The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-30
DECORATIVE ART.
Oscar Wilde and His Plea for
the Beautiful.
How He was Received on last
Evening.

per's Theatre last evening on ART Decora-
and elieited not the least enthusiasm or
applause. He was originally billed to
lecture on the subject of The English
Renaissance" but finding that the last
named discourse failed to give satisfaction
in this un@sthetic country he evolved the
second lecture which is no more than a
plea for the beautiful in art decorations,
wearing apparel and physical objects gen
orally. 1t can hardly be dignified by the
term lecture" as 1t is a rambling talk
discussed last evening as neither amusing,
| instructive or interesting:
THE LECTURE.
At $50 o'clock last night the curtain
was rung up, and in a few moments the
lecturer or talker appeared upon the stage,
clad in a black velvet suit, knickerbockers,
black hose and au elaborate white necktie.
| His left hand was encased in an immaeu-
late white glove, while his right grasped
| in the most exquisite fashion the remaining
alabaster kid. He took three long but
graceful and artistic strides and commenced
his remarks His presence was not recognised
| by the usual applause that is accorded a
public character Possibly, the auditors
felt that such profane recognition of the
coming of the devotee of high art would
lie improper and out of place.
He commenced by stating that he would
not attempt to give the audience any alb
stract definition of beauty. or any univer-
| sal formula as WAS sought for by the
| nhiinSonhU of tho aiuhfaoptb
he would simply endeavor to communicate
| the ideas of the new school TO which he.
| belonged. He stated that it would be i'm
! possible for him to communicate that
which in its essence was incommunicable
the virtue by which particular picture or
! poem affects the individual with n UNIQUE
or special JOY or pleasure.
Any beautiful creation. whether in the
domains Of the sculptor or the painter, was
termed art, and as such it was benefit,
joy and pleasure to humanity Art took
for its subjects some of the beauties of ma
tire; it was not orginative, as the human
mind was incapable of originating a single
form; bat simply initiative in that it copied
natural forms and made new combinations
of the subject matters.
HIS REMARKS
then took a practita turn, and he said that
what most astonished him in this country
was the machine made furniture, the glar-
ing and inharmonious combination of
coiors in the carpets. The furniture was
not well made; in fact it was so poorly put
together that the most careful use soon
caused the parts glued together to Give
way, and made the articles old and ,fseless
long before their time. He said il betoken-
ed poor workmanship, and enlarged upon
this point by drawing IA comparison be
tween the finished artist and the bIngliuy
worker. He Said finely executed piece
of work increased in value as it's AGE adj
vanced, while machine made article
made it necessary TO introduce into the /
English language that horrid word "sec.
ond hand. An artistic performance was
a pleasure to the person executing the
same, and u benefit to his fellow mar by
enrichinS the particular departments to
which the ;.sticle belonged; but a btnngfing |
rrticle WAS discredit to the rssaker and to
society IL general. He even gave the un-
Offending gloves manufactured on this
SIDE o. me pond a gentle rub, and sasd that
made without ornamentation. be could
stand them. as he would damp and disa-
preeable day; Int when the decoration
was added to them bhey became objects that
should not be tolerated in an artistic
world.
He next spoke of the sculptors of Athens,
the paintings of Venice, and described the
incentives which eliminated in their per
lection. This consisted mainly in the ten
dency of the times TO worship the
beautiful and the variega'ed natural pan
Drama that was presented to the several
artists in the romantic dress and surround
ings of the different schools.
AL ARTS
are fine arts, and all arts are also decora
tive. 1t was the desire and design of dec
orative art to perpetuate the beautiful,
whether III color or form.
He affirmed that beauty of dress was an
aid to education, and followed the remark
up by criticsing the present unromantic gar
ments in which the people of the aine.eenth
century clothe themselves. Art was con
sidered healthy when it mirrored the digni-
ty and reality of life. By the present style
of dress the artists were forced to borrow
their subjects from the romantic period
when more attention was given to the mat
ter of iudividuui decoration. In proof of
this assertion, he cited the fact that in ev
erv public building i'll the country models
were secured from the ancient heroes of
Greek history, and the Gothic architecture
was drawn upon to furnish subject matter
for form imitation The reason assigned
for this was that in ancient times more
care was taken in Perfecting visible beauty.
He did not, however. desire to return to
ancient times, but thought that the present
generation had it in their power to improve
and become greater beautfyers than had
been the case for many years.
He regarded
MACHINERY
as good insofar as it relieves labor that is
ignoble but he did not think that the chief
end of m .chanism was to take the place of
labor which was employed on decoration.
To improve the workman in this latter
realm. he must be surrounded by visible
beauty He considered bad art as worse
than no art. A valuable subject to the
school of design in which all successful
artists must attend was mus
cum He did not mean by this
latter term stuffed giraffe staring on
a lot of fossils; but collection of dec
orative designs that would enlighten and
benefit those who visited them. In this
connection, he stated that such and insti-
tuition, on a very extensive scale was the
museum of South Kensergton where every
Saturday night. kind red spirits of the new
school of art congr egated and improved
one another by an exchange of ideas.
He next gave>his idea of color and its
importance in art. He characterized per-
feet combination, as the exquisite grad |