The Washington herald., 1921-05-23

FINDS OPfONENTs
TO COURSE IN ART
There is a great waste OF educa-
tion," said Miss Eusenia Dell. Of
Seattle. Wash. waiting at the audi
torium OF the Corcoran gallery of
art for the session of the American
federation OF arts.
Here am ! from Seattle. WASH
visiting the capital city. Reading
in the papers that the artists were
meeting here, / decided to take a
short course In art-for that's what
these sessions mean-by attending
the convention. II I went to a uni
versity. a course which would fur
nish me the equivalent Of what
am getting as free as the air here
would cost me a minimum Of S25.
Consider how few persons take ad-
vantage OF such opportunities"
BELIEVES BEAUTY
Is POSITIVE UTILITY.
When it was suggested that Miss
Dell was a commercial genius, and
should capitalize the idea, she said:
mo, not all all. / am far from
an artist, yet l am at the antipodes
in commerce. That is one of the
reasons why this convention of art
lists interests me so absorbingly. Be-
cause there is no commerce in it
no utility in it-only beauty, airy
and intangible. l am one Of those
who hold with Wilde: Give me the
luxuries: you can keep the necessi-
ties. l suppose l can explain my
self better by quoting Ross Crane,
who addressed the artists the other
day. He declared he would have no
furniture that was not utilitarian
in a room. butremember that beau
ty is a very positive utility
while I would not say that beau
ty is the paramount utility, l be-
lieve that II stands on a par with
any utility. and that in the future
the artist will command on the part
of the general public a rank second
to none.
AMERICANS SLOW
To APPRECIATE ART.
Mr.. Pennel's talk. to take the
first name that presents itself to my
mind. showed me how laggard we
are in appreciating art values.
figure it out somewhat after this
fashion. We are a young country,
and when our forebears came over
here several hundred years ago.
they visualized a great contine Mt,
stocked with wealth of every kind.
1t was the most natural thing that
their energies at FIRST should have
been absorbed in the task Of sub
DUNG and developing the country.
There was no such contemporary
development in Europe. and the sur
plus energies were released to other
fields. notably the field of art.
I'VE are now coming of age. W..
are beginning to realize that prac-
teal development is not tbs Alpha
iod Omega. The proverb.ei Tired
business man testIties that l. good
deal of joy rnd beauty has been ts-
Gazing us, as We were immersed III
the task OF making boots and
shoes, and spanni~g the - rrirent
with railroads. Our machinery, in
deed. as one of the speakers at the
convention pointed out. has devel-
oped in phenomenal aud even
alarming way.
CRAFTSMEN MISS
sELF-EXPRESSIoN :. =.
The JOY that the craftsman Of
some time ago found in the COM
plete article-a means of self-eX
pression-is gone, and the mechaa-
ic of today is a specialist, turning
out in enormous quantities, in a
standardized way. a standardized
fraction of some article. The 10Y
of creation is not there-the Jrt is
not there.
We are beginning to learn that
the things which are unseen are
permanent values that brute
strength is not all. The davs OF the
pterodactyls and dinosaurs, those
giant creatures which roamed the
earth in precivilization days. are
gone-or rather they have been
transformed to other fields, but they
are commencing TO lose attraction
for us. We need art-we must have
it-that life may be made more joy
full and beautiful" D. S.