The herald., 1896-01-24
Civic Judgment in Art

The town of Los Angeles, stricken with
a spasm of blue-law morality, has moved
against the buxom young woman of the
Aubrey Beardsley cast of countenance and
the brightly-colored raiment of greater or
less degree OF attenuation, who has re-
Gently made her appearance on the bill
boards of the world in general, and who
has posed as the latest thing in poster art,
if the term be admissible. The young
woman has been looked upon as more or
less of a freak, the latest freak of a freak
ish age, everywhere else than at Los An
Geles. The morals of the people are more
sensitive, down there, and cavilers will
say that their artistic instincts are crude,
in the formative stage, but it is not that at
all. The question of the nude in art does
not enter into the problem. Los Angeles
has never objected to the nude in art. and
is not likely to object so long as the nude
does not stray out of It's gilt frame in the
seclusion of the studio or the saloon. 1t is
when the nude, or the semi-nude, wearing
such clothes as no man or woman ever
saw outside of a delirium-a distemper, as
it were. in printers ink-wanders forth
and poses for the altogether upon dead
walls and bill boards along the highways
and byways that the moral sentiment of
the south revolts.
Moreover, the revolt takes definite shape
in the way of action, and the moral senti-
ment of the town finds fitting voice in the
city council. Mr.. Councilman Kingery
it Is who has set lance in rest to run tilt
with the woman on the billboards, and he
has a target which he cannot well miss.
Whether he will come to grief following
the shock is another question, The young
woman of the posters has certainly the
ability to shock, at least in some of her
poses, and she is most striking thing in
herself. You cannot doubr this if you will
], ,,,L
travels-and you cannot we'll help looking
if you are not blind. The young woman
has come to dominate the billboards, and
the poster artist has taken his place in
the world of colorists. The young woman
came. she was seen. and she has con-
quered. The faddists surrendered uncon-
ditonally first, and then the art lovers,
who were more than faddists, were taken
into camp. Naturally the magazines fell
into line, and the newspapers, and the
booksellers. for they are allied to art in
greater or less degree. and then the private
collectors came in, and there are galleries
OF posters now Just as there are galleries of
paintings. Some of the specimens in these
galleries are beautiful, moreover, although
the Aubrey Beardsey woman with the inn
possible gowns naturally dominates. She
is the type and the commonest type-the
easiest to draw, and with the most varied
possibilities in the way of vivid coloring.
Artistic or not, beautiful or ugly, poss-
BILE or impossible, Councilman Kingery of
Los Angeles reads the fiat that the Aubrey
Beardsley young woman must wear not
only more but different gowns, or she must
take herself off the dead walls of the
southern city forever. 1t is not question,
either, of the comfort of the young woman,
and the contention that her garments are
adapted to the climatic conditions will not
be tolerated for moment. The cold NOR
ality of the townspeople and Mr.. Kingery
will force down the mercury in the ther-
mometer to such degree that the young
woman must put on sealskins if she would
save herself from death by freezing.
Councilman Kingery and the public care
little for that. They insist that the young
woman put on something or come off the
wall. That is all ultimatum.-San Fan
cisco Bulletin.