Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-24
ARTISTS AID ART DECORATION.

Boston now has an Etching Club.
The new American Art Gallery, Boston,
has opened its doors.
The sale of pictures from Norton Bush's
studio, Sacramento, recently, is recorded
as among the largest art sales OF the H.
terror.
The project of an annual art exhibition
upon worldwide basis is under discussion
among the supporters OF the Boston Art
Museum.
The new Etching Club at San Francisco
is a success, and promises to lead to the
formation OF other art associations In spe-
cial lines.
Sir VIM. Bradford, the eminent painter.
spent several days of this week in Sacra-
mento. He came from wintering amidst
the icy splendors of Yosemite, and de-
scribed one temple of ice under Yosemite
fall which rises sheer 600 feet, a marvel of
natural architecture, clear as crystal, and
awe-inspiring in its grandeur.
Browning is quite the rage in Sacramento
among the ladies', who are in number quite
adept in the manufacture and decoration
of light easels and mantel decoration. In
reply to correspondents, we advise anna
teurs to use No. 1000 gold bronze for
smooth surfaces, brushed on with bender
upon nearly dry. thin-laid, gold size. Do
not varnish the work.
The latest and most original develop
ment in the ceramic art in tais country IS
seen in the new Juiiano ware, in which
we are given a high relief decoration on
the biscuit, with sharply defined under
cut. The ornament is not, as in ordinary
relief decoration, applied clay, but, by the
agency of some secret process Of Mr..
Gyula de Festitics, who lends his name to
the ware, the design is carved upon the
solid clay.
An Artists Fund Society, the fund to be
manly devoted to the assistance Of the
widows and children of deceased members,
is proposed in San Francisco, the COM
mittee on constitution and bylaws,
E. Wood Perry, chairman, having
taken the details of the scheme in
hand sometime ago. 1t is intended to de-
rive the fund principally from the sale of
pictures, each artist belonging to the So
ciety to contribute one annually, or in its
stead 500 in cash.
If there were no other reason why We
should know something Of past styles, it
would be sufficient that, in the absence of
any marked national style among us at
present, we have taken to " reviving" IN
succession all manner of bygoDe styles.
The ornament OF to-day is to so great an
extent reflection, or perhaps rather dis
tOrtion, of old work, that one cannot well
discuss it without reference to its origin.
These "revivals, irrational as they are in
themselves, are not without good results.
We have such wealth of old work about US,
accessible through modern facilities of
travel, purchasable through modern pro-
cesses OF reproduction, brought to cur no
tice by modern methods Of publication,
that we cannot escape their influence if
we would (which is not the easel
and the "revivals have involved such
study of these styles that, when we shall
have arrived at reason and begin to express
ourselves naturally in the language OF our
own day, it will surely tell in our work.
magazine of Art.
Almost the first function of ornamept is
to compensate, correct, or qualify the sim
plioity or ugliness of form dictated by ne
cessity. 1t is common mistake to suppose
that this is to be done by OVERLAPPING it
with enrichment, and hiding it under a
heap of ornament. The simplest and
most obvious lines on which TO build a
house, the inevitable construction Of ma
chine, the traditional shape of piece Of
furniture, the convenient form OF gas
pipe-each and all of these may be far
from beautiful, but that is scarcely an ar
gument why they should be smothered with
scrollery. If the necessary form is indeed
beyond description, there are only two
courses-either to do without it, or to
put up with it as it is. But it ia
not often so hopeless as that. In most
cases a little careful consideration will
show that some of the Objectionable fea-
lures may be omitted or supplanted by
others more presentable, and that the III
effect Of some may be counteracted by
decorative features that in no way inter-
fere with the use or even with the char
acter OF the object 1t is not quantity
of ornament that tells, but ornament
in the right place; few cross bands
here and there to break the dispro-
portionate length, parallel stripes to coun-
teract the appearance Of thickness,
occasional rosettes or flowers to distract
attention from the less interesting parts
of the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES devices like
these are often quite enough to redeem a
form from ugliness.