Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-06-05


BY EDMUND BICISLEY, PHI. d..
editor of "Uniysrsasy Lesscrss In Art
Z Art Contributor.to the "Ency clo-
pedia Americana.)
copyright, 1906 by Joseph 3. JBowles.i
Some critic, causti. not without
cause, declared that the American
PEOPLE work like horses and spend
like fools. Travelled people agree that
certainly Americans spend less judi
.ciously than do Europeans. The req
sons for this needless inferiority TO
cur relatives are not difficult to dis
Germ, and they comprise a general rea-
son and a specific one
The former is Incidental to our rap
Id growth in wealth. which has far
ontstripped our growth in culture.
though this also has been considera-
BILE. This relation holds as true for
literary and musical culture as it does
for art, but there is j certain marked
difference between these sisters three
A book is delivered complete in itself.
and Its contents can be neither mended
nor married by the reader. Similarly
q score of music, II correctly played.
needs nothing more for the full reali-
cation of Its harmonies. But not 50
with art of the visual order; since, in
fact, every art-object exists not only
for itself but in relation to every other
object lying within the field of vision
at the time. say in the same garden OF
room or on the same person.
Metaphysically expressed, literature
and music are time arts, and they
therefore vanish as rapidly as they
are produced; but decoration is 9
space art, and therefore coexists perma
nently with a multitude of other OBJ.
Jects, with which-and here lies the
crucial point-it must either accord OF
Giscord, and Herewith make good OF
bad art.
The first requirement of visual ar
Is that an object-whether large o.
small, whether simple or complex
shall present a unitary impression.
| Now the common case is that arti
| cles of dress and of house furnishing;
are purchased one at time as neet
arises; and 1t is no travesty of the
| average American purchaser to state
that he or she-and commonly 1t II
sDe-spends like a fool, in that she
purchases these several things without
reference to the articles with which
they must company. This procedure
resembles that Of the oriental in the
matter of marriage. Just as everyone
ia America Is required by social con-
yeation to wear clothing and dwell in
a private room. 80 everyone In Asia
L. required, by similar social conven
ton, to marry as soon as he or sh,
reaches puberty. In Asia there arr
reither bachelors nor old maids. The
very idea OF them is strange and re-
pellant to the oriental mind. Everyone
marries as matter of course, just a.
every bush blooms and seeds, and in
deed with the same end in view, to full
fill life and thus consequently to re
produce 1t. Now, when the orienta
would marry, he keeps that purpos'
in mind without distraction by suol
trifles as the psrsonality-bodily o
mental-of the woman selected TO
him by the parents. He just feels thu
need Of marriage, and then, with goot
sense, marries.
Quite SO, our American lady jus
leeds hat, and, with good sense, pro
ceeds to buy one, usually emitting
however. to consider such a trifie a.
how it will scheme in mass and lin,
end color and tone snd texture will
the garments 1t must accompany.
The case is precisely the same witt
Ali article of households furnishing. Mi
lady starts for the store with def.
mite idea of the use the desired OBJ
ject must serve, but probably none as
To the artistic scheme it must fit into
In fact her rooms nave no artistic
scheme, either in her knowledge OF
III reality. She Just mas rooms with
various articles in them, each havine
been chosen because she needed II
and liked it. The notion that, above
and beyond her liking of the indi-
yidual article, there is an artistic re-
quirement that all the articles in q
room should agree, accord, harmonic
scheme with each other-that notion
never entered her head.
Z ?
But In truth every purchase presents
a problem; not merely in the use OF
the article, which must be obvious to