Volume 6, Number 11 · June 23, 1966
Art at the End of its Tether
By Ernst Gombrich
Man's Range for Chaos: Biology, Behavior and the Arts
by Morse Peckham
Chilton Books, 339 pp., $6.95
'Etonnez moi'—the famous words which Diaghilev is said to have spoken to the young Cocteau conveniently sum up the theory of art proposed in this book. Stripped of its involvement with transactionist psychology and translated from a rather polysyllabic terminology into simple language, Professor Peckham's hypothesis amounts to the assertion that are is an institution to which we turn when we want to feel a shock of surprise. We feel this want because we sense that it is good for us once in a while to receive a healthy jolt. Otherwise we would so easily get stuck in a rut and could no longer adapt to the new demands life is apt to make on us. The biological function of art, in other words, is that of a rehearsal, a training in mental gymnastics which increases our tolerance for the unexpected. In the author's words: 'There must…be some human activity which serves to break up orientations…to prepare the individual to observe what the orientation tells him is irrelevant, but what very well may be highly relevant' (p. xi); '…art is the reinforcement of the capacity to endure disorientation so that a real and significant problem may emerge' (p. 314).
Review, 3399 words
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