The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-21
BRANDS TEUTON ART
AS HIDEOUS FAILURE
Kenyon Cox Finds It Grotesquc
When Sublime, Beautiful or
Tasteful Is Essayed.
OTHER NATIONS SUPERIOR
Noted Artist in Posthum0us
Paper Skaters Idols of
German Kultur.

German art as expressed In the paint
ing, architecture and sculpture OF tho
Teutonic school by the greatest Of Ger
man masters was branded as OF tho
least value and most uninspiring char
ecter Of all contemporaneous contribu-
tons in a posthumous paper by the late
Kenyon Cox which was read yesterday
ct the meeting OF the American Acad-
envy Of Arts and Letters by Robert I'm
derwood johnson. permanent secretary
OF the academy.
Mr.. Cox, who died at his New York
homo last Monday and who was ono Of
Americas foremost artists and art
critics. was TO have read the paper ya-
terday at what was the second Of .
series of addresses before the academy
on The Failure Of German Kultur.''
The artistic nature OF the author of
-he paper Is shown in his reference to
Durer and Holbein. the two German
painters who, he thought, most nearly
approached first rank. Referring briefly
to the work Of these two, Mr.. Cox adds
IN reference to German painting in gen.
eral: Her twin peaks are not the cul-
minating crests OF a mighty mountain
range. but rise abruptly from the dead
level OF the plain
Reflects MiIitarfstfc Trend.
Mr.. Cox's appraisal OF German ar
tistic values reads like reflection OF
the character OF militaristic Germany as
Il has been exposed in the war. After
reviewing at some length the work OF
German painters to date Mr.. Cox says
Such are the contributions to the
nrt of painting OF the only two great
pictorial artists that Germany has pro-
duced-the highest form of that i'm
asinauve grotesque which falls short OF
the sublime by the lack of beauty. and
the highest form Of precise and detailed
Eaturalism. And all the art of Ger
many that has any vitality Is either
grotesdue or meticulously naturallstic,
though its grotesqueness and its natur-
alism both take lower, often much
lower. forms.
Nowhere in German art will you
md anything like the noble serenity OF
the Greeks: nowhere anything like the
spontaneous and abundant outpouring
OF beauty which marks the Italians; no.
where the clarity. the logic. the elegance
and the restraint of the French. The
grotesque sinks through the attenuated
Durerism OF the little masters TO the
depths of hideousness and baseness: the
noble naturalism Of Holbein is succeeded
by the unintelligent and microscopic de-
tail OF Denper but in both there remain
some sparks OF life.
German Art "stilI Born"
Wherever the sublime. the beautiful
or even the tasteful Is attempted Ger
man art is still born. 1t is difficult to
tell which IL more fatal to II. the lack
of inspiration or the lack of taste. and
still moro difficult to tell which is the
most distressing. German classicism,
German romanticism or the German at
tempt at luxuriance and frivolity.
From such an art we OF America
have absolutely nothing to learn II we
wish to elevate and correct the some
what trivial natural!sm of too much OF
our own paintings we may proftably
study the nobler and finer natural,sm OF
Holland and OF Flanders; we may even
moro profitably ponder tho intelligence
the measure. the good taste Of the best
art OF France we may, best OF all, steep
ourselves In that flowing stream OF
beauty which was the Italian Renals-
rarce. Any attempt at the imitation OF
German painting-even of the painting
o. Germany's two greatest masters-is
likely to do us more harm than good.