Art: Government in Art?

When Michelangelo heard that Pope Paul IV wanted one of his paintings changed, the master snapped: “Let him mend the world; I’ll mend my paintings.” As if heedful of Michelangelo’s sound advice, the U.S. Government has mostly steered clear of trying to mend America’s painting. Two years ago Harry Truman asked the National Commission of Fine Arts (whose usual job is to advise on statues and fountains) to see what the Government might do in the way of art patronage. After taking four volumes of testimony from federal bureaucrats, museum people and “cultural attaches” from abroad, the commission reported to President Eisenhower. Items:

¶ The Government should increase aid to schools and colleges for art education. Free slides, color reproductions and movies of Government collections ought to be distributed for educational use.

¶ The armed services should build a museum to display the painted record of World War II.

¶ Congress should appropriate funds to enable the Smithsonian Institution to buy paintings by contemporaries. Warned Committee Member George Biddle in a pointed aside: “As long as these selections are made through political agencies or individual caprice . . . the Government will continue to get adequate work by second-rate artists.”*

*In the seven years of its existence, the WPA Art Project spent $35 million, and produced 2,500 murals, 18,800 sculptures, 108,000 paintings, but no masterpiece.