The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-01
"Apres lie Cubisrne," by
Ozenfant and Jeanneret

In the review of the Schamoerg
memorial exhibition a few quotations
were given from "Apres lie Cubisme,"
by Ozenfant and Jeanneret.. The quo
lions were from the beginning Of the
new little book. Some comment seems
to be required upon them, and it is
also but fair to hint at the conclusions
arrived at by the authors.
1t is, OF course, surprising enough IT.
Americans to have Messrs. Ozenfant
and Jeanneret calmly passing on from
cubism as from fdit dccompH to
study of the after events. Here cub
ism has by no means been regarded
as a fat dccompIi and the professors
end museum directors with n unan.
unity of purpose never before seen
among them have simply buried their
heads in the sands waiting for the
storm to blow over. The storm is still
blowing, however. and the professors
and museum directors have by this
time got SO much sand in their eyes
that there is now no hope that they
will read either the Messrs, Ozenfant
and Jeanneret's words or mine.
These authors. in a study of present
conditions, make the accusation that
modern artists. sculptors, architects
are not attuned to modern life. They
say that were 1t left to these people
there would be no art produced at all
nowadays; but that luckily, in unex-
pected and out of the way places, the
true quality of this the Machine Age
is being registered just the same. They
cite the factories in the suburbs of
great cities, that are built on economic
and new lines and the magnificences
of the new machinery: and insist that
these things are beautiful and as true
to us and our time as the Parthenon
was to the Greeks.
To the purist they are, undoubtedly;
and. as it happens. "purism'' is the
name our authors give to the art which
they wish to see supersede cubism.
The usual objection on the part of
the conservative to the art of Ficabia,
Schamberg. and those who now intend
70 be purists, is that artists should
not succumb to the trend of the times,
that art is or should be an escape
from the facts OF life.
Is it? Is Shakespeare an escape
from his period? True. he cast a
passing glance upon the charms of
Cleopatra, but Is 1t not, upon the
whole, the music of his own time that
escapes from his pages? There are
sports In art who have shut their eyes
completely to the aspirations of their
particular period, but OF truth ar
chaistic art Is always cram ped and
necessarily second class.
What "purism" in art is to be is not
quite clear after hasty run through
Messrs. Ozenfant and Jeanneret's
study, and particularly is it not clear
after a glance at a dozen or so illus
trations OF their newest paintings,
which presumably are pure" The
weak point in the work, as in the new
programme. Is exactly that that they
urge against the despised academi-
cians-it Is far too conscious of its
operations. What they say of the new
architecture that is coming through
the engineers and the new beauty
that como through the machines is
exactly but it is altogether likely
that u " expression in painting
will { for a long time unnoticed
also. Vancy of art to life Is a
thing st seen with a little per-
spective.
People whose tastes have been
formed upon classic precedent yield
reluctantly to the new forms. I recall
two occasions upon which scales OF
prejudice fell from my eyes, and both