THE DARTMOUTH FRESCOES
Their Significance:
IN EVERY PAINTING, as in any other work of art, there is always an idea, never a story. The idea is the point of departure, the first cause of the plastic construction, and it is present all the time as energy creating matter. The stories and other literary associations exist only in the mind of the spectator, the painting acting as the stimulus.
There are as many literary associations as spectators. One of them, when looking at a picture representing a scene of war, for example, may start thinking of murder, another of pacifism, another of anatomy, another of history, and so on. Consequently to write a story and to say that it is actually told by a painting is wrong and untrue. Now the organic idea of every painting, even the worst in the world, is extremely obvious to the average spectator with normal mind and normal sight. The artist cannot possibly hide it. It might be a poor, superfluous and ridiculous idea or a great and significant one.
But the important point regarding the frescoes of Baker Library is not only the quality of the idea that initiates and organizes the whole structure, it is also the fact that it is an American idea developed into American forms, American feeling, and, as a consequence, into American style.
It is unnecessary to speak about Tradition. Certainly we have to fall in line and learn our lesson from the Masters. If there is another way it has not been discovered yet. It seems that the line of Culture is continuous, without shortcuts, unbroken from the unknown Beginning to the unknown End. But we are proud to say now: This is no imitation, this is our own effort, to the limit of our own strength and experience, in all sincerity and spontaneity.
Panels No. 2-8, the Orozco Mural in Baker Library
Long West Panel, Reserve Book Room, Baker Library These panels, now completed, are described by Orozco as: No. 3-"Aztec Warriors"; No. 4-"Teotihuacan-The Gods"; No. 5 "House and Volcano of Orizaba"; No. 6—Agriculturist, Sculptor, and Astronomer"; No. 7—"The Reactionaries"; No. 8—"The Prophecy of Quetzalcoatl"; No. 9—"Europe." (For more detailed descriptions of these panels, and the mythology symbolized by them, seeProfessor Packard's accompanying article.)
