Judge, 1923-04-07 · page 12 of 36
Judge — April 7, 1923 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "Very Interesting!" - A Satire on Modern Art Appreciation This Heywood Broun piece satirizes how early 20th-century audiences had become so conditioned to accept avant-garde modernism that they'd accept absurdity without question. The cartoon depicts a picture by a Russian modernist painter showing a man chopping wood—with **seven arms, all purple except one magenta**. Rather than shock Brooklyn viewers as the author expected, ordinary people simply accept it as artistic expression, muttering "Very interesting." The joke: post-WWI sophistication about modern art (and perhaps Russian Bolshevism, mentioned explicitly) has made people intellectually lazy. They won't criticize obvious nonsense because they've been trained to believe that's unsophisticated. Two elderly ladies examine the painting seriously, only casually remarking about the anatomical impossibility as they leave—not as a criticism, but as an afterthought. Broun mocks both pretentious modern art and the public's uncritical deference to it.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Great Scott! *Taint human. SPORT PAGE “VERY INTERESTING!” by Heywood Broun E HAVE all developed, of course, far beyond those bad old day in which groups used to gathe the queer pictures t on earth does that n? Zducation has done it. People who go into exhibitions don't expect to sce honest cows and faithful: trees. Such phrases as, var, he’s painted that dog purpl affrighted y dog four fe ad and a tail all comers are so grateful that they are not likely to be captious about colors. Sketches by Weed To-day, progress has carried us so far that quite ordinary people, some of them know enough to look at a picture What emotion does that convey to you?” To be sure the answer some- times comes back from the foe of modern art, “Acute naus j Only the other « at an exhibition in Brooklyn there was a picture modern Russian painter which showed a man chopping wood. Nothing radical about that, you ~ but let us finish. The man was chopping the wood with seven arms all of which belong to himself. We supposed that this would be a pict calculated to shock and annoy Brooklynites and accordingly we ti up a position beside it. Nobody shocked in the least. Brooklyn to feel that it was quite the thing man to have seven arms. After person in the picture was presumably Russian and probably a bolshevist aud Rejected would-be exhibitor. nothing done by Lenine or Trotsky could surprise anybody. “Very interesting, very interesting.” sweet old lady to her younger They both gazed full upon th picture without blinking. Perhaps we should have added that the seven arms of the wood chopper were all purple except. one which was magenta. “Sort of suggests Uncle Fred,” ven- tured the youn sister. The older one shook her head. “The " she answered, “but not the mouth. Decidedly not the mouth.” And so that subject was not pursued farther. “What does it make you feel like?” the older one ed. ie other had noe hesitation in answer! “Makes me feel like I was getting Sunday dinner ready down to Mildre It was not until they started to leave that either Lp SLbe OO gg The signature hound. ventured to mention the anatomic:! peculiarity of the man in the picture. a seven arms that man ha wasn't it?” asked the more mature of th ' said her sister, “I notices vem. That was what made me feel like comicbooks.com