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WHY DISINTEREST IS STILL INTERESTING: The Case of Roger Fry

WHY DISINTEREST IS STILL INTERESTING: The Case of Roger Fry S y m p o s i u m : D e v a l u e d C u r r e n c y, P a r t 2 why disinterest is still interesting The Case of Roger Fry Wayne Andersen Insofar as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry. — Kenneth Clark (1939) In his boldly titled book Art, published in 1913, Clive Bell writes of a friend who has an intellect as keen as a drill but had never experienced an aesthetic emotion: “He is likely to call a handsaw a work of art.”1 This play of art off a mundane object echoes Hamlet on the subject of his own mental competence: “I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (where “handsaw” is a play on “hernshaw,” which is a play on herons as the prey of hawks). Why “handsaw” in examples so historically unconnected? I have found this axiom again, more or less, in recent literature defending Marcel Duchamp’s readymades as works of art; instead of a handsaw, the object under judgment is a snow shovel, but the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

WHY DISINTEREST IS STILL INTERESTING: The Case of Roger Fry

Andersen, Wayne
Common Knowledge , Volume 14 (2) – Apr 1, 2008
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
© 2008 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
0961-754X
DOI
10.1215/0961754X-2007-072
Publisher site
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Abstract

S y m p o s i u m : D e v a l u e d C u r r e n c y, P a r t 2 why disinterest is still interesting The Case of Roger Fry Wayne Andersen Insofar as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry. — Kenneth Clark (1939) In his boldly titled book Art, published in 1913, Clive Bell writes of a friend who has an intellect as keen as a drill but had never experienced an aesthetic emotion: “He is likely to call a handsaw a work of art.”1 This play of art off a mundane object echoes Hamlet on the subject of his own mental competence: “I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (where “handsaw” is a play on “hernshaw,” which is a play on herons as the prey of hawks). Why “handsaw” in examples so historically unconnected? I have found this axiom again, more or less, in recent literature defending Marcel Duchamp’s readymades as works of art; instead of a handsaw, the object under judgment is a snow shovel, but the

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2008

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