The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-30

all great art is the result of an un-
conscious yea-ning to record an emo
tional co--dition and an endeavor,
again unconsciously, by means of an
in, or transmit EN- ions to responsive
pc. sons" He defends the ultra mod
ern tendencies in art as a breaking
away from established methods or
formulas because they hinder an ade-
quate ex -ession of the artists inmost
clares that the modernist is following
strictly in the footsteps of the old
masters
art is the expression of the artists
emotions" said this western authority,
but those emotions must be sane
emotions. man may easily have a
perverted view of life and nature. and
when an artist tries to paint some
thing in a way that normal mind
never sees or feels l., and endeavors
to educate the public mind to his
point of view thru persistent reitera-
tion, or by the presentation of argu-
ments based on highly fantastic and
exaggerated forms of logic, he be-
comes an enemy of art and per-
verter of popular good taste.
Then too, if the crude unnatural
technique adopted by many of the eX-
ponentS of extreme modern painting
and their followers is what is meant
by following in the footsteps of the
novators are away off the track and
getting farther away all the time"
Many of the peculiarities of the
old masters technique was the result
of lack of knowledge, not of inten-
ton. They had no precedentS to guide
them, and had to work the whole
thing out for Themselves" In fact
the art of Cimabue, Giotto, and all
that followed them was revolt
against the very condition into which
49,
ing to push art again, namely a crude.
conventional, unnatural symbolism.
The old maste ., were striving toward
realism-ENDEAV TO MAKE
THINGS LOOK AS THEY APPEAR
TO THE ORDINARY MAN.
If art consists not in the making
of story telling pictures" then indeed
the old masters We're not artists, for
pictures painted before the close OF
the Eighteenth century were painted
for the express purpose of telling a
story.
The differences between the old
masters and the modern painters OF
the healthier sort are first, the stories
that the latter endeavor to tell are
less concrete, leave more play for the
human imagination. The modern
painter tries to transfer to canvas
those beauties of form color or per
sonality that are felt by most high
minded persons but which they are
not always able to analyze unaided
Some of the old masters did indeed
try to do these things with much sue
cess, but the tendency was not as
common as it is today.
Next. the modern painter of land
scape is more conscious of what he is
painting as a whole, realizes more
clearly that local color is modified by
sunlight and atmosphere, than did his
predecessors, and he gives more inn
portance to the central or dominating
object in his work. just as the human
mind is centered on the object for
which the person may be looking in
a room, and is more or less conscious
of the existence of other objects
therein.
And last, tie modern uses any kind
of pigment or medium that will bring
the result he is after and also any
method of applying it to the canvas.
But there is n wide difference be-
tween what is spoken of above, and
the bizarre compositions of meaning
less wavy lines. masses of geometrical
forms. conglomerations of color