The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-05

strong and beautiful, and in the fullness
OF time Will bring forth the peerless flower:
national art.
National art-has that not a reasonable
sound in a time like this, that claims to
have fully established the essential nature
OF art as International, cosmopolitan In
ternatonaly universal OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
verbruderung, the Germans call ills
q beautiful conception and certainly has It's
place In the eternal fitness of things. Birds
eye views across boundaries are important,
nay, imperative, where circumscripuon Of
vision. the offspring Of narrow provincilism
or a perverted conception of the national
might hinder the broad grasp Of truth. No
such danger confronts us: on the contrary
we are continually gazing across the far
blue hills, what its far conquers what Is
near-das plagt die Gehrung in die Ferne
and that which is at hand we either
trample on or stumble over just as we hap
pen to pick up our feet We desire to be
broad-minded and are in danger of becom-
culture Of the Hellenes. and In attempting
to emulate 1t we incur the danger of super
fciality In such times II Is necessary for
the great national scul-Volksgeist-t take
deep and solemn counsel; for the fountain
of youth from which wells forth all beauty
and truth and power is the clear. quiet
evident that neither art nor its de-
velopment nor free expression, that
tiful and worthy nor the deathless
strife for progress has ever been fostered
or advanced by the support Of the mighty
1t has rather been always the people-not
the mob or the upper ten but the great
representative people. out of which art and
artist have developed.
SOME ILLUSTRATIONS.
Above all things we must not confound ma
tional art with that utterly degenerate and
barren product Of courtier circles which is
artihcially cherished as patriotic art among
those that stand around the seats of the
mighty. In England this sort of thing is
officially represented by the poet laureate
ers, court architects in short such people
whose art is decorated rather than decora-
tive.
Our art of to-day suffers above all else
from externality. We erect monuments
churches, Libraries and public buildings, and
neglect the very thing in which all art
should have It's beginning, namely art
culture in the home. Let us consider the
creation re- Of a public monument; ,oo,.,o+,,ro
II once the SCylla OF a farmer legislature
is safely passed we fall into the Charybdts
of the board of monument regents, COM
pany of prominent citizens to whom is
intrusted the final word concerning a great
work of art which is to be the pride of
great city and State, when in their own
homes many of them can hardly show
single little work of art, to say nothing
of a harmonious ensemble of furnishing and
decoration. What ] say here must not be
misunderstood. Because | have chosen
local illustration | would not have you
think that l limit the application Of this
America. 1t is equally true of the lands
of older civilization, as witnessed to by the
new Reichstag building, where the Emperor
of Germany and king of amateurs took
hand at architecture, the only one ne had
not tried up to date. The reform which we
need is complete about face. to turn from
the Indebtedness OF the cosmopolitan to
the solidarity Of the natiOnal-reversion
from public to private effort. We must
also about face in the development of the
Individual; in other words the artistic edu-
cation of the child instead of the assump-
ton Of cOnnosseurship on the part of adults.
A-F al ,f O1,- ions hf6
assert my belief that the fundamental con-
dition or factor in a successful development
of national art lies in the culture of art
An able German observer of artistic condi-
tiOns, Mr.. G.. Fuchs, of Darmstadt, eX-
presses himself in this connection some
thing as follows: ut is hardly to be dis
puted that the capacity to appreciate that
which is at once beautiful and convenient,
in other words. that furnishing of the home
which promotes the expression of enlight-
ened individuality, must be considered the
| foundation of all aesthetic life. The various
| works of art which one sees in exhibitions
! as separate and individual pieces have, out
side of their technical interest, worth only
| in as far as they contribute to reform OF
the home; fer the development of the liter
airy man into an aesthetical man, from
| psychologist to sound, healthy happy, full-
orbed being be achieved only by asso-
| ciatfng the child from the beginning with an
| artistic environment. Cups, chairs, carpets,
| wall paper, curtains and all the various
| accessories of everyday life might just as
| well and just as cheaply be beautiful and
| cOrdant. Therefore we demand national
art. that is, an art of the home. an art
which is a part of our life"
My house is my castle" so runs an
old English proverb. Just think what
| demands that makes on the interior
| Of that house, bat think also of
| the lasting joy such a house when fittingly
furnished. No one has done more to justify
| this prOverb from the artistic side than that
| genial and versatile artist, William Morris,
| who in manifold direction gave such noble
and masterfuI impulse toward the infusion
OF beauty into the things OF daily use and
| cOmpanionship.
How many of us can rightly call our
/ home our castle; a stronghold of defense
| against the worries and d1sappointments OF
! life without; whose strong walls take us in
/ safe keeping after the heat and burden of
/ the day? For there are days and hours in
which the turmoil of the world, the cOntinu-
! Gus strife of motives and interests Grapes
the whole universe in gray: At such times
! ton not less convenient than unusual By
| far the greater part of humanity longs for
capacity of distraction through sensuous
appear. one seeks comfort In a favored
! book. another trusts himself to the consol-
! ing influences of nature. one finds solace in
| the benediction of music, another in the
| beauties of plastic art.
A FORTUNATE MAN.
Happy he who has these sources of con-
ISOLATION in greater or less measure in his
own home. What a magic circle which can
enclose the weary one in its charm and in
fuse into his veins fresh powers and re-
newed courage. From such stronghold we
carry with to our daily work artistic in
| spiration and return at night with joy to the
| dearest that we have in the world. Then
is my house not alone my castle. but for my
| children an enchanted tower the memory of
which they carry with them when they
| found homes of their own. For the estab-
! hshment of such a home apart from the
| necessary expenditure of time, a very con-
! siderable equipment Of good taste. heart
/ culture and character is indispensable.
! Character to worthily express the genius
| of the home, heart culture to make every
1 thing attractive and sympathetic, and good
/ taste 10 supply the historical aesthetical
/ and technical details which lie at the basis
! of an adequate EXPRESSION of the higher
/ considerations above referred to. a home
| so fitted out, be il ever so small and unpre-
| tending. forms a microcosm of the history
! of civilization, a miniature world Of art in
| which the sensitive and appreciative man
! feels himself al home with the best of all
/ times, as with his Goethe, Shakespeare,
! Bach or Michael Angelo.
| Now as every forward step in culture and
| civilization has its beneficial bearing upon
| the conditions of social life we may, in like
| manner, reasonably infer that reform in
/ the fitting out of our homes may result
/ in direct benefit to a certain branch of in
/ dUstry. now sadly neglected, to-wit: Art
handicraft. (kunstgewerbe) In this, line
middle and south Germany have of late ac-
comp.ished wonders. and the purely mate
riaN srrsH4 -4-e.a