This is not a Wikipedia article: This is a workpage, a collection of material and work in progress that may or may not be incorporated into Aesthetic Realism. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative. |
I have just posted this section. Please post comments here, above text. Thanks. Trouver ( talk) 15:20, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
In answer to the above: (1) Still considering a separate article for Terrain Gallery, but since Aesthetic Realism was the gallery's raison d'etre some things belong here. (2) The article has been reorganized to follow chronology more strictly, and hopefully clarify relationships. Once it gets posted (hopefully most of it by tonight, the rest by the weekend) we can all see how well it works. Thanks for your suggestions and observations. Trouver ( talk) 23:09, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
Draft outline: (2498)
I've added the number of words in the existing text to the outline above, and copied the outline and number of words in the drafted text. I have several questions. Why are the gallery and the arts treated separately? Why are the "texts" in the history section? Why is the racism section so much longer and the homosexuality section so much shorter than their current versions? Why are we using a thematic arrangement rather than a strictly chronological one? Why is the death of Siegel not mentioned? Why does the "criticism" section only include a rebuttal without including the criticism itself? Will Beback talk 23:14, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
If there are no objections, I will post the sections on History through racism on the main/article page later this afternoon. I'm also leaving this message on Talk Page. Thanks to all involved. Trouver ( talk) 13:27, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
The section on homosexuality has been revised following suggestions of Will Beback. CSaguaro ( talk) 19:48, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
The above is a review of Glenda Jackson as Hedda Gabler. It has absolutely nothing to do with this article. If you can post or link to the reviews in the Times by Kerr and Barnes in January 1970 it would help me. If not I have to find them, which is not as easy for me as it is for you. The Opposites Company production took place at the Terrain Gallery in late 1969, where it was reviewed by Time and moved to the Actor's Playhouse at the beginning of 1970, where it was reviewed by Kerr and Barnes and maybe others. The actress in the title role was Rebecca Thompson not Glenda Jackson.
To facilitate work on this article, I suggest moving to the main page the first three sections below. If there is any objection to these sections please express it. If not, let's move it and start with the Terrain Gallery. I will go back to the first draft I posted on the Terrain Gallery, which did have something about the press controversy, and expand it to include all POV. You had said this section was too long and should be a separate article, but if you want the History to include the press controversy it will be longer. Trouver ( talk) 01:45, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
Yes, it is a work that should be mentioned as it sets forth definitions of important terms Aesthetic Realism uses: "Reality," "Aesthetics," etc. It's a book length work that was serialized in 41 weekly issues of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, beginning on October 11, 1978, issue #289 through issue #330. Eli Siegel wrote that these definitions are "the beginning things on which Aesthetic Realism is based" (The Right Of, issue #289, 11 October 1978).
LoreMariano ( talk) 01:42, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
FWIW, this novel has a character, Linda Kunz, who wears one of the VOP buttons, explains a little about the change from homosexuality, and gives a lesson in grammar from a (supposedly) AR point of view. Pages 231 – 234
I would like to suggest two minor edits to the article:
I think this reads better. It's a little confusing to see how the conclusion of the reasoning lead to the same idea.
These are not substantive changes but I wanted to post them here first. Thanks. LoreMariano ( talk) 17:19, 2 May 2010 (UTC)
Let's discuss the "Aesthetic Realism and Homosexuality" section here to avoid getting confused with the other sections. Above, I've proposed that the section be limited to discussing the AR theory of homosexuality, and that the historical aspects of the movement's activities regarding homosexuality be folded into the history section. Apparently, that includes the whole "victim of the press" issue. Will Beback talk 21:29, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
Is there a transcript of this interview? How is it verifiable? Will Beback talk 21:41, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
If nothing else, this is a source for the "familiar VICTIM OF THE PRESS buttons". [10] Will Beback talk 23:41, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
From the early 1920’s, Siegel was developing a unified philosophic world view.
[1] His earliest scholarly essay appeared in 1922 in Horizons, the magazine of Johns Hopkins University.
[2] The following year, The Modern Quarterly, a magazine founded by Siegel and V. F. Calverton, published several essays by Siegel, including The Scientific Criticism, which dealt with the need to see value objectively, as having the same reality as fact,
[3] and The Equality of Man, in which he stated that society “is hardly justified in appraising any person conclusively” until it has done everything possible “to bring out what was truest, strongest, best, most individual” in that person.
[4]
These early essays were later published as The Modern Quarterly Beginnings of Aesthetic Realism, 1922-1923 (Definition Press, 1969), and in his Preface, Siegel wrote of the connection between them and the philosophy he later founded: “In March, 1922, I felt that every person owed something to every other person and, indeed, to every other thing. Aesthetic Realism now has in it the need of every person to be precise about what is not himself.”
[5]
In 1938, Siegel began teaching poetry classes (described above) and in 1941, students in his classes asked him to give individual lessons in which they might learn about their own lives. These were the first Aesthetic Realism lessons.
[6]
The philosophic basis of Aesthetic Realism was set forth systematically by Siegel in two major texts. The first, Self and World: an Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, was written from 1941-3. Individual chapters, including “Psychiatry, Economics, Aesthetics,” [7] and “The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict,” [8] were printed in 1946. The full text was published in 1981 (NY: Definition Press). [9] His second text, Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World, completed in 1945, defines 134 terms needed for a philosophic outline of reality. These definitions were published in the journal, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
In 1946, Siegel began giving weekly lectures at Steinway Hall in New York City, in which he presented what he first called Aesthetic Analysis (later, Aesthetic Realism) “a philosophic way of seeing conflict in self and making this conflict clear to a person so that a person becomes more integrated and happier.”
[10]
From 1948 through 1977, Siegel continued teaching at 67 Jane Street in New York City, where individuals studied in such Aesthetic Realism classes as the Ethical Study Conference, the Nevertheless Poetry Class, and classes in which Aesthetic Realism was discussed in relation to the arts and sciences, history, philosophy, national ethics and world literature.
[11]
[12]
On February 26, 1955, the Terrain Gallery opened, with painter Dorothy Koppelman as Director. From the beginning, the Terrain was simultaneously an exhibition space for contemporary art and a public cultural center where artists and scholars discussed their original research on the relevance of Aesthetic Realism to contemporary art and life.
[13] In the announcement of its opening exhibition, the Terrain published Eli Siegel’s 15 Questions, Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? (subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism).
[14] Artists exhibiting at the Terrain were not required to endorse Aesthetic Realism,
[15] but many wrote comments on the Siegel Theory of Opposites in relation to their work, which were displayed with their art.
[16]
The Society for Aesthetic Realism discussed, at the Terrain, how opposites “explain art, poetry and humanity.”
[17] Through gallery exhibitions, public talks and discussions, poetry readings, and the publication of Aesthetic Realism essays and lessons by the Terrain, principles of Aesthetic Realism influenced contemporary intellectual thought as well as the New York art scene. Parker Tyler wrote in Art News of the “explicitly inquiring and venturesome spirit” at the Terrain.
[18] Bennett Schiff wrote: “There probably hasn’t been a gallery before like the Terrain, which devotes itself to the integration of art with all of living, according to…the theory of ‘Aesthetic Realism’ as developed and taught by Eli Siegel.”
[19] The effect of Aesthetic Realism on artists is revealed in interviews by Chaim Koppelman
[20] founder of the printmaking department of the School of Visual Arts, with Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Clayton Pond on the relevance of Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel’s Theory of Opposites to their work. Tape recordings of these interviews are now part of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
[21] Artists who have exhibited at the Terrain include Ad Reinhardt, Larry Rivers, Andre Kertesz, Harold Baumbach, Richard Bernstein, Dorothy Dehner, Leonard Baskin, Chaim Koppelman, Robert Blackburn, Arnold Schmidt, Harold Altman, Rolph Scarlett, Will Barnet, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Lois Dodd, Steve Poleskie, and Clare Romano.
[22]
Several artists and critics began utilizing Aesthetic Realism in their work, including Ralph Hattersley, editor of the photography journal Infinity,
[23] and Nat Herz, author of articles in Modern Photography and of the Konica Pocket Handbook: An Introduction to Better Photography.
[24] Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the Terrain Gallery continued to give weekly dramatic presentations of Aesthetic Realism,
[25] and over the years, the gallery became a center for presentations by artists in various fields who saw value in this philosophy.
[26] In 1967, the gallery presented talks by six working artists in the fields of painting, printmaking, photography, acting, and poetry, later published as the book, Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There (NY: Definition Press, 1969).
[27]
[28] The gallery also presented talks on music (some of which were subsequently published in Allegro, the newspaper of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802)
[29] and a production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler inspired by Aesthetic Realism lectures,
[30] in which Eli Siegel described the title character as “essentially good,” because, “with all her uncertainty and displeasingness” she wanted “humanity and the world to be more beautiful.”
[31]
The not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation was founded in 1973. At 141 Greene Street in New York City, it is the primary location where the philosophy is taught, in public seminars on a wide range of subjects,
[32] dramatic presentations, and privately scheduled consultations for individuals.
[33]
The Foundation also offers a curriculum of classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, acting, singing,
[34] and classes for children.
[35] Scholarly papers on diverse arts, including architecture,
[36] and music,
[37] have been presented at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, which also offers Outreach programs through various community organizations.
In 1977, Eli Siegel appointed Ellen Reiss chairman for the teaching of Aesthetic Realism. Since that time, she has conducted the professional classes for the teachers, and to-be teachers, on the Foundation's faculty. Herself an Aesthetic Realism consultant since 1971, Ms. Reiss also taught in the English departments of Queens and Hunter Colleges, City University of New York. She is a poet, editor, co-author (with Martha Baird) of The Williams-Siegel Documentary (Definition Press, 1970), and instructor of the course "The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry."
[38]
In November, 1978, Eli Siegel died.
[39] His work is continued by Ellen Reiss, whose editorial commentaries on literature, life, and national ethics appear regularly in the periodical, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
[40]
In 1984, a new series of weekly talks, free to the public, was held at the Foundation's Terrain Gallery: Aesthetic Realism Shows How Art Answers the Questions of Your Life. An overview of this series of more than 175 talks on art of diverse genres and periods was presented by co-directors Dorothy Koppelman and Carrie Wilson at the 31st World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003).
[41] In 2005 the Terrain Gallery's 50th Anniversary Exhibition
[42] documented the influence of Aesthetic Realism on both emerging and well known artists.
[43]
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, composed of actors, singers and musicians, has presented various productions at the Foundation, based on lectures Eli Siegel gave on Shakespeare, Moliere, Sheridan, Ibsen, Strindberg, Eugene O’Neill, George Kelly, Susan Glaspell, and others. Their musical productions, combining songs with Aesthetic Realism comment, have also been presented at conferences in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Lake George, at libraries, museums, and to legislators and arts leaders at Arts Day in Albany, NY, on March 6, 2007.
[44]
[Revised, 4-17]
In one of his earliest essays, “The Equality of Man” (1923), Siegel criticized writers who were promoting eugenics, the theory that intelligence is inherited and some people belong to superior breeds or races, while others are born inferior. [45] He argued that thus far in the history of the world, people have not had equal conditions of life, to bring out their potential abilities, and he asserted that if all men and women had “an equal chance to use all the powers they had at birth, they would be equal.” [46]
According to Aesthetic Realism, racism and prejudice of all kinds begins with the human inclination towards contempt, “the addition to self through the lessening of something else.” Students of the philosophy assert that the racist attitude is not inevitable, but can change if one learns to recognize and criticize contempt. In public forums, individuals of diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds have described how, through study of Aesthetic Realism, their racism and prejudice changed, not into “tolerance” but into a respectful desire to know and to see that the feelings of another are “as real, and as deep, as one’s own.” [47]
On an international level, proponents advocated the study of Aesthetic Realism as “The Only Answer to the Mideast Crisis” in a 1990 advertisement on the op-ed page of the New York Times. [48] To oppose prejudice they recommend that persons of nations who are in conflict “write a soliloquy of 500 words” describing the feelings of a person in the opposing land. [49]
The UN commissioned filmmaker Ken Kimmelman, a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, to make two anti-prejudice films: Asimbonanga, and Brushstrokes. Kimmelman credits Aesthetic Realism as his inspiration for these films, as well as his 1995 Emmy-award winning anti-prejudice public service film, The Heart Knows Better, based on a statement by Eli Siegel, [50] which has received international acclaim.
Another noted speaker on the subject of Aesthetic Realism and how it opposes prejudice and racism is Alice Bernstein, whose articles on the subject have been published in hundreds of papers throughout the country, including in her serialized column, “Alice Bernstein & Friends.” [51] Mrs. Bernstein is the editor of The People of Clarendon County (Chicago: Third World Press, 2007), a book that includes a play by Ossie Davis re-discovered by Bernstein, together with historical documents, photographs and essays about Aesthetic Realism, which she describes as "the Education That Can End Racism." The late Ossie Davis, noted actor and civil rights activist, stated: “Alice Bernstein has dedicated her life to ending racism in this country.” [52] A production of The People of Clarendon County—a Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism, presenting Aesthetic Realism as the educational method that explains and changes prejudice and racism, was staged in the Congressional Auditorium of the US Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC on October 21, 2009, with introductory remarks given by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. [53]
In 1946 writer and WW II veteran Sheldon Kranz (1919-1980) was the first man to report that he changed from homosexuality through the principles of Aesthetic Realism. [54] He said that as his way of seeing the world changed, his sexual preference also changed: from a homosexual orientation (he was no longer impelled toward men) to a heterosexual one that included love for a woman for the first time in his life. Kranz was married for 25 years (until his death) to Obie award-winning actress Anne Fielding. [55] This change occurred even though the subject of homosexuality was not central to the philosophy. [56]
Aesthetic Realism views homosexuality as neither a “sin” to be repented nor an “illness” to be cured, but as a philosophic matter. [57] A fundamental principle of Aesthetic Realism is that every person is in a fight between contempt for the world and respect for it. [58] That fight is present in homosexuality. [59] Aesthetic Realism states that, in the field of love and sex, a homosexual man prefers the sameness of another man while undervaluing the difference of the world that a woman represents. This undervaluing of difference is a form of contempt for the world; therefore, as a man learns how to like the world honestly, his attitude toward difference changes and this affects every area of his life, including sexual preference. [60]
In 1971 three men were interviewed on New York City’s WNDT Channel 13 Free Time show about their change from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [61] A transcript of this interview was reprinted in the book The H Persuasion, which was published that year. The book also contained writing by Siegel detailing his ideas about the cause of homosexuality, transcripts of Aesthetic Realism lessons, and narratives by men describing both why they changed and how. [62] Also in 1971, four men who said they changed from homosexuality were interviewed on the David Susskind Show, which had a national syndication. [63] The airing of these two televised interviews resulted in many requests from people who wanted to study Aesthetic Realism, including, but not limited to, men wanting to change from homosexuality. In response, Siegel designated four consultation trios: The Three Persons and First Person Plural, trios that taught women wanting to understand themselves and love; Consultation With Three, whose purpose was the understanding and changing of homosexuality; and The Kindest Art, teaching artists the relation of art to life. [64] [65] In 1983, five other men who said they had changed from homosexuality were interviewed on the David Susskind Show. [66] The transcript of this interview was published in the 1986 book The Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel and the Change from Homosexuality. [67] Through the 1970s and 1980s additional men said they changed from homosexuality through the philosophy. Many married and some started families. [68]
The idea that men could change from homosexuality was controversial. With the exception of a brief 1971 review calling The H Persuasion “less a book that a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers,” [69] The New York Times never reported that men said they changed from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [70] In 1978, an ad that was placed in three major newspapers stating “we have changed from homosexuality through our study of the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel.” It was signed by 50 men and women. [71] In 1982 The Boston Globe, reported that the “assertion” of change through Aesthetic Realism was “a claim staggering to psychiatrists and psychologists.” [72] The Globe’s ombudsman later wrote in his column that the article was biased against Aesthetic Realism. [73]
Beginning in the 1980’s, gay activists increasingly attacked Aesthetic Realism for saying that homosexuality arose from an incomplete way of seeing the world and could change. [74] Supporters of the philosophy responded that Aesthetic Realism describes contempt as a hurtful interference in every person’s life—homosexual and heterosexual, man and woman, child and senior.
The Aesthetic Realism Foundation also stated that it supported full, completely equal civil rights for homosexuals, including the right of a man or woman to live their life in the way they chose. [75] In 1990, not wanting to be involved in the atmosphere of anger surrounding this matter, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation decided to discontinue its presentations and consultations on the subject of homosexuality, saying that “we do not want this matter, which is certainly not fundamental to Aesthetic Realism, to be used to obscure what Aesthetic Realism truly is: education of the largest, most cultural kind.” [76]
This is not a Wikipedia article: This is a workpage, a collection of material and work in progress that may or may not be incorporated into Aesthetic Realism. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative. |
I have just posted this section. Please post comments here, above text. Thanks. Trouver ( talk) 15:20, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
In answer to the above: (1) Still considering a separate article for Terrain Gallery, but since Aesthetic Realism was the gallery's raison d'etre some things belong here. (2) The article has been reorganized to follow chronology more strictly, and hopefully clarify relationships. Once it gets posted (hopefully most of it by tonight, the rest by the weekend) we can all see how well it works. Thanks for your suggestions and observations. Trouver ( talk) 23:09, 31 March 2010 (UTC)
Draft outline: (2498)
I've added the number of words in the existing text to the outline above, and copied the outline and number of words in the drafted text. I have several questions. Why are the gallery and the arts treated separately? Why are the "texts" in the history section? Why is the racism section so much longer and the homosexuality section so much shorter than their current versions? Why are we using a thematic arrangement rather than a strictly chronological one? Why is the death of Siegel not mentioned? Why does the "criticism" section only include a rebuttal without including the criticism itself? Will Beback talk 23:14, 1 April 2010 (UTC)
If there are no objections, I will post the sections on History through racism on the main/article page later this afternoon. I'm also leaving this message on Talk Page. Thanks to all involved. Trouver ( talk) 13:27, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
The section on homosexuality has been revised following suggestions of Will Beback. CSaguaro ( talk) 19:48, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
The above is a review of Glenda Jackson as Hedda Gabler. It has absolutely nothing to do with this article. If you can post or link to the reviews in the Times by Kerr and Barnes in January 1970 it would help me. If not I have to find them, which is not as easy for me as it is for you. The Opposites Company production took place at the Terrain Gallery in late 1969, where it was reviewed by Time and moved to the Actor's Playhouse at the beginning of 1970, where it was reviewed by Kerr and Barnes and maybe others. The actress in the title role was Rebecca Thompson not Glenda Jackson.
To facilitate work on this article, I suggest moving to the main page the first three sections below. If there is any objection to these sections please express it. If not, let's move it and start with the Terrain Gallery. I will go back to the first draft I posted on the Terrain Gallery, which did have something about the press controversy, and expand it to include all POV. You had said this section was too long and should be a separate article, but if you want the History to include the press controversy it will be longer. Trouver ( talk) 01:45, 20 April 2010 (UTC)
Yes, it is a work that should be mentioned as it sets forth definitions of important terms Aesthetic Realism uses: "Reality," "Aesthetics," etc. It's a book length work that was serialized in 41 weekly issues of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, beginning on October 11, 1978, issue #289 through issue #330. Eli Siegel wrote that these definitions are "the beginning things on which Aesthetic Realism is based" (The Right Of, issue #289, 11 October 1978).
LoreMariano ( talk) 01:42, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
FWIW, this novel has a character, Linda Kunz, who wears one of the VOP buttons, explains a little about the change from homosexuality, and gives a lesson in grammar from a (supposedly) AR point of view. Pages 231 – 234
I would like to suggest two minor edits to the article:
I think this reads better. It's a little confusing to see how the conclusion of the reasoning lead to the same idea.
These are not substantive changes but I wanted to post them here first. Thanks. LoreMariano ( talk) 17:19, 2 May 2010 (UTC)
Let's discuss the "Aesthetic Realism and Homosexuality" section here to avoid getting confused with the other sections. Above, I've proposed that the section be limited to discussing the AR theory of homosexuality, and that the historical aspects of the movement's activities regarding homosexuality be folded into the history section. Apparently, that includes the whole "victim of the press" issue. Will Beback talk 21:29, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
Is there a transcript of this interview? How is it verifiable? Will Beback talk 21:41, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
If nothing else, this is a source for the "familiar VICTIM OF THE PRESS buttons". [10] Will Beback talk 23:41, 19 April 2010 (UTC)
From the early 1920’s, Siegel was developing a unified philosophic world view.
[1] His earliest scholarly essay appeared in 1922 in Horizons, the magazine of Johns Hopkins University.
[2] The following year, The Modern Quarterly, a magazine founded by Siegel and V. F. Calverton, published several essays by Siegel, including The Scientific Criticism, which dealt with the need to see value objectively, as having the same reality as fact,
[3] and The Equality of Man, in which he stated that society “is hardly justified in appraising any person conclusively” until it has done everything possible “to bring out what was truest, strongest, best, most individual” in that person.
[4]
These early essays were later published as The Modern Quarterly Beginnings of Aesthetic Realism, 1922-1923 (Definition Press, 1969), and in his Preface, Siegel wrote of the connection between them and the philosophy he later founded: “In March, 1922, I felt that every person owed something to every other person and, indeed, to every other thing. Aesthetic Realism now has in it the need of every person to be precise about what is not himself.”
[5]
In 1938, Siegel began teaching poetry classes (described above) and in 1941, students in his classes asked him to give individual lessons in which they might learn about their own lives. These were the first Aesthetic Realism lessons.
[6]
The philosophic basis of Aesthetic Realism was set forth systematically by Siegel in two major texts. The first, Self and World: an Explanation of Aesthetic Realism, was written from 1941-3. Individual chapters, including “Psychiatry, Economics, Aesthetics,” [7] and “The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict,” [8] were printed in 1946. The full text was published in 1981 (NY: Definition Press). [9] His second text, Definitions, and Comment: Being a Description of the World, completed in 1945, defines 134 terms needed for a philosophic outline of reality. These definitions were published in the journal, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
In 1946, Siegel began giving weekly lectures at Steinway Hall in New York City, in which he presented what he first called Aesthetic Analysis (later, Aesthetic Realism) “a philosophic way of seeing conflict in self and making this conflict clear to a person so that a person becomes more integrated and happier.”
[10]
From 1948 through 1977, Siegel continued teaching at 67 Jane Street in New York City, where individuals studied in such Aesthetic Realism classes as the Ethical Study Conference, the Nevertheless Poetry Class, and classes in which Aesthetic Realism was discussed in relation to the arts and sciences, history, philosophy, national ethics and world literature.
[11]
[12]
On February 26, 1955, the Terrain Gallery opened, with painter Dorothy Koppelman as Director. From the beginning, the Terrain was simultaneously an exhibition space for contemporary art and a public cultural center where artists and scholars discussed their original research on the relevance of Aesthetic Realism to contemporary art and life.
[13] In the announcement of its opening exhibition, the Terrain published Eli Siegel’s 15 Questions, Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? (subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism).
[14] Artists exhibiting at the Terrain were not required to endorse Aesthetic Realism,
[15] but many wrote comments on the Siegel Theory of Opposites in relation to their work, which were displayed with their art.
[16]
The Society for Aesthetic Realism discussed, at the Terrain, how opposites “explain art, poetry and humanity.”
[17] Through gallery exhibitions, public talks and discussions, poetry readings, and the publication of Aesthetic Realism essays and lessons by the Terrain, principles of Aesthetic Realism influenced contemporary intellectual thought as well as the New York art scene. Parker Tyler wrote in Art News of the “explicitly inquiring and venturesome spirit” at the Terrain.
[18] Bennett Schiff wrote: “There probably hasn’t been a gallery before like the Terrain, which devotes itself to the integration of art with all of living, according to…the theory of ‘Aesthetic Realism’ as developed and taught by Eli Siegel.”
[19] The effect of Aesthetic Realism on artists is revealed in interviews by Chaim Koppelman
[20] founder of the printmaking department of the School of Visual Arts, with Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and Clayton Pond on the relevance of Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel’s Theory of Opposites to their work. Tape recordings of these interviews are now part of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
[21] Artists who have exhibited at the Terrain include Ad Reinhardt, Larry Rivers, Andre Kertesz, Harold Baumbach, Richard Bernstein, Dorothy Dehner, Leonard Baskin, Chaim Koppelman, Robert Blackburn, Arnold Schmidt, Harold Altman, Rolph Scarlett, Will Barnet, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Lois Dodd, Steve Poleskie, and Clare Romano.
[22]
Several artists and critics began utilizing Aesthetic Realism in their work, including Ralph Hattersley, editor of the photography journal Infinity,
[23] and Nat Herz, author of articles in Modern Photography and of the Konica Pocket Handbook: An Introduction to Better Photography.
[24] Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the Terrain Gallery continued to give weekly dramatic presentations of Aesthetic Realism,
[25] and over the years, the gallery became a center for presentations by artists in various fields who saw value in this philosophy.
[26] In 1967, the gallery presented talks by six working artists in the fields of painting, printmaking, photography, acting, and poetry, later published as the book, Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There (NY: Definition Press, 1969).
[27]
[28] The gallery also presented talks on music (some of which were subsequently published in Allegro, the newspaper of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802)
[29] and a production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler inspired by Aesthetic Realism lectures,
[30] in which Eli Siegel described the title character as “essentially good,” because, “with all her uncertainty and displeasingness” she wanted “humanity and the world to be more beautiful.”
[31]
The not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation was founded in 1973. At 141 Greene Street in New York City, it is the primary location where the philosophy is taught, in public seminars on a wide range of subjects,
[32] dramatic presentations, and privately scheduled consultations for individuals.
[33]
The Foundation also offers a curriculum of classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, acting, singing,
[34] and classes for children.
[35] Scholarly papers on diverse arts, including architecture,
[36] and music,
[37] have been presented at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, which also offers Outreach programs through various community organizations.
In 1977, Eli Siegel appointed Ellen Reiss chairman for the teaching of Aesthetic Realism. Since that time, she has conducted the professional classes for the teachers, and to-be teachers, on the Foundation's faculty. Herself an Aesthetic Realism consultant since 1971, Ms. Reiss also taught in the English departments of Queens and Hunter Colleges, City University of New York. She is a poet, editor, co-author (with Martha Baird) of The Williams-Siegel Documentary (Definition Press, 1970), and instructor of the course "The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry."
[38]
In November, 1978, Eli Siegel died.
[39] His work is continued by Ellen Reiss, whose editorial commentaries on literature, life, and national ethics appear regularly in the periodical, The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.
[40]
In 1984, a new series of weekly talks, free to the public, was held at the Foundation's Terrain Gallery: Aesthetic Realism Shows How Art Answers the Questions of Your Life. An overview of this series of more than 175 talks on art of diverse genres and periods was presented by co-directors Dorothy Koppelman and Carrie Wilson at the 31st World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003).
[41] In 2005 the Terrain Gallery's 50th Anniversary Exhibition
[42] documented the influence of Aesthetic Realism on both emerging and well known artists.
[43]
The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, composed of actors, singers and musicians, has presented various productions at the Foundation, based on lectures Eli Siegel gave on Shakespeare, Moliere, Sheridan, Ibsen, Strindberg, Eugene O’Neill, George Kelly, Susan Glaspell, and others. Their musical productions, combining songs with Aesthetic Realism comment, have also been presented at conferences in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Lake George, at libraries, museums, and to legislators and arts leaders at Arts Day in Albany, NY, on March 6, 2007.
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In one of his earliest essays, “The Equality of Man” (1923), Siegel criticized writers who were promoting eugenics, the theory that intelligence is inherited and some people belong to superior breeds or races, while others are born inferior. [45] He argued that thus far in the history of the world, people have not had equal conditions of life, to bring out their potential abilities, and he asserted that if all men and women had “an equal chance to use all the powers they had at birth, they would be equal.” [46]
According to Aesthetic Realism, racism and prejudice of all kinds begins with the human inclination towards contempt, “the addition to self through the lessening of something else.” Students of the philosophy assert that the racist attitude is not inevitable, but can change if one learns to recognize and criticize contempt. In public forums, individuals of diverse nationalities and cultural backgrounds have described how, through study of Aesthetic Realism, their racism and prejudice changed, not into “tolerance” but into a respectful desire to know and to see that the feelings of another are “as real, and as deep, as one’s own.” [47]
On an international level, proponents advocated the study of Aesthetic Realism as “The Only Answer to the Mideast Crisis” in a 1990 advertisement on the op-ed page of the New York Times. [48] To oppose prejudice they recommend that persons of nations who are in conflict “write a soliloquy of 500 words” describing the feelings of a person in the opposing land. [49]
The UN commissioned filmmaker Ken Kimmelman, a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, to make two anti-prejudice films: Asimbonanga, and Brushstrokes. Kimmelman credits Aesthetic Realism as his inspiration for these films, as well as his 1995 Emmy-award winning anti-prejudice public service film, The Heart Knows Better, based on a statement by Eli Siegel, [50] which has received international acclaim.
Another noted speaker on the subject of Aesthetic Realism and how it opposes prejudice and racism is Alice Bernstein, whose articles on the subject have been published in hundreds of papers throughout the country, including in her serialized column, “Alice Bernstein & Friends.” [51] Mrs. Bernstein is the editor of The People of Clarendon County (Chicago: Third World Press, 2007), a book that includes a play by Ossie Davis re-discovered by Bernstein, together with historical documents, photographs and essays about Aesthetic Realism, which she describes as "the Education That Can End Racism." The late Ossie Davis, noted actor and civil rights activist, stated: “Alice Bernstein has dedicated her life to ending racism in this country.” [52] A production of The People of Clarendon County—a Play by Ossie Davis, & the Answer to Racism, presenting Aesthetic Realism as the educational method that explains and changes prejudice and racism, was staged in the Congressional Auditorium of the US Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC on October 21, 2009, with introductory remarks given by House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn. [53]
In 1946 writer and WW II veteran Sheldon Kranz (1919-1980) was the first man to report that he changed from homosexuality through the principles of Aesthetic Realism. [54] He said that as his way of seeing the world changed, his sexual preference also changed: from a homosexual orientation (he was no longer impelled toward men) to a heterosexual one that included love for a woman for the first time in his life. Kranz was married for 25 years (until his death) to Obie award-winning actress Anne Fielding. [55] This change occurred even though the subject of homosexuality was not central to the philosophy. [56]
Aesthetic Realism views homosexuality as neither a “sin” to be repented nor an “illness” to be cured, but as a philosophic matter. [57] A fundamental principle of Aesthetic Realism is that every person is in a fight between contempt for the world and respect for it. [58] That fight is present in homosexuality. [59] Aesthetic Realism states that, in the field of love and sex, a homosexual man prefers the sameness of another man while undervaluing the difference of the world that a woman represents. This undervaluing of difference is a form of contempt for the world; therefore, as a man learns how to like the world honestly, his attitude toward difference changes and this affects every area of his life, including sexual preference. [60]
In 1971 three men were interviewed on New York City’s WNDT Channel 13 Free Time show about their change from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [61] A transcript of this interview was reprinted in the book The H Persuasion, which was published that year. The book also contained writing by Siegel detailing his ideas about the cause of homosexuality, transcripts of Aesthetic Realism lessons, and narratives by men describing both why they changed and how. [62] Also in 1971, four men who said they changed from homosexuality were interviewed on the David Susskind Show, which had a national syndication. [63] The airing of these two televised interviews resulted in many requests from people who wanted to study Aesthetic Realism, including, but not limited to, men wanting to change from homosexuality. In response, Siegel designated four consultation trios: The Three Persons and First Person Plural, trios that taught women wanting to understand themselves and love; Consultation With Three, whose purpose was the understanding and changing of homosexuality; and The Kindest Art, teaching artists the relation of art to life. [64] [65] In 1983, five other men who said they had changed from homosexuality were interviewed on the David Susskind Show. [66] The transcript of this interview was published in the 1986 book The Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel and the Change from Homosexuality. [67] Through the 1970s and 1980s additional men said they changed from homosexuality through the philosophy. Many married and some started families. [68]
The idea that men could change from homosexuality was controversial. With the exception of a brief 1971 review calling The H Persuasion “less a book that a collection of pietistic snippets by Believers,” [69] The New York Times never reported that men said they changed from homosexuality through Aesthetic Realism. [70] In 1978, an ad that was placed in three major newspapers stating “we have changed from homosexuality through our study of the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel.” It was signed by 50 men and women. [71] In 1982 The Boston Globe, reported that the “assertion” of change through Aesthetic Realism was “a claim staggering to psychiatrists and psychologists.” [72] The Globe’s ombudsman later wrote in his column that the article was biased against Aesthetic Realism. [73]
Beginning in the 1980’s, gay activists increasingly attacked Aesthetic Realism for saying that homosexuality arose from an incomplete way of seeing the world and could change. [74] Supporters of the philosophy responded that Aesthetic Realism describes contempt as a hurtful interference in every person’s life—homosexual and heterosexual, man and woman, child and senior.
The Aesthetic Realism Foundation also stated that it supported full, completely equal civil rights for homosexuals, including the right of a man or woman to live their life in the way they chose. [75] In 1990, not wanting to be involved in the atmosphere of anger surrounding this matter, the Aesthetic Realism Foundation decided to discontinue its presentations and consultations on the subject of homosexuality, saying that “we do not want this matter, which is certainly not fundamental to Aesthetic Realism, to be used to obscure what Aesthetic Realism truly is: education of the largest, most cultural kind.” [76]