|
|
Article: THE ARTS: The New Century--Toward Recovery.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- January 24, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
THERE has been something like a collapse of the arts in the 20th century- -or so, I suspect, future historians will judge--and what we must look for, early in the Third Millennium, is a process of recovery. The whole of history teaches that men and women cannot live without art, and that art must be as good as they can make it. They were engaging in art long before they could write, perhaps even before they could communicate with one another fluently through speech. Art they must have; it is a human craving almost as strong as the need for food, drink, and sleep. If they are deprived of art--good art--for long, as sometimes happens in history, the craving, far from ...