The keynote was struck in his inaugural lecture: "On the Modern Element in Literature," "modern" being taken to mean not merely "contemporary" (for Greece was "modern"), but the spirit that, contemplating the vast and complex spectacle of life, craves for moral and intellectual "deliverance".
He took no interest in the proceedings "The passing spectacle of life!" he said.
"Everett Shinn: The Spectacle of Life" remains at the Berry-Hill GallEast 11 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 744-2300, through Jan . 13
My work Creating the Spectacle! began life in 2010 and was made possible through funding from the Arts Council England.
Its layout, the dramatic spectacle of life and death it presents to the visitor, helped establish the basic Stations of the Cross for literary museum worship in St Petersburg.
Well timed, therefore, is the exhibition that marks the centenary of Shinn's debut in New York: "Everett Shinn: The Spectacle of Life," at the Berry-Hill Gallery.
THE mass media, including interactive social-networking tools, make you passive, can sap your initiative, leave you content to watch the spectacle of life from your couch or smartphone.
The spectacle of life and feeling being vested in the inanimate is as old as cinema itself, and you could argue that it peaked early, in 1927, with the slowly opening eyes of the robot in "Metropolis".
How terrible to 'be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life… but always to be scholarly and uninspired, ambitious and timid, scrupulous and dim-sighted'.
