The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-01-13
NOTED ARCHITECT
AIDS COMMITTEE
IN PLAN FOR ARCH

Ernest Van Week Declares
Sculpture Is Considered BY
Many to Be the Highest
Type of Art.
The wide experience of Ernest Allan
Van Week, senior member Of the New
York architect firm, Starrett & Van
Week, has been drawn on by the local
committee having in charge the con-
struction OF a suitable memorial to the
soldiers and sailors W. sent overseas.
Mr., Van Week, in a lengthy descriptive
article sent to the local committee, of
which G, r. Fitzhugh is chairman, de-
clares that sculpture is not only the
most lasting, but the highest type of
art for such a memorial. He writes:
Mingled with the problems Of re-
construction now uppermost In the
mind of the nation Is a perplexing
question which officials and prominent
citizens In every city and hamlet in the
land have asked themselves at least
once during the short period that has
elapsed SINCE the signing Of the armi-
Stlce: How can we best memoriali2e
our soldiers and sailors who rave paid
the supreme price in the cause of
una liberty and world democracy?
| mat monument Will IlDSL lllllTBlN
commemorate their splendid valor, their
~steadtast devotion TO duty and their UNI
flinching sacrifice
To perpetuate the memory Of heroes
and OF their gallant feats of arms, the
mind turns naturally and inevitably to
sculpture as a fitting expression of its
emotion, and it is TO this impulse that
we owe the multitude OF commonplace
monuments erected to the soldiers and
sailors of the Civil war by villages and
I.Snog II pitiagH frpT,N IN A,l 10 tIA aptn-
try to the other-monumentS that
should speak to the passer-by of noble
suffering and high achievement in
terms of exalted idealism, but which
in many cases, by their uncouth ugli-
ness, are more apt to excite derision
than reverence.
quite justifiably, sculpture is consid-
cred by many to be the highest form
Of art, and it would seem to follow
logically that as such it could most APP
pies gratitude and appreciation. Com
pared to the towns of France and Italy,
our villages show an almost total lack
OF good sculpture, a factor of ~undoubted
esthetic and educational value, and we
might seem to be neglecting a fortui-
tous opportunity, were we to fail now
to erect sculptured figures and groups
TO the heroes Of Cantigny, Of Bots de
Beleau, of Chateau Thierry, of 81.
Mihtel, Of the ArgOnne forest, to the
new .Wacht am Rhein, to the %staunch
watchdogs of the sea lanes, to the
young paladins of plane and tank.
Iron Memorials.
During the past two decades we
have made tremendous strides forward
In our artistic development, and we
hardly need fear a repetition of the
Cast-iron horrors sold by catalogue
number by enterprising foundries dur
ing 70's and sos. Yet we annot shut
our eyes to the fact that there are but
a few good sculptors in this country,
and that if, to satisfy a universal de-
mand, our worthy modelers of archi-
teCtural ornament turn from the terra
Gotta kiIns, the ornamental plaster and
sheet metal shops, and the bronze and
iron foundries to a more ambitious
field, the result will be esthetically APP
palling.
Some of our larger cities, with
virtually unlimited means at their COM
mand, by a selective draft of their art
lists will create memorials of purely
monumental types that may well
tons, with sculptured groups and ret
liefs stirring the blood of the way
farer as surely as does Rude's wonder-
full Call to Arms, on the great arch
of Napoleon browning the Elysees. New
York's mayor has appointed a commit
tee to set about the work of financing,
designing and building a great COM
memorative arch which, let us hope,
will be not unworthy to be ranked with
the Arc de Triomphe In Paris, and with
Roman Forum.
"Other cities, fortunate in the pos
session Of well-filled, civic purses, with
the cooperation Of their eminent sculp-
tors and architects, will raise mOnu-
ments to compare favorably with those
of Colleone in Venice, of the Maine in
New York, and Of Lincoln in Chicago.
Some may ambitiously attempt com :
memorative shafts like the column Of
Trajan in the Piazza ColOnna in Rome
or the NendOme and BaStille columns
in Paris; Others will prefer the simple
dignity of great obelisks, such "a the
washington monument n that OF
Bunker Hill. Memorial towers, hous-
ing mellow chimes of bells, may ap-
peal to some who appreciate the Eng
fish charm of a well-rung Triple Bob
Major, or who have not forgotten the
lost Carillons Of Belgium.
"A few cities will build memorial
fountains of sculptured beauty, lending
distinction to their surroundings IN
proportion to the skill with which they
have been designed to fit their settings,
which may be a prominent location IN
an open square or park, as the Place
de la Concorde and the Tuileries gar
dens in Paris, recessed In the shrub
berry of a public, garden-a secluded
delight of fretted stone and tricklinR
water-like the MediCis fountain in the
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