MR. FORBES' LETTER

Mr. Edward Forbes, Director of the Fogg Art Museum, makes several telling answers to the Crimson's recent suggestions for the Fine Arts Department Concerning a general course for those who wish only a cultural background in Art however, we fear that Mr. Forbes has misunderstood us.

True, as he points out, "the field of Arts is so immense" that even "a bird's eye view, including appreciation, history, philosophy, and practice would be clearly impossible." To cover everything now so adequately covered in four courses in one would be absurd. That was not the point of our suggestion.

The problem is to devise a course for the general student who merely wishes a cultural background of Art, from the point of view of future collecting, home-decorating, and traveling. None of the present courses, however adequate in their own special fields, leave the student with a rounded appreciation of Art. Either all four courses must be taken by the student, or else he must become lop-cornered in one.

"The idea of such a general-course," to quote from our former editorial, "would be to narrow down the philosophical and historical scopes of the present courses in those fields, and to include in the new combination as many of the concretizing advantages of Fine Arts 1a as possible."