New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-07
Further Light Upon II
from the Exhibition at
San Francisco.
AMERICAN SCULPTURE
|. IDEALLY DISPLAYED
Some Notes on the Foreign
Nations Represented In the
Fine Arts Palace.
BY ROYAL CORTIsSOZ.

Repeatedly in the course OF these
comments on the fair at San Francisco
have had occasion to speak Of the
brilliant manner in which, as a big
scheme, it has been thought out and
given an extraordinary balance and
finish. II is not by any happy accident
that il surpasses it's predecessors. The
more | have seen of it the more |
| have felt that we have the rich fruit
Of experience and reflection in the
beautiful spectacle on the bay. There
| have been, now, so many Of these
gigantic festivals and they have result
ed in the accumulation of great stores
| Ct exact knowledge, so that men may
put a fair together with surer ease and
| euickness than ever before. In this
| instance | seem to recognize the final
establishment of a kind OF spccialisnl,
making possible the clean cut and defin-
tive solution Of problems not previous
ly handled with quite the same author
lty and success. It is as II San Fran
cisco had gathered up all the threads
| Of earlier ventures in the field and had
organized them into a body Of re-
sources henceforth to be taken as con-
stituting an art, technique, the tech
/ nique of a worlds fair.
The operations of this technique are
| bound to vary in effect, sometimes even
when under the control of the same
hands, and the point is curiously illus
| trated in and around the Fine Arts
Palace. The painters have the bulk
OF the space in the American section,
their works considerably outnumbering
those of the sculptors, etchers and en-
gravers But this is the only advan-
tage they possess. As | have stated IN
recent survey, the pictures are, on
the whole, neither well arranged nor
we'll hung. There the technique was
fumbled. But for the exploitation Of
works in other mediums it was brought
TO a high pitch Of efficiency. The prints
are admirably displayed in n series Of
connecting rooms, and the sculpture,
scattered not only through the building
but about the grounds, is better shown
than in ony international exposition |
have seen. In fact, the treatment of
the sculpture will remain one Of the
| leading contributions OF this fair 70 the
history of such enterprises, another
Of San Francisco's original additions
TO the subject, like the color scheme,
the landscape gardening and the sys-
ten OF illumination.
o. Statues in big exhibitions have been
placed in the open air before, but
never so felicitously as on this Oc-
casion, because never hitherto has their
environment been so artisucally devel-
oped. The sky has been there, and the
all-cnb racing light Of out-of-dOors, out
not the background of green things
looking as they look in an old park or
garden. or an architectural ensemble
likewise Stimulating the charm of age,
the air of monumental peTmanence. It
is, perhaps, n two-cdGed testimony to
the success with which the sculpture
outside the art building has been ex
hibited that one is beWitched by 1t
into a certain indifference to the indi-
vidualities concerned. Within walls,
and studying this or that production
for its own sake, as in the formal at
mOspherc of a museum, the PROBES
sional, note-taking mood will not down.
On the shores Of the lagoon or ram
bling along the great cOlonnade and
through the strawberries who could
pause 10 record minute impressions?
[ recall more than one arresting fig
ure- Saint Gaudens's seated Lincoln,
the incompatible little "Pan" modelled
by his brother Louis, good fountain de-
signs by Janet Scudder. Edith Parsons
ar,i others, and Oln Warmers beauti-
! full Dancing Nymph." But chiefly |
: preserve broad impression Of fine
things happening in bronze or marble.
things met at the turn of a path, lifted
casually above the sward amid thick
/ LEAKAGE. Some Of the fountains are set
in the water, where they toss their
spray 10 the heavens and gather moss
about their bases as though they had
found their predestined moorings.
| They are weather stained already; they
are part and parcel Of the scene. Criti-
+ Cism subsidies into mere sensuous en-
joyment. It is enough TO sit idle in
( the sun and yield TO a peaceful sense
/ of beauty and wellbeing. Every sculp-
tor seems then an accomplished artist.
/ Could anything be more charming, or
more completely demonstrative OF the
/ force of my contention that there is a
/ technique of putting works Of art on
/ exhibition?
And the delightful thing is that this
! comfortable acceptance OF much Of the
| sculpture shown at the fair is pretty
we'll confirmed when you come TO closer
! quarters with il, out Of doors or in the
| Fine Arts Palace. The collection of
L . ba