Creative Work

About art in all its manifestations people are accustomed to judge very light-mindedly. Some have read two verses and already with authority about the poet. Some have seen three or four pictures or reproductions of pictures and already pass judgement on the artist. From one novel they fix the position of a writer. One book of sketches is enough for an irrevocable opinion over a cup of tea.

More than once has been noted in literature that the celebrated "cup of tea" binds one to nothing. And perhaps the pronouncements at the table likewise are not binding; yet in the meantime they often have very profound consequences. In such conversations over a "cup of tea", people do not think about the fact that the separate productions are only as the petals of the entire oeuvre. Even an experienced horticulturist or botanist would hardly undertake to form a judgement about an entire plant from a single petal or its blossom.

Each one has had occasion to listen to most definite opinions about an author, yet it proved upon verification that only some one volume of all his writings had been read by the speaker–not to mention those in general who do not take the trouble to do any reading themselves, but pronounce their judgements according to the newspaper critiques. But the concept oeuvre, the concept of all of a person’s creative work, should be set forth special clearness. Not only a full acquaintance with all the creativeness of the author is needed, but for forming a just estimate it is necessary also to assimilate his productions in the chronological order of their creation.

The whole creative work is like a necklace put together in a definite order. Each production expresses this or that psychological moment of the creator. The life of the artist has been composed of such moments. In order to understand a result one must know the cause. One needs to understand why such and such a sequence of creation took place. Whatever external or internal circumstances were stratified and produced fragments of the whole creativeness, to form an opinion about these would be to speak about the design of a necklace from merely one are two links of it.

In all kinds of creativeness in literature, in music, in the graphic arts–everywhere an attentive and careful correlation is decidedly necessary. Each one has had occasion to read and hear, how much has been attributed to authors, which was entirely align to them, by quoting snatches from their uninterrupted train of thought. You know that not only casual people take it upon themselves to pass judgement. In each domain dwells a self-appointed judge.

I recall how in the law faculty the students were considering how they would apply their assimilated knowledge. One who was attracted to the bar wished to be an administrator; another aspired to the role of prosecutor; but a third, a fun loving student said: "For my part, it would certainly suit me to pass judgement on all of you." Who knows, perhaps this jest really impelled him to a juridical career, for which in the last analysis he had not special aptitudes.

The same happens in many professionals; in judgements about creativeness much is contrived completely accidentally. But from this casualness often springs an almost irreparable consequence.

It is said that the valuation by critics changes three times in a century, that is, by generations. To observe these deviations of evaluations will influence public opinion. The competition of publishers or greed of the dealers in the artistic productions, finally any of the various forms of envy and enmity are so complexly reflected in appraisals, that for the future investigator or historian it is often completely impossible to discriminate. A great number of examples of this could be adduced.

Let us recall how two competing publishers tried to disparage an author whom they had in view, in order to secure more cheaply the right of publishing his work. You know that such specific belittlement’s are to be found in any annals. Let us recall how a certain dealer in pictures tried by all means to depreciate for a time the value of an artist, with the end in view of buying up enough of his productions and then commissioning some one to resurrect anew the forgotten or discredited artist.

Let us not bring up certain episodes out of the world of collectors, when competition led these people to most unworthy conduct. It is only important to remember that appraisals of creative work are singularly tortuous and personal. We recollect how a certain music-lover warned a well-known musician not to play on a particular day because an influential critic had a toothache. But when to all these vital fortuities there is united the wish in general not to acquaint oneself with a man’s entire oeuvre, then the situation becomes truly tragic.

Let us recall any prolific writer. Can one form a judgement about him without knowing the sequence of all his works? One can, indeed estimate separate productions of the author, but then this will be an opinion which concerns the production itself but not all the man’s creative oeuvre. It is not alone the biography of a great personality, for it is still, more valuable to follow the accumulation of creative power and all the paths of its expression. Thus once again we see how significant in its meaning is the word oeuvre. It impels one to reflect particularly broadly, it impels one to outline the entire manifestation and comprehensively to examine its influence and consequence.

History passing from personal oeuvre appraises also the oeuvre an entire nation, of a whole epoch. If the historian does not teach himself in the small and accessible, then by what means can he draw near to and encompass broad problems? Before thinking about such comprehensive tasks it is necessary to reflect about conscientious judgments of parts, of individuals. He who sets himself the task of always staying within the bounds of truth, learns to discriminate in all fortuities and to compare causes and effects carefully. It is a pleasure to rejoice the whole beautifully composed necklace in which are found many natural colours in unexpected combinations.

Just now, when there is so much destruction and upheaval, each clear, honest, exhaustive understanding of a subject will be an especially needed contemporary task. We have just read how Stokowsky has definitely expressed himself about the harm of mechanical music for true as creativeness. Stokowski has justly reminded us that even between very vibrations transmitted directly or mechanically there is an enormous difference. Certain instruments are generally imperceptible in mechanical transmission.

In a time when music and science, design and the graphic arts have been subjected to mechanisation, precisely then must the appraisals of creativeness be still more precise, profound, and well-grounded. At this very moment when it is the modern practice to strive for the brief, the staccato and the casual, it is especially necessary to aspire to evaluations on the basis of the entire oeuvre.

Though it is difficult to translate that the word oeuvre is a very expressive one.

Let it be the seal of our age to record beautiful oeuvres, which will safeguard for the glory of the nation entire immutable images of giants of thought and beauty!