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DAEDALUS

Prospectus of issue on
The Visual Arts Today
by Gyorgy Kepes (Guest Editor)

Even the most superficial observer can scarcely escape the conclusion that a fundamental transformation of our outlook, on every level, is going on. The bold generalization which has brought formerly unconnected phenomena into a scheme of impressive cohesion through scientific understanding has, of course, parallels in other human endeavors as well. The work being done by twentieth-century artists suggests a new emotional understanding of the expanding world. We all, but primarily those of us who are artists, being cast out of a smaller, friendlier world in which we once moved with a confidence born of familiarity, have been compelled to cope emotionally, through our sensibilities, with the expanding scale of events. In order to live freely and fully in a redefined world, we have to learn to map its new vistas with our senses, and so to dispose our activities as to conform with its new perspectives and to discern in them harmonic structures appreciable by our sensibilities. The significant artists of our time are the pioneers in perceiving this new world and in discovering within it values and qualities which can help shape our man-created environment and form our inner world of sensibilities. In this sense, the central theme of the prospective issue of DAEDALUS is the complementary relation between science and technology, on the one hand, and the visual arts today, on the other hand. 

The visual arts of the twentieth century are complex, sometimes contradictory, and their interpretation requires a greater tolerance in precision than is demanded by the more disciplined sciences. To treat generally of this particular subject requires, it seems to me, a technique of idea-montage as an editorial device. Such a montage would be constructed according to three basic aspects. The first is the sociological interpretation of that matric within which the creative mind in the visual arts operates today. Important aspects of this first analysis will be: the impact of mechanization, of urbanization, of new forms of transportation, and of our increased sense of mobility, the new techniques and potentials in visual communication, emotional crises sprung from new types of social conflicts, "the wasteland," the displaced person (in the broader sense), "the angry young man" in the arts. 

The second aspect of the material is to be the presentation of important documents, both visual and verbal, by significant artists today. The emphasis would be on personal statements, disgarding