Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-09-14
ART FOR ART'SSAkE
The American People Do Not
Appreciate Ii.
THEY OBJECT TO The NUDE
Because il Is Nude. and 70 Them There
Is Only Suggostiveness and tnpurity
an the Undrsped tiguIs-

"Ameries's ideas of morality are
fesrfully and wonderfully made, SAID
c. j. ClermOnt OF Chicago IN the Nor
ton yesterday. 81 understand that
some women OF Evanston have pro
tested against the undraped statue OF
| Diana and declare that they will not
play II she Is brought TO the fair, and
exhibited without union under gar
ments and tailor made gown. /
don't think ! ever saw the famous god
dess of Madison Square garden. but II
the statue is truly representative OF
Diana II ought 10 be so chastely and
severely pure that even IN It's I'M
adorned nakedness il would freeze a
monaeled dude at distance of twenty
| PAGES.
at seems TO me ike the essence OF
| idiocy 10 make fuss about anything
/ like that. OF course | am aware that
there is nude and nude. There are
| pictures of naked women that could
not create an impure thought in any
but the most depraved minds, and then
| there are Others that in themselves are
/
the same may be as truly said OF a
draped figure.
| Garments Do Not Conceal.
| All the garments IN the world can
| not destroy the coarseness aud sugges-
tlveness of some figures, and il Is the
manner II which an object Is treated
rather than the object itself that deter
mines ITS purity or lmpurlty.
This Is an idea that the American
people do not seem TO understand. IL a
| figure be nude, no matter now purely
and chastely 1t is wrought, they spread
their hands over their eyes and shrek
'unclean,' 'unclesn;' but If the figure
In question is properly costumed, be
the art never so suggestive and the pose
never so obscene In its intentions, they
will smile upon it fondly and say,
This is holy art. 1t cannot corrupt
the morals of our boys and girls
The American people have lost all
| knowledge of the human form divine
from an artistic standpoint. and can
not understand how any portion Of II
should be revealed to the eye of the
public unless Its methods be coarse and
the purposes impure. They carry this
idea TO a puritanical extremity, and
| tHtu bIccc hlldiA tldt are ilOb
moral, even as other people are I'M
moral. In the undraped they can see
only the naked man or woman.
what Is Forgotten.
Then again the average crank seems
to have lost sight that the partially dis.
closed is infinitely more suggestive
than the wholly disclosed. To my
mind tight skirts may be more sugges-
tive than an undraped Venus, and
infinitely more than a nude Diana.
| / have in mind an anecdate told by
friend of mine who is an Episcopal
clergyman. He was invited one even
ing TO visit an art class that WAS draw.
ing from the nude. He accepted the
invitation with the intention of doing
little missionary work of the Parkhurst
type. When he arrived, the class wa
at work drawing the nude figure of ,
young girl who was posed on al
elevated platform. He afterward
confessed that of the twenty-one per
sons In the room he was the only on,
tina: saw her as naked woman rather
than as the subject for an artist
pencil.
IL the world were only artists-but i
isn't, and never can be, although tn
lover of art cannot help but feel that j
would be n great thing for humanit,
in the abstract If mankind had les
modesty and more real hard common
sense about such matters.