New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-11

formal side of American art with par
ticular emphasis. Formally with us
may be too new. This is a question
worth considering In this collection
Of wall panels and heroic figures and
plaques in bass-relief we find every
where a tendency to curb impulse or 10
clothe it in stiff garments beneath
which every one of its human and
therefore vulgar inaccuracies is as If
it did not exist. Men repeat formal
phrases with sanctimonious airs. Their
work days must sit upon their spirits
as did the Sundays of generation or
two ago. Goodness then was matter
Of dogma and the dogma a matter OF
faith Unto which only heretics and
agnostics looked with curious, inquir-
ing eyes. Now we hear upon occa-
sion of a man who frankly con-
fesses to playing golf on the day Of
rest, and that he believes the Bible,
which he rarely reads. work of SUI
perlative literary merit Indeed, the
orthodox man has become the rare one
in life. He is the rule at this exhibit
ton.
That may be because architecture,
which is the most orthodox of the arts,
inficts its mandates upon those who
would practise it directly or indirectly
or just play in the same field with ii.
This cannot be a final conclusion. We
are quite sure that every work Of large
dimension is attacked with an element
of fear not easily put aside. The larger
the work the larger and the more OBJ
vious will be the mistakes that occur
in it. The mural painter, to use him as
-, ,,.va11rr nnaLao rnIlfI-
tude of small sketches before touching
brush or q bit of charcoal to the can
vas which shall contain the final work.
He may be free enough in the sketches.
They are preliminary exercises in
which enters the spirit of research
along with a desire that the paint be
kept malleable, so that the unhappy
strokes can be eradicated and others
supplemented Afterward such task
might be herculean. It is wise with so
much~at stake TO be on the safe side.
The sketch is play to which dangers,
when they exist at all, add zest. The
work comes in the final stages. And
then here one begins to remember a
public, for it is to be pleased, a pubic
obsessed to an appreciate extent by
its traditions and demanding as re-
suit that its monuments, painted or
sculptured. contain no informal whim
sicalities-a straw hat on Hermes-
and be cold or dead, for in either Of
these there lie the components of
an unapproachable superiority. Monu-
ments truly are not made as an appeal
TO our hearts. They are not made to be
liked. They are made to be wondered
at, an idea which may have rooted in
the sphinx, and for a peculiar, incom-
pretending, puzzled admiration. And
they are accepted with a faith that
equals in intensity the skepticism with
which things that appear in print are
faced.
. Some day a great public, swinging
clear Of the ruck of its traditional
blindness, will begin to question It's
monuments, and then But the
time is not yet. This years show Of
projects nevertheless promises little.
Our decorative illustrators have lent
ideas TO our mural painters. There is
a change in the nature of subject mat
ter. Mr.. Arthur Crisp, with THE Abb
duction Of Columbine,' an enormous
canvas in the place of honor on the
north wall of the Vanderbilt Gallery,
predominates the show. This is not
ponderous subject, nor would Mr. Crisp
be likely to give US ponderous YER
sion Of any subject. He is fond of gay
blues and greens and reds and yellows.
lie fills his outlines in with them. Gov