Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-25
BORCLUM DISCUSSES ART
Deplores Lack of Appreciation of It's
Best Types in America.
MAGAZINE STORY STARTS FURRY
In Detail just what He
Meant-PracticnI Business Too
often Interfcrcs with MAX
ina Buildings Artistic.

anu NFl'II NNilNhlllfu ~ tlllNf lhIllbNN hlN
IT quoted ono-line dissertation on the sub
oct OF snakes in tho Emerald isle A
month aga Gutsou Borglum. the famous
Omaha-boru sculptor, published in the
Craftsman an essay or individuality, Sin
csrity and Reverence I'm American Art
The essay might be summed up In the
words OF the Irish history: There are
none
Immediately forthwith city desks In Park
Row. New York. became violently a%Eitated,
and reporter after reporter was sent to
interview men well known as sculptors'
painters md architects.
"Borglum says you are no good, was
the wav some Of them broke ii TO the men
In studio and atelier.
"Oh he does. does he" well YOU Just
say this for me about BorEium, and there
followed more or lcss-generally more
heated remarks about the supposed sland-
crer Of the men speaking.
There was in fact a very fair amount OF
agitation and hubbub I'm the art world
uHti It occurred TO some OF the men who
rarcied themselves involved to read what
Mr.. Borglum had actually written. After
this the cooling off process was almost
IS rapid as the firing UP. The two or three
men who had excited themselves the most
and VINO had written some excited replies
decided 10 lake u All DdCk anu duInlNleu
that Borglum was correct.
Az the sculptor said yesterday in an
Interview here. he never asserted or never
believed that this country lacks a suffi-
oient number OF men I'm the fine arts who
In ability can ana do equal those of Europe
with respect to talent. What he did and
docs assert was that environment. atmos-
phere and spirit In this country are all
wrong, that because lacking in reverence,
sincerity and Individuality, the monuments
We have built are not our own. Because
we have 'cribbed' every scroll and form we
build. Because our architects and artists
annually beat it. to Europe to gather ideas
to restock their idealess plants at home.
Because our finery is of the old world"
Lack of vitality.
These statements ne made in the magazine
essay. In the interview yesterday he
summed up his position by saying: There
is a lack Of vitality in the individuality of
American art which is necessary to make
it work downward so as to affect the
craftsmanship Of the country.
Our craftsmen" said he, our artisans,
will willingly. gladly respond to the proper
stimulus, but the proper stimulus is Just
exactly the reverse of what they get from
the very men who could incite them to bet
ter and better efforts, to an expression in
their work OF their own individuality.
Take the architectural situation in New
York for example. A man wishes to put
up a big building. He figures the cost Of
construction and the returns. He knows
that in a certain number of years he will
have his principal back, that the building
will in a little longer time have paid for
Itself, not only principal, but interest, and
that his money will then be working else
where. Does he build for permanence? On
tho contrary. he tells his architect 30 de-
sign a structure for the least possible sum.
The steel will not be skimped, but the rest
of it is fraud-lath and papier mache. But
he saws, We must have a fancy front
That is the spirit. A spirit which works
first on the architect, then on the sculptor
the architect engages for a few figures,
cautloning him that they must be 'charac-
terless. just spots, nr. .onventions-some-
thing that will TT In with his ornament
one sometimes realizes how he condemns
mis- work in so doing"
Not Enough Work.
How such a condition as this affects the
scuiptors OF the United States can be real
tzod from another statement Mr.. Borglum
made in his talk. There is not enough
monumental sculpture in this country to
keep busy even one or two good men. Hence
they must work for architects" The re-
suits to themselves can be inferred from
the previous paragraph,
Mr.. Borglum does not object to steel
obstruction. Indeed, in his magazine ar
ticle he says: But the architect. what of
him? Where are his forms? Like "A maid
servant he draws over the great steel
limbs gnpgg1ya1 rs nature conoalxrna n
drabbled chemise in ps~eudo-Greek, Italian
or Beaux-Art pattern. II
| must know and he is right-this business
man-that II would never do to put a vital
piece of sculpture upon one OF his fretted
Fronts. He talks Greek art and traces its
forms, but the ideals Of Greece are not
ours; We have too little in common with
the Yesterday 1000 years gone TO make Il
possible that we wear it's dress or that
wa use its symbols.
There are three elements absolutely in
sepPrable from the production of great
art-siucerity, Individuality and reverence
OF reverence / doubt II there is enough in
an the United States to build one grest
temple. l doubt II there are men enough
In all this land with unselfishness enough
with love enough, together to build one
great and beautiful temple for commerce
or industry, for religion or art or for ma,
sorry, built from the bottom up. beautiful
and good, like an altar upon which the
most sacred thing in our lives shall b.
1ffered to all the rest who follow.
And vet we have many good men-gooC
out good-for nothing, New York is filled
With honest men who dodge every oppor,
unity nature or events toss to them e
make more beautiful their hour or place
fearful Of the possible jar 10 their &C.
,ustomcd ease, This Is, in part, the rea.
son for the winter in our aesthetic lie
II makes the hideous, grinding elevate,
roads as natural a product as weeds in
J neglected garden. II explains Brooklyn,
apathy and how she can sleep so Ions witt
all the filth OF a hundred years choking he
\ front door-fouling the way 10 the mos
beautiful island nature has given all thil
coast.
SelhshneHH Of P~uritanism.
Were We more Latin or Morse thi
could not be SO. Puritanism has made u
elnsh self-centcred hypOcriJes Tor so lonl
hat sincerity and reverence for what 4
Nholesume and natural i'm our impulse Ia.