25 April, 2008

Western Round Table on Modern Art - USA 1949



What's wrong with this picture?

They are all men.


"The object of the Round Table was to bring a representation of the best informed opinion of the time to bear on questions about art today (1949)."

Got that girls? "
The best informed opinion of the time" was a bunch of white blokes in America.

The image is from

The Western Round Table on Modern Art (1949)
Photography by William R. Heick
http://www.ubu.com/historical/wrtma/gallery.htm

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The Western Round Table on Modern Art met in San Francisco, April 8, 9 and 10, 1949.
http://www.ubu.com/historical/wrtma/index.html

The object of the Round Table was to bring a representation of the best informed opinion of the time to bear on questions about art today (1949). A set of neat conclusions, as to the outcome of the conference, was neither expected nor desired. Rather, it was hoped that progress would be made in the exposure of hidden assumptions, in the uprooting of obsolete ideas, and in the framing of new questions.

....

All sessions were transcribed by two court reporters and also recorded on wire. Conference time totaled nine hours. The typed transcript was then corrected and approved by each contributor.

7.5 of the 9 hours can be downloaded here
http://www.ubu.com/historical/wrtma/listen.htm

An abridged transcript is here
http://www.ubu.com/historical/wrtma/transcript.htm

PARTICIPANTS

George Boas (Moderator): Philosopher; Professor of History of Philosophy, John Hopkins University; Trustee, Baltimore Museum of Art.

Gregory Bateson: Cultural anthropologist, Lecturer, Langley Porter Clinic of the University of California Medical School; authority on Bali and New Guinea.

Kenneth Burke: Literary Critic, philosopher, novelist; Professor, Benning College, Vermont.

Marcel Duchamp: Artist.

Alfred Frankenstein: Critic; Music and Art Editor, San Francisco Chronicle.

Robert Goldwater: Critic and Art Historian; Editor, Magazine of Art; Associate Professor of Art, Queens College.

Darius Milhaud: Composer and conductor; Professor of Composition, Mills College.

Andrew C. Richie: Art Historian and critic; Director, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art.

Arnold Schoenburg: Composer.

Mark Tobey: Artist.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect.

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