On Classicism and Modern Art

The exploitation of shock...cannot profitably be reiterated ad infinitum, nor for its own sake.  Perhaps the happiest of aesthetic situations would be that of a culture strong in academic traditions, but permitting also of internal revolutions, and which exploited an experience so various as to need few innovations of mere form. European art-experience prior to 1914 was possibly in this position: we have now entered the flagellating age.  It is arguable that the fallowness of mere classicism would be preferable to our present state (Values and Intentions, p. 249).