The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-08
BeardsIeyIsn.


Magazine readers. admirers Of contem-
porary art and others who take notice OF
the Illustrations Of the period have doubt
less wondered at the peculiar effects IN
solid colors. and black and white. az
fected by certain publishers and Illus
traitors. The fad. for It Is a fad. AMI
nothing else. Is coming 70 be known as
Beardsleyism. II Is the rage In New York
and Chicago. and presumably viii work
its way south; though so far. It is be-
leved the bacillus Of neither OF the conse-
quent crazes. Beardsleymania and Boards
leyphObia. has found its way hither.
Besrdsleyism comes from England. It
is a plagiarism OF the japanese art of
illustration highly accentuated. The ia
psnese for centuries have been able to
produce with a few strokes and curves
an effect that is altogether grOtesque. yet
at the same time truly artistic. Aubrey
Beardsley. a young English illustrator.
or artist, attempted to copy the STYLE,
and succeeded in making some thing ex-
ceedingly grotesque. but lacking in art
at least, the Beardsleyphobists say so. IF
that is art" said hater Of the fad. then
I am fool" Well" said his friend, Of
the other party, that is art
The characteristics of the BeardsIey
school OF pictures are an absolute dis
regard Of perspective. OF proportion. OF
anatomy. Of nature and of all the tcnets
Of accepted art. Thus. an oval curve
set upon the top of a compound curve like
the letter s. and punctuated with two
periods and a brace (for eyes and MOUTH
is called a woman's head. The head is
topped with a mighty splotch of ink from
which black angle worms are feeling
forty ways for Sunday-that is her hair
Another big ink blot, laid on with a
spatula, but made to conform to certain
curves, and coming to a fine point at
the waist, is the freaks costume. The
arms are apt to be long enough to reach
the shoes without STOPPING. and to end
in three-tined hands shaped like the bowl
Of spoon. And the woman thus fear
fully and wonderfully portrayed may be
seen in a grove of water lilies growing
on stems that stand forty feet high and
as straight and stin as lightning rods
This example, however. is only one of
many. Being absolutely unconfned by
rules or traditions. Beardsleyism follows
no path. 1t is liable to break out any
where. or into anything. Feet shaped
like orange knives, eyes like the holes in
cheese, tresses as rigid as wrought iron
grills. ringlets that radiate like the petals
of the sunhower, waists that are thin to
nothingness. are features that prodomin-
ate in the Beardsley school. Circles ana
sweeping curves are the master touches
of the whole, it must be remembered,
while intense solid colors or the faintest
tints fill in the figure.
1t has been only about one year since
this fad crossed the water; nevertheless
the great cities of the east and west are
filed with two parties intensely inter-
ested in it. one dotes on it. because it
is fin de steele; the other curses it because
it is ugly, and would be deligted to blot
II all out with a whitewash brush. In
New York the pro party seems In the
lead at present. All over dead walls, on
the bill boards. garbage cans, ash barrels,
dirt heaps, bulletin boards and every
where else that paste VIII stick, and tacks
and bricks hold down, examples of Boards
leyism, advertising everything from Ma
poleon's life to feeding bottles, are to
be seen. And it is feared the end is not
yet.