I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The general aim of the Bill is expressed very shortly in its title. It is an Act to stimulate public interest in, and to promote the knowledge, appreciation, and practice of the arts and, for these purposes, to establish an arts council. The expression "the arts" is given a specific definition in Section 1 of the Bill. It means painting, sculpture, architecture, music, the drama, literature, design in industry and the fine arts and applied arts generally.
In Section 3 the functions of the council which is to be set up under this Bill are set out as being to stimulate public interest in the arts, to promote the knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts, to assist in improving the standards of the arts, to organise or assist in the organising of exhibitions, within or without the State, of works of art and artistic craftsmanship. Speaking in the Dáil on the 20th July, 1949, I announced the desire and the intention of the Government to take steps as soon as possible for the promotion and encouragement of art, the application of art to industry, and the spread of a knowledge and appreciation of art amongst the people, and to bring, so far as possible, to the people a knowledge and appreciation of the art treasures which we possess.
The Bill which I now submit to the Dáil is a modest, not to say a meagre, contribution to the practical giving effect of the intention and desires of the Government which I announced at that time. On the same occasion I announced that Professor Thomas Bodkin, Professor of Fine Arts in the Barber Institute in Birmingham, had been asked to undertake an examination of the position of the fine arts in Ireland. His terms of reference were, I think, then stated by me and can bear repetition to-day. He was asked to examine and report:—
1. Upon the constitution and working of institutions concerned with the arts in Ireland, in particular the National Museum and the National Gallery.
2. Upon the facilities available in Ireland for education in the arts, both from the historical and the practical aspects, at elementary to professional levels, with particular reference to the teaching of art and art history in the schools, the universities, the National College of Arts and the Provincial Art Schools.
3. Upon the existing relations between the arts and industry in Ireland, including such activities as technical training in craftsmanship, the provision of industrial designs and of appropriate advertisements for tourist development, and upon the steps that might be taken to arouse the public interest and the interest of manufacturing industries in the importance of design in industry.
4. Upon the advisability of establishing an organisation or organisations for the purpose of encouraging and spreading a knowledge of the arts in Ireland and of Irish culture in foreign countries.
5. Upon the advisability of establishing an organisation or organisations concerned with the preservation and acquisition by the State of sites and buildings of national importance and with the maintenance of aesthetic amenities in future building projects.
6. Upon the advisability or otherwise of extending such services as those referred to above and of coordinating their administration.
Dr. Bodkin made his report in the month of September, 1949, and it has been in the hands of Deputies for some considerable time. I should like, at this point, to pay a tribute to Dr. Bodkin for the masterly way in which he summarised his views and put before us, in his report, the infirmities which exist in our institutions and made his suggestions for their betterment. The thanks of the Dáil and the public are due to Dr. Bodkin for bringing to this task his unrivalled experience, his vast knowledge of art and of the history of art, and his profound knowledge of Irish art and for his desire to bring home to the Irish people the importance of art to Ireland and a knowledge and an appreciation of the great treasures of art they have in our institutions and in our museums. I was determined, as were my colleagues, that that report should not be consigned, as so many previous reports were, to the oblivion of forgotten things.
This Bill, I am keenly aware, does not go as far as I would like it to go, but nevertheless it is a beginning. I think it is a good beginning, and I hope it will have the support of all sections of the House. Although during the past 27 or 28 years we have made very creditable progress in many fields of endeavour—social, financial and economic—unfortunately, since the State was established, successive Governments have been so fully preoccupied with other matters that they have had little opportunity of adopting any kind of policy in regard to the arts. Indeed, it is difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion that there was something in the nature of a deliberate policy to obstruct anybody who evinced any desire or inclination to do anything for the furtherance of art in Ireland or for the furtherance of the application of art to industry in Ireland.
Dr. Bodkin summarises the position as it existed since 1922 in the following paragraph which appears on page 9 of his report:—
"Measures which might have been taken effectively in 1922 to foster the fine arts and rehabilitate the art institutions of the country are no longer likely to prove sufficient. In the intervening 27 years the resources of such institutions, and the status and power of those who administered them, have been steadily curtailed rather than augmented. We have not merely failed to go forward in policies concerning the arts, we have in fact, regressed to arrive, many years ago, at a condition of apathy about them in which it had become justifiable to say of Ireland that no other country of Western Europe cared less, or gave less for the cultivation of the arts. It might also have been assumed that any sense of responsibility for the welfare of art had faded from our national tradition."
In an earlier part of his report he directed attention to the fact that we had in the bright era of our history shown some indications of artistic genius which might have in time advanced to the highest attainments in painting. For historical reasons that was not to be. Then he summarised the position during the 18th and 19th centuries as follows:—
"Thomas Davis alone among the patriots who struggled for Irish freedom expressed concern about the future of the arts but his was a voice crying in the wilderness; and during the 19th century the Irish artist was almost inevitably driven into exile to seek adequate opportunities to use his talents. Davis was well aware that the cultivation of art is an essential duty for the statesman, and that art has its preferred environment and depends for its progress, if not for its existence, on the preservation of those oases in life where it is welcomed with understanding gratitude. The good citizen will never claim to be indifferent to art. There are only two classes who can do so; despicable men who are content to be sub-human or those whom, because they aspire to transcend humanity, we may revere but can seldom understand. The good citizen will spur his rulers to foster art, remembering that it cannot rise without encouragement nor thrive without understanding support, and that we depend upon the work of artists for almost every impulse to high thought and noble action which is not offered to us by patriotism or religion."
To that I might add the statement of Cardinal Newman, that "the fine arts are to be encouraged if only because of their strong tendency to divert mankind from the pursuit of more brutish pleasures."
This Bill, as I have said, is a modest effort to do something for the promotion of our art in Ireland, for the encouragement of the latent artistic talent in our own people, for the development of a distinctive national art, and the revival of our national traditions in craftsmanship. I think it may be reasonably assumed, in spite of the very difficult times in which we live and in spite of the fact that there are many present pressing matters of economic, financial and social policy which confront us, that people on all sides of this House must agree that a sense of responsibility for our national art should not fade from our national tradition.
We have, as I said on the occasion I was speaking about in 1949, many great treasures of art in this country. We have, I believe, an artistic tradition, and we have much latent talent, if not genius, in the country; but we have had very little in the way of artistic achievement, and we have had little or nothing in the way of encouragement or in the way of creating those conditions and that atmosphere in which the talent of our people can find its proper flower and expression. Take the architecture of Dublin, for example, which is a source of pride and glory, and is so well known throughout the world. The architecture of Dublin is known for the Custom House, for the Four Courts and for the Bank of Ireland. For nearly two centuries, we have achieved nothing, or created nothing, to match these architectural triumphs. But, we feel, that if our people get their opportunity, if our people are given the chance of knowing the history of art and of architecture and of appreciating the treasures which they have, these talents and, possibly, the genius which may exist amongst our young people, will find adequate expression in a real distinctive national culture.
Unfortunately, we do not live in times when private individuals are in a position financially to give the encouragement which is so necessary for the widespread cultivation of the arts. There are still few people, and still very few who are able and willing in modern circumstances and under modern conditions, to give generously of their art treasures for the benefit of the public. I think it would not be irrelevant here, in passing, again to express our thanks to Mr. Chester Beatty for his munificent donation of pictures to the National Gallery a short time ago. I feel that if we show in the future more interest in art, more interest in the visual arts and in the applied arts generally, it may be that people like him will feel that we are deserving of encouragement and support, and that we may get more voluntary gifts of that kind further to enrich our artistic heritage here in Ireland. But the fact is, that there are so very few of those people now left. The fact that there are so few who, unselfishly and disinterestedly, do patronise the arts with financial encouragement or gifts emphasises the extent of the work that remains to be done if the arts, generally, are to be cultivated, and if the artistic traditions of the nation are to be fostered.
I think no one can accuse me of being a devotee of State interference in the life of the community or of being a firm believer in the effectiveness of State action; but, in a matter of this kind, where our arts and our art institutions have been for so long neglected, where we have so few, if any, people of our own here in Ireland who are able, out of their own resources, to endow our institutions or to provide for the education of people who have artistic leanings or talent, I am afraid it is the duty of the State to step in and give the necessary encouragement and financial support. In the past, over the centuries and in different countries of the world, either the State or statesmen in their private capacity, have been patrons of the arts, and have enabled some of the best painters to do their best work. State patronage in many countries, and in many ages, has contributed greatly to the advancement of the arts. It has, of course, produced good results and it has also produced bad results, but, nevertheless, in countries in which art has received patronage neither from private nor from State sources, the result has been an impoverishment of the arts.
Doctor Bodkin draws attention to the effect which the bleak age of the 19th century in Great Britain had upon the minds of the people of that time, when neither the State nor private persons who, at that time were richly endowed with the world's goods, provided to any extent patronage of the drama. Those words of his at page eight reveal the damaging effects on the cultural life of apathy of that kind.
The measure of support which the State gives in this Bill is comparatively trifling. When compared with the amount of money that is spent in small countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Portugal, the figure that is in this Bill is really of insignificant dimensions. It represents only about 1½d. per head of the population of this country, but it is a beginning, and if it succeeds, as I firmly believe it will succeed with the support of all Parties in this House and all sections of the community who, I believe, wish for an encouragement and lead of this kind, then we may hope that it will lead to higher things. For those who think that I am talking in perhaps too high a vein, there is in the proposals envisaged in this Bill and the work which it is hoped will be carried out by the arts council when established under the Bill not only a spiritual enrichment but very much material advancement as well.
Nobody, of course, could suggest for one moment that the passing of any Bill or the expenditure even of considerable sums of money can by itself produce the artist, the craftsman or the designer which is so necessary if successful achievement is to accrue. What the council to be set up under this Bill can do is to endeavour to create the conditions under which artists and craftsmen may emerge, latent talent may appear, and both talent and genius be developed both for the spiritual and material development of the country. Patronage of the arts, whether by the State or by private individuals, can and should aim only at stimulating the creative faculty of artists and the appreciative faculties of the public. One of the purposes for the creation of this arts council, one of the things which I hope they will soon do, is to bring right down to every part of the country, throughout the length and breadth of the country, some of the pictures which we have in Dublin and which many of our citizens never had an opportunity of seeing. We cannot, of course, do anything more than educate our people and encourage our artists, give them some hope and some prospect of creative achievement. We must rely upon them to look to depend upon their own initiative when they get the necessary encouragement and proper conditions are created, and not to create the belief in their minds that everything will be done for them in the way that some people think it is the duty of the State to interfere in all activities of human affairs in modern circumstances. We can foster and encourage their individualism and their talent and their possible genius, but unless we can find ways and means of encouraging people themselves to acquire a knowledge and an appreciation of art and unless we can bring them the means of learning to know about art and to understand and appreciate the difference between good and bad art, we will never achieve anything either in the way of our spiritual betterment or the development of craftsmanship or design in industry which will bring material benefit to our industrial activity in this country.
In modern circumstances, in this country it is particularly relevant for us to remember that real art has to compete with all the shoddy meretricious products of modern entertainment industry which in films and periodicals achieve such success in corrupting aesthetic taste and warping artistic perception.
We hear a lot of talk about keeping pictures and books out of this country, about the necessity for putting bans upon books and periodicals. But mere proposals for banning imported printed matter of that kind or for extended censorship, however well intended, are not a constructive approach to the problem, but a mere negative approach, and the only way in which you can deal with matters of that kind is by raising the standard of taste of the people and by giving them a knowledge and appreciation which will enable them to differentiate easily between the true and the false. This Bill is—I hope I am entitled to say it—a constructive approach to the problem, at all events something which it is hoped can and will achieve something of real worth to the country.
Dr. Bodkin, in the course of his report, has drawn attention to the amount of money that is spent upon art and upon design and industry in France, England, Sweden and elsewhere. When we look at the amount of money that is spent here, Deputies will really appreciate the extent of the neglect which there has been in the cultural sphere in this country. The amount of money that is given to do everything in the National Gallery is only about what is provided by one city in England for its municipal museum and art gallery for the purpose of pictures and, as I have already indicated, countries like Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Norway devote a very considerable amount of money for the benefit of their art and their craftsmanship in industry. Dr. Bodkin has drawn attention to the amount of money that is spent in France and in England by the British Council and by the council that looks after industrial design. That we should spend the small amount of money proposed in this Bill is, I hope, merely a beginning. That probably will be a great shock to the officials of the Department of Finance.
The proposals for the arts council embodied in this Bill are very modest and very tentative, but at least they aim at providing statutory authority for a body assisted in a small way from State funds which, representative of artistic endeavour generally, may tend to do something for our cultural heritage which has not been done before. The aim is to secure the establishment of a small autonomous organisation which will act in an advisory and consultative capacity with the Government and with such members of the Government as might from time to time require its services and also undertake work towards developing a greater knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts, increasing the accessibility of the arts to the public, improving the standard of execution of the arts and fostering the application of art to industry.
Deputies who have read Dr. Bodkin's report will recall that he recommended the setting up not of a separate Ministry of Fine Arts but of a sub-department of an existing Ministry and, as a sub-suggestion of that suggestion of his, he stated that perhaps it might be better, if certain difficulty existed, that a less ambitious approach might be made to the solution of the problem by the setting up of a small autonomous body such as is envisaged in the present Bill. He suggested the formation of a less formal body, which might be entitled the arts commission, the institute of arts, or the arts council of Ireland and that it should be empowered to plan a scheme for the application of the arts in all the various directions covered by his report. The scheme of this Bill departs slightly from his recommendation. The object is to set up a small body which will be as far as possible autonomous, which will be entitled to work on its own free from the trammels of Civil Service procedure. It is envisaged in the Bill that it will be subject merely to the Government. It is not intended that it should be under the authority of any particular Minister, except to the extent that it reports through the Taoiseach to the Government. This scheme is designed to give this body, as far as possible, freedom of action and freedom from bureaucratic control. Our National Gallery has been crippled and hampered for want of money for many years and from the interference with its activities by the financial machine. We wish now to have this body working in such a way that every Department of State which requires its advice will be able to go to it and get from it advice and assistance and direction. I may say, in passing, that it is rather a pity that this body was not in existence in the last few months. It might possibly have been in a position to advise whoever was responsible for the present atrocity on top of Nelson's Pillar, an atrocity which completely destroys the line and beauty of that monument.
This body in addition to encouraging art and the application of art to industry might deal also with matters such as ancient monuments, design in advertisements in furtherance of the tourist traffic, official publications, State buildings, coins, medals, postage stamps, State ceremonies, art exhibitions and might play an effective part in carrying on the fight for the recovery of the Lane pictures.
Hitherto, I have dealt with the functions of the arts council largely from the point of view of the visual arts. I would like to say a few words now on a matter to which Dr. Bodkin gives considerable attention in his report; he gives that attention advisedly because of its importance to our industrial activity and progress. I would like to say a few words, too, on the topic of applied arts or, to use the phrase I have already used, the application of art to industry. Again, in this respect Dr. Bodkin directs attention to the neglect of that particular artistic activity here. At page 44 of his report he says:—
"... no civilised nation of modern times has neglected art to the extent that we have done during the past 50 years, with consequent injury to our national industries."
We have undertaken the task and the duty of building up manufacturing industries here. Little, or no, attention has been given to the enormous scope that exists for artistic design in these industries. In Part VIII of his report Dr. Bodkin does really valuable service to this country in pointing out what can be done and what should be done. May I trespass now upon the time and patience of Deputies to quote one or two passages from that part of his report because, while I personally feel the importance from the spiritual point of view and from the point of view of the development of our character and our separate individuality of developing individual arts as such, I do feel almost most strongly that there is tremendous scope here for the application of art to industry?
I do feel that we can, if we go the right way about it, create here a kind of artistic craftsmanship and produce goods which will sell on the export market by reason of their artistic value as distinct from their utilitarian purpose. I do think that it should be possible, by the development of ideas of that kind, to get industries started in those parts of the country which are at present so backward, particularly in the Gaeltacht and along the western seaboard, which would give employment to our people there of a kind suitable to their environment and which would, in addition to giving employment and bringing all the consequent amenities of that employment to that part of the country, probably produce a fruitful export trade. Dr. Bodkin refers in his report to a matter in relation to which I think we must all feel a certain sense of shame, that is, the extraordinary rubbish that is turned out either here or in England as souvenirs from Ireland. Many of these souvenirs, the blackthorn stick, the bog-oak pig, the jaunting car and all the rest of them, are sometimes not made here at all; wherever they are made, they are a disgrace to our modern civilisation and they ought to be banned.
Dr. Bodkin directs attention to the extraordinary success that attended the establishment of the glass industry in Sweden, all due to the fact that there they were able to get first-class designers, which enabled them to produce artistic glassware which, in turn, brought about the creation of a vast export trade. He points out that the modern development in Swedish industry was dependent upon good design and that:—
"Such efforts to achieve the development of artistic industries can only be made successful in an environment where great art is adequately admired and displayed. Picture galleries and museums, well furnished and equipped, are valuable to the community as sources inspiring craftsmen of all kinds to undertake fruitful experiment in design and technique. It is only in museums and galleries that the young workman can measure his own ambitions and compare his own productions with the best achievements of the past."
Here then can be seen the close connection between the two parts of these objects which I put forward as the principal objects of the arts council to be set up under this Bill. It promotes the visual arts for the spiritual value that can be achieved therefrom; but, in promoting a knowledge and appreciation of the fine arts, you thereby create an environment in which art is adequately admired and displayed, and from that you create the conditions in which artistic craftsmanship can be developed and design in industry brought to a successful conclusion. Dr. Bodkin points out that:—
"In a country where the fine arts flourish we always find graceful furniture, elegant china, rich carpets and becoming costumes. When Watteau and Fragonard were painting for France, Cressent and Riesener were making superb secrétaires and canapés, the tapestry manufactories of Beauvais and the Gobelins, the porcelain manufactory of Sevres were astonishing the world with the beauty and technical excellence of their wares. When Gainsborough and Reynolds were painting the portraits of eighteenth-century English aristocrats, Thomas Chippendale was making them chairs of comparable excellence. People who like to live with good pictures will not tolerate work of any description which is ill-designed or carelessly executed."
We have to a very large extent here inherited the industrial tradition of the nineteenth-century industrialisation of our neighbour. From that time and to a very great extent here to-day, it is regarded as a truism that industry or industrial production is quite outside the orbit of art and that skill and craftsmanship are something to be despised, something to be regarded as out of place in an era of mass production. In most countries at the moment that attitude of mind is passing. I think it is true to say that it has not passed here: our industrialists have little or no appreciation of the necessity for good design and the necessity for producing something of the highest artistic value and of the urgent desirability of marrying art to industry.
This Bill comprises within the scope of the objects of the arts council and of the purpose for which it is set up, matters other than are generally comprised in the term "visual arts". It comprises design in industry, applied art and also includes drama and literature. As far as I am personally concerned, what I would urge is that, in the first instance at all events and in view of the small amount of money available, concentration should be directed to the development of appreciation of the fine arts in the popular sense of the term and, in the applied arts, the application of art to industry. Music and the drama may come later, when the council has developed its activities, when it has spread its light and when there is greater public interest in matters connected with pictorial art and architecture and the application of art to industry. Then it may be that further moneys will be available and further activities open to this new arts council.
I suppose it is true to say that there are very few of us in this country who can read Homer in the original Greek, Dante in the original Italian or Cervantes in the original Spanish; but a great number, even though not very well versed in art or the history of art, are really appreciative of the fine qualities of art and can derive intense pleasure and satisfaction from the contemplation of Greek sculpture, Italian painting or Spanish architecture. We can arrive at the conclusion that the fine arts are the language in which a nation can speak most effectively to other nations about the things of the spirit, the achievements they honour and the ideals they cherish. The reputation of the great civilisations of the past depends more upon the remnants of their art which are preserved to-day than upon anything else, and those States of distant past which have left no monument of art are dead indeed in the memory of mankind. We have permanent records of the days of Egypt's greatness: we have little records of its decline.
I would commend this Bill to the House and hope it will receive universal commendation. It is an effort to do something that I believe firmly ought to have been done very many years ago. If the provisions of the Bill are put into active operation at an early date, it will do something to enrich the spirit of the nation and advance the material prosperity of the country.