The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-25
AMERICA TO LEAD THE WORLD IN ART
Declares That the Growth of Taste Art America Since the
Centennial Exposition Leads No Other Logical Conclusion

I sometimes placed in front of the
modern skyscraper take no real 6truc-
| tural part in the building.
| Creek column long enough to reach
| from the ground to the roof of sky
scraper would present an absurd APP
pearance-in fact, none of the various
| styles that were so fitting to the less
lofty structures of other days is suited
to the modern building of from ten
to thirty stories Often the architect
tries to solve his problem by super
| imposing one style upon another till
the front of one single building shows
| several styles, suggestive of nothing
so much as a pousse cafe, in which,
you will remember, there are several
liquors, each of a specific gravity OF
! its own, which ranges them in layers,
| each liquer having it's own color. 1t
is generally held that in the lofty
building at 100 Park Row, the archi-
tect has succeeded better than
most of his fellows in making a beau
tiful structure, the style of which is
admirably adapted to the purpose of
| the building.
1.-THE growth of American taste as
evidenced in the parks of America
| must be apparent to anyone who re-
grown in nearly every city in the
| country. Here, too, private enter
| prise plays a much larger part than
anywhere in Europe. Here, as in the
! Old World, most parks are created and
| supported by municipal funds, yet here,
in the suburbs of many cities, the troll
l ley companies have created beautiful
parks which are free to passengers on
the trolley lines, because their owners
| know that the people will patronize the
! lines extensively enough to pay good
| profit on the outlay necessary to Gre
| ate and maintain the parks. At the
same time, the landscape gardening of
| the municipal parks that have been
| laid out within the last few years is
| immeasurably better than that of the
| older parks with a few exceptions
/ among which should, of course, be in
| cluded Central Park, in New York,
| and Paramount Park in Philadelphia.
"As with architecture, sculpture and
| landscape gardening, so it is with
/ painting. The American taste in pic
| lures has improved amazingly, and the
! quality of the work turned out by
! American painters has kept pace with
| the growth of American taste. No one
| who is familiar with the canvases now
hanging either in public galleries or
| private houses thirty years ago and
/ to-day can gainsay this statement. 1t
!
| thought was more than based on fact
Ito go abroad in order to get good
pictures. Though American picture
| buyers continue to buy old masters
| when they can get them, and also
| the work of the best-known modern
foreign painters, and no doubt always
| will, still there are many American
painters whose canvases are well
| worthy the attention of those truly
| qualified to judge of the art of the
| brush. And, in somewhat greater de-
gree than the architects, the painters
of America are showing the strong,
healthy beginnings of distinctively
| American art.
New in Art Life.
when it is remembered that the ma
tional life of the United States began
in 1776 only twenty-eight years more
than century age, and that the ma
jor part of the national energies have
had to be, and still have to be, devoted
| to the subduing of vast new terri
tory, the rapid growth of American
| taste, and of American art in all it's
forms is remarkable. And, as l have
| already intimated, no such growth, no
such almost instantaneous creation of
national art atmosphere, could have
been possible had it not been for the
| restless energy which has been at
| work conGuering this new country,
| and creating and accommodating the
wealth that is needed to create and
support the true art spirit. I need
hardly add that the history of the de-
velopment of musical taste in Amer
lea also bear out what 1 have just
said.
Undoubtedly the first art awaken
ing of the American people as whole
came as a result of the Philadelphia
IMPOSITION. Many thousands who
visited it saw good pictures and
good statuary then and there for the
first time in their lives. Twentythree
| years later, in 1898, came the Chicago
Exposition, and it gave still greater
impetus to the growing sense of the
| artistic in the New World. 1t may be
that Chicago lost money on the show
| but the benefit to the country's art
taste was immeasurably, and I am
sure Chicago is big enough and broad
enough to be satisfied with the result.
Undoubtedly the st. Louis Exposition
of this year will operate in the same
general direction.
THE time is coming when America
will lead in art of all sorts as well as
in it's vast material achievements.
And when American art shall be de-
veloped it will be broad, virile, aspir-
ing in greater degree than the art of
any of the older nations. 1t will be
ever existed"
Fernando Miranda
Fernando Miranda, whose sculpture
has won for him a high place after
nearly thirty years of sincere, earnest
work in the art life of the New World,
which he admires so much, is of Span
ish birth AS a lad he studied under
NJ. Piquer, court sculptor at Madrid,
and was a friend and intimate of For
tuny, the noted Spanish painter. At
terward he studied in Rome, and in
( Paris with NJ Carpeaux. Though the
plastic art is his chosen melium OF
expression, he is extremely versatile,
and has done much drawing for illus
trative purpose and some sincere, solid
painting. His best-known work, per-
haps. is the group, Columbus and the
DISCOVERIES" exhibited at the Pan
American Exhibition, and to be repro
duced in bronze of colossal size for
Central Park as a gift from the South
American republics to this country.
His work now at st. Louis includes
the allegorical bass relief Labor and
Care" reproduced in the tympani of
the machinery building. and the group
Fame" which received high praise