The sun., 1919-10-26

Nilsen Lourvik, the director of the
museum there. She says:
With something OF the air of the
openings at the Metropolitan or in the
lesser but more personal exhibitions
in Greenwich Village. the Palace OF
Fine Arts presented its Oriental de-
partment on Friday afternoon, when
from all over the bay country came
friends OF art-men and women who
put away the commentaries and even
bridge for the thing at hand.
1T was an epochal aftair-the open
ing of fourteen galleries OF Oriental
art. the result of two years of effort
on the part Of Director ]. Nilsen
Lourvik and a host OF coworkers.
1T means that San Francisco. on the
edge OF the Pacific has come Into
possession-even II only temporarily
Of a comprehensive exhibition of the
art Of the Far East that not only
should bear a deep influence when the
younger artists whose vastes are in the
formative period but OF the people,
who until the current collection had
been installed found only such ex-
amples Of Oriental art expression ds
was offered In the shops about town
incidentally not always art. Although
be II said In passing that no meretri-
cious thing has ever entered some OF
the shops up on Stockton street, where
devotion to the ideals of the art Of
this nation have steeled the Nipponese
from descending to the cheap and
taudry that has come to pass among
the untutored as expressive of Japa-
nese and Chinese art. Shades Of
Sesshul What atrocities have been
committed In the name OF the art of
thy country for the consumption Of
the innocenti
'"rhe exhibition that opened on FRI
day contains brocades, priests' robes.
ivories, lacquers, pottery bronzes and
four galleries of prints. installed In
rooms that have been Nipponized into
fit settings-mulberry and gold walls,
or dull blue and gold, with Japanese
ceilings hung with black tassels and
bronze lamps aswing. Nowhere in the
West has anything approached the
content nor the setting. for which Di-
rector Lourvik and his corps OF will
ing workers are devoutfy to be
thanked.
1T would appear that with San
Francisco across the way from Japan
here would be a monumental exposi-
ton Of the art that has come down
from Greece to India, to Corea, to
China, to Japan-the art that thrilled
Diaz end Fortuny. Manet and Tissot,
Whistler and Latour, Duran and Ma
net, and our own Arthur Matthews,
But the prescience for assembling prints
and brocades and paintings was not a
part OF the mental makeup of Ameri-
cans. and . remained for Paris to be-
come the centre for things Oriental;
and from Paris 10 reach out to the rest
of the world. And from Paris came
the awakening in America to the out
pouring treasures OF the land of the
Rising Sun and their qualities.
And since Paris said so. well-prints.
brocades and carvings came to be held
with some veneration and TO be studied
with an advancing understanding. Par
ticularly was 1t true OF prints, with
their drawing, coloring and compost
tion deviating from every principle
hitherto accounted as art. winning by
their freedom of movement, their SYM
metry and their sheer beauty.
1.-THE lamps are loaned by Mrs Maud
Rex Allen. author of the Japanese
Motifs" an authoritative book on the
OF Japan's symbolism. Amaz-
ing lamps. these. assembled during 0