination, to æsthetic appreciation
and enjoyment, and no farther, we are distinguished among men. The
rarest thing in the world is creative genius, the faculty which creates
great works. Next to that comes the faculty of appreciation. That,
too, is rare. We must not believe that appreciation is easy. It is
true that the recognition of Order is instinctive and spontaneous, but
untrained people recognize it only in a few simple and obvious forms.
Order in its higher forms—the order of a great number and variety
of terms and of different principles in combination—lies altogether
beyond the appreciation of untrained people. It is only as we are
trained, exercised, and practiced in the use of terms and in following
principles that we rise to the appreciation of great achievements. The
sense of order, which we all have, in a measure, needs to be exercised
and developed. The spontaneity of undeveloped faculty does not count
for much. It carries us only a little way. Let no one believe that
without study and practice in Design he can recognize and appreciate
what is best in Design.
Appreciation and enjoyment are the rewards of hard thinking with
hard work. In order to appreciate the masterpiece we must have some
knowledge of the terms which the artist has used and the principles
which he has followed. We know the terms only when we have ourselves
used them, and the principles when we have tried to follow them. The
reason why the appreciation of excellence in speech and in writing
is so widespread is due to the fact that we all speak and write,
constantly, and try, so many of us, to speak and write well. The reason
why there is so little appreciation of excellence in other forms of
art is due to the fact that the terms are not in general use and the
principles are not understood, as they should be, in the light of
personal experience and effort. It is for this reason that I am anxious
to see the teaching and practice of Design introduced into the schools,
public and private, everywhere, and into our colleges as well as our
schools. I have no idea that many able designers will be produced,
but what I expect, as a result of this teaching, is a more general
understanding of Design, more interest in it, and more appreciation and
enjoyment of its achievements. Among the many who will appreciate and
enjoy will be found the few who will create and produce.
The purpose of what is called art-teaching should be the production,
not of objects, but of faculties,—the faculties which being exercised
will produce objects of Art, naturally, inevitably. Instead of trying
to teach people to produce Art, which is absurd and impossible, we
must give them a training which will induce visual sensitiveness with
æsthetic discrimination, an interest in the tones, measures, and
shapes of things, the perception and appreciation of Order, the sense
of Beauty. In these faculties we have the causes of Art. Inducing
the causes, Art will follow as a matter of course. In exercising and
developing the faculties which I have named, which naturally and
inevitably produce Art, we are doing all that can be done by teaching.
There is no better training for the visual and æsthetic faculties
than is found in the practice of Pure Design, inducing, as it does,
discrimination in tones, measures, and shapes, and the appreciation
of what is orderly and beautiful. The result of the practice will be
a wide spread of visual and æsthetic faculty which will have, as its
natural and inevitable result, the appreciation and the production of
Works of Art.
Our object, then, in the study and practice of Pure Design is, not so
much the production of Works of Art, as it is to induce in ourselves
the art-loving and art-producing faculties. With these faculties we
shall be able to discover Order and Beauty everywhere, and life will
be happier and better worth living, whether we produce Works of Art,
ourselves, or not. We shall have an impulse which will lead us to
produce Works of Art if we can. At the same time we shall have the
judgment which will tell us whether what we have done is or is not
beautiful.