LUCIAN FREUD

[RonPrice]

In our world of the knowledge explosion and burgeoning information far beyond the capacity of any ordinary mortal to keep up on more than a sliver, a small portion, of it all, I was not surprised when yet another artist--unknown to me--was given a TV bio-pic1 last night. Lucian Freud, now 89, has been at the game of life more than two decades than I. He has gained a pre-eminence among British artists, a celebrity status, far beyond anything I will achieve even if I live to be a centenarian.

Jurgen Habermas has achieved a celebrity status in the field of sociology, but people with little knowledge of sociology will not know of this intellectual giant. One also needs to know more than a little about the field of history to be familiar with Peter Gay, and I could go on and on through the fields of knowledge to mention names with which only those who are connoisseurs or scholars in those fields are familiar.