Has the artist any obligation to weigh human values or to communicate through his art a vision of spiritual truth?
That simple question, to which almost any layman would answer yes, gets a fast and furious no from many of today's esthetes. Even to ask it in arty circles is to sound like a hick or a troublemaker. Selden Rodman, who is neither, uses it to kick off one of the most provocative art books in years (The Eye of Man; Devin-Adair; $10). His own answeraffirmativerattles the lattices of a hundred ivory towers.
Rodman's thesis,...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
