Art/Proze

The "Verdict of Time”
Altin Topi
Memes Exodus Jul 2002

The "Verdict of Time”: The leading note of every age is struck by those creators who are the most robust and intense. Our own era, it might be called by our successors "The age of Proust or "The age of Joyce," or the "The age of Spielberg," it may be defined above all as the age of poetry and movie, or... who knows. While more ephemeral productions are buried in oblivion, only a few masterpieces may emerge marked by intense energy imparted to them by their imaginative creators. Guillaume Apollinaire, a charming and delicate poet, but e robust critic, who interpreted Cubism to the 20th Century generations and is considered the father of Surrealism declared before his death: "All the artistic works of an age mold themselves, in the end, on the most energetic, the most expressive, the most typical creation of the Age."

The "verdict of time" is in fact the judgment of a very few enthusiasts, and as Arnold Bennet define it: - "Why does the great and universal fame of classical authors continue? The answer is that the fame of classical authors is entirely independent of the majority...It is made and maintained by a passionate few... It is the passionate few that the renown of genius is kept alive from one generation to another... The majority can make a reputation, but it is too careless to maintain it... The few conquered by their obstinacy alone, by their eternal repetition of the same statements."

The ancients were aware of this and dismissed the "profanum vulgus;" Voltaire, whom some moderns revere as the ancestor of the democracy, wrote to the chief of the police Herault in 1734 that he should only listen to the opinion of a few chosen minds on his books, "because the vulgar is always and everywhere led by a small number of exceptional men, in literature and politics."

The passionate few, single out a few symphonies by Beethoven, a few overtures by Wagner, a few "Lieder" by Shumman or a few cantos by Verdi, to be heard forever. The passionate few, if they are successful, are soon joined by the snobs and the publishers, and/or the art dealers; the public opinion creators are submissively followed by the public and the crowds who are only too glad to echo the verdict of the "experts."

The public can never express a sincere opinion on Oedipus Rex, Divine Comedy. King Lear, Andromaque, or War and Peace. The "experts" are the gregarious troop which tyrannizes over timid souls under the name of posterity.

The Impressionist "movement" in painting began in obscurity and ridicule. Manet, in 1863, was hated and abused; gradually he won to his vision Pissarro, Monet. Monet in his turn won Renoir and Bazille; Cézanne joined the group in 1874, for their first group exhibition. The public, remained bitterly hostile until 1887, it accepted Renoir only in 1892 and Cezanne much later. Four or five enthusiasms admirer of these painters (Dure, Durand-Ruel, Vollard, Geffroy, etc.) succeeded in getting them accepted by an unanimous adverse public. This is the power of the public opinion creators.

Let close this visit to posterity with a remark on Dante by Voltaire: "Dante will always be admired, because no one ever read him".