South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-06-22

kAAA Va AAAt MANa - A4NLANINd nAE UAAIAANA
has given the Beaux Arts a panel Of
Scotch soldiers returning from bat
tie. But IL Is a panel rather than an
interpretive view OF war. There Is
also IN the French show a photog-
raphic picture OF a battle field at
twilight under the haZy
purple thing. like enough 20 life
with the churned up earth OF the
shell holes % send the shivers
through one who has seen a battle
field. Several other war canvasses-
not at all notabIe-are scattered
skstchily through the Saturday night
art. giving the effect that mother
and the girls should be more care
ful about pulling down the curtains
Of the bath room in these war
times; but one feels definitely hat
war has not expressed itself in
French art
BRITISH ART FULL OF WAR.
The British painters. on the other
hand, seem 20 have had nothing else
in their hearts but the war. Battle
fields without number. interiors OF
munition plants-looking like blue
prints OF hell-home scenes with war
in the offing. seascapes hlled with
submarines. soldiers on leave, sol
diers going into battle. soldiers
afOot and on horseback. the "pomp
and circumstances Of glorious war"
and the hideous cruelty OF inglOriOus
war ali are pictured by the British
IL has obsessed their minds and
guided their hands-this war thing.
one OF the great things Of the gal
lery is a panel called "Gassed'' by
Sargent; il is not mere decoration.
il Is a gripping, awful picture NOV
ing 70 pity with a big sweep OF the
emotions This picture pes far and
true.
In sculpture the British say moth
ing notable about the war - nor
about anything else. The French
however. chatter volubly about
everything in stone and bronze and
clay and wood: they raise a few
heroic yips over Triumph" and
Victory and what-not Of the dec
orative side Of war, but they seem
20 have nothing in them about its
signihcances. about those signih-
canoes which the British earnestly
are striving 20 realize.
AMERICA "HAS NO ART"
And that brings us naturally 10 a
theory. you Americans have no
art" said a wise, wise woman in
Paris recently TO a group of Ameri-
can visitors. And until lie changes
with you, you will never have art.
You have too much freedom to pro-
duce art. Art is the child OF repres-
sion. You are denied nothing So you
repress nothing. n have nothing
unexpressed. We French have not
your freedom. We cannot marry
whom we please and when we please
as you can. We must order our lives
under economic restraints. Perhaps
we are foolish. Maybe we should
rebel. But we do not. So we have
a people with depressed ideals,
broken dreams, unrealized visions OF
happiness. From these things are
pressed the wine OF our lives that
you call art"
Now in this war the French have
had great freedom Of expression.
Widows have worn mourning-deep
black. deadly mourning; sisters,
s-weethearts and second cousins have
done the same things. No grief has
been suppressed. no emotion has
been checked. France has Haunted
her agony; il was genuine: il was
bitter. II was infinitely wOeful. But
II left nothing to the Imagination. So
the Imagination has not pictured the
sorrow OF France in French art.
The British on the contrary. wore no
black. Mourning was bad form. Any
expression Of grief was frowned
upon. England OF course. sorrowed
humanity and had her long years OF
anguish But that anguish was rath-
or understood than visuaIized. And so
IL bursts out in British
Anyone may have a theory. and iii
his facts 10 it. There may be moth
ing in his pretty theory-possibIy
not even the facts. But il is the way
things appeared 10 one American
who vas in Paris and London in the
spring OF 1919.
DIFFERENCES ARE FUNDANIEN-
TAI.
Supposing there is nothing in the
theory. The differences between the
GAAHAAcn anu the LItftn are rather
fundamental And II their art Is diff
ferent their politics is also. Yet one
finds the same deep movement un-
DERIVING the political aspirations OF
both people. To us Americans
France seems 20 do things most cas-
ually. and England seems 10 do
about the same things most careful
~. Yet each sets about the same re-
suits. England. for instance. at the
moment is having all sorts of par
liamentary hearings and committee
reports over the housing situation.
Meetings are being held, speeches
are being made and due c~onsidera-
ton given TO a variety of revolution
airy things. And IN the end we shall
have n England public-built houses.
publicly owne and rented at a
nominal price with the idea OF
service rathsr than profit.
In the meantime in Paris they are
tearing down the old city barrier,
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