Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1977 - 38

Scenographer as Artist, /I . . . . . Continued from Page 23

sented the sensual side of theatre. But as a designer,
limited by practical considerations, he has solved these
problems intellectually. In the past he has limited the sensual impact of his own work so that it would not overpower the intellectual content of the author's work. But
today the audience wants visual sensation and doesn't
give a damn about intellectual understanding. And in a
society that values "doing your own thing," the designer's
ego demands that he consider himself a creative person or
even an artist, yet he is bound by numerous practical demands which go contrary to the modern conception of
creation and art. Furthermore, because most designers
must design plays, operas, and musicals from every age
of theatrical history, the designer faces a choice between
two contradictory limitations. Either he serves as curator
of museum pieces by designing with regard to the original
period intent of the work or he designs within the limitation of pleasing a present day audience. In the process he
may either destroy the playas written or he may lose his
audience.
The basic problem of the scenographer is that he is a
Renaissance man, an artist, a mechanic, an inventor, a
humanist. In short, he is an anachronism who must
intelligently organize his many talents to function within
imposed limitations. He is an anachronism in a culture
which has no limits. Again, Daniel Bell
In the realm of art, on the level of aesthetic doctrine, few opposed the idea of boundless experiment,
of unfettered freedom, of unconstrained sensibility,
of impulse being superior to order, of imagination
being immune to merely rational criticism.8
Many observers of the culture, Bell included, believe
we have reached a turning point. The world of sensation
has proved hollow. Irving Howe has suggested that our
laissez-faire culture will be no more acceptable than was
an Adam Smith laissez-faire economy.9
My own view is that the scenographer, by a strange
reversal, is now the new avant garde. By being four hundred years behind the times he will now be in the forefront of a culture which will return to art created within
limitations. (Hang on to your narrow neckties; they are
bound to come back into fashion.) For one thing, if new
art must rebel against existing theory, the logical rebellion against an art without limitations is an art with
limitations.
I would like to predict that scenographers will be the
major influence on this new culture. But unfortunately,
we will probably be ignored and be forced to watch as
"artists" discover truths that we have known and practiced all along.
What we can do as scenographers is to abandon our
defensive posture in which we claim to be craftsmen
rather than artists. We must associate ourselves with those
countless masters of the past whose great works were
created within limitations. We must no longer be apologetic because our work contains ideas and feelings and
because we communicate to a public.
Our areatest problem in this changing culture will be
38

SUMMER,1977

the same for us as it is for all artists, to find a message
of importance and of universal interest to communicate to a fragmented society.
Notes:
1. Lee Simonson, The Art of Scenic Design. New York, Harper
and Brothers, 1950.
2. Several Art historians present the same theory. It can be
traced through several chapters of E.H. Gombrieh's The
Story of Art. New York. Phaidon Press, 1957. Distributed
by Garden City Books.
3. Richard Gilman, The Making of Modern Drama. New York,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.
4. Daniel Bell, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New
York, Basic Books, Inc., 1976.
5. Robert Edmond Jones, The Dramatic Imagination. New York,
Theatre Arts Books, 1941.
6. Oliver Smith interviewed by Lynn Peektal in Pecktal's book,
Designing and Painting Scenery. New York, Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1975.
7. Daniel Bell, op. cit.
8. Ibid.

9. Irving Howe interviewed by John Russell in The New York
Times, Monday, February 16,1976.
*

IES SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULED FOR MIAMI
The THEATRE, TELEVISION, and FILM LIGHTING Committee of the Illuminating Engineering Society
will hold a National Symposium November 13 thru 16,
1977 in Miami, Florida.
The symposium, under the chairmanship of Mr. George
Gill, will focus on developments in the field of entertainment lighting and energy conservation through use of
more efficient sources.
Symposium registration will be open to everyone, with
a special discount for I.E. S. members.
A call for papers has been issued, and those interested
are invited to submit proposals to Mr. Dale Gilchrist,
2975 So. 300 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115.

CONTRIBUTORS
Frederick Bentham is one of Britain's most eminentand wittiest-writers on stage lighting, lighting control
and theatre architecture. He is the author of The Art of
Stage Lighting, Second Edition, recently published by
Theatre Arts Books, as well as many articles. Long associated with Strand Electric Ltd., he edited their publication TABS for many years. Currently, he serves as Editor
of SIGHTLlNE, the Journal of The Association of British
Theatre Technkians.
Beeb Salzer is a painter and scenographer. A member
of the Institute, he has designed for Opera and the legitimate stage. A member of U.S.A.A., he also teaches at
Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of
New York.
Frank Silberstein is a member of the theatre faculty
at Indiana University. He has published several pieces in
this Journal. His article, "A Long Radius Tubing Bender,"
December, 1972, was recognized as the outstanding article
of that year pu blished in TD& T.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1977