The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-25

! 26th happens to fall on Sunday, when
( it is inpracticable to keep the Me-
mortal building open. because this fact
takes one day from the exhibition.
The attendance during the entire
time the pictures have been in Topeka
/ has been most gratifying. and the
| Topeka Art Guild is much pleased
with the interest shown by the general
public The series of talks by George
| NJ. Stone and Mrs. L. D. Whittemore
/ on the afternoons and evenings of this
| week was an exceedingly interesting
and acceptable feature of the exhibit
| ton.
The writer was handed this week
catalog of the first annual exhibition
of the Chicago No-Jury Society of
| Artists. The exhibition was held in
Chicago October to 16, at the Mar
shall Field & Company picture gall
! Ieries.
No-jury societies of artists are being
| formed in all parts of the art world
as a protest against a conservatism
which is believed to be hampering the
development of art.
The Chicago No-Jury Society OF
Artists includes artists and would-be
artists living in all parts of the United
States, combined in an attempt to do
away with the jury system of selecting
pictures worthy to be shown in art ex-
hibitions, claiming that the jury sys-
tenn STILES the free development of
creative ability and keeps art on
fdead level of mediocracy by claiming
it to standards of the past.
The defenders of the no-jury art ex-
hibitions point out that most of the
great art names of modern and semi
modern times suffered for years from
the jury system of selection. Begin
ming with the Salon of 1852, Puvis de
ChavanneS had his pictures rejected
, for nine successive years by the Salon
juries. Other great masters of the
middle of the Nineteenth century re-
ceived Similar treatl--ent, among them
Courbet, Dupre, Barge, Rousseau,
Millet, Troyon, Corot, lDiaz, and Della
croix. In the eyes of the tradition
bound masters of the Academic. who
gagged everything by the standards of
the old masters, these men were revo-
lutionists, fools, or just plain lunatics.
Many men of later day, every one of
whom has contribute 50 netting i'm
portant to the advancement of art and
holds a place iI3 the worlds esteem,
encountered the same trouble.
The promoters of the no-jury sys-
tenn maintain with much show of JUS
tice, that many a budding genius is
starved to death in this sterile soil of
hide bound conservatism. Good sur
wives and bad perishes thru the law
of natural selection. 1t is the centre
world, not a few slaves of tradition or
the members of a special clique of
thinkers, which, in the final analysis,
weeds out the bad from the good
Submission to the dominance of a
clique, merely slows down the current
of progress, and discourse ICES talent bV
the public see every mans work NOW,
and so, determine once and for all
what is to survive or perish?
At the exhibitions of the No-Jury
society, anybody may exhibit provid-
ing he can pay an exceedingly small
fee. This fee includes a years mem
bership in the society. Each member
is entitled to show two paintings at
hi H,,f
must exceed in size forty inches over
frame. If but one painting is sub |
mitted the limit in size is sixty by
eighty-four inches over frame.
By the payment of another small |
fee and also furnishing a photograph |
of the work to be reproduced, |
any member may have a half-tone in |
sfrted in the catalog.
There were 200 exhibitors this year, |
and the catalog contains SO half tones |
in black and white. AS far as may /
be judged from black and white re- |
there was much excellent |
work shown. and a great deal also, |
that was absurdly bad. Every con-
ceivable school was represented.
Rudolph WeIsenborn, 1901 North /
La Sale street Chicago, is president /
of the Chicago No-Jury Society of Ar
lists; Charles Diesel, 1914 East 57th
Frances Strain .5463 Hyde Park BouIe- i
ward, Chicago is treasurer.
The American Magazine of Art this
contains a short article by
Walter Armstrong of Memphis, Ten
nessee, entitled Art and the Munich
pality,' in which its author urges that
it is just as much the duty of any
to inculcate IN its citizens
a love for the beautiful and an eleva-,
ton of the spirit, it is for it to fur
nish them with paved streets, pure
water, lights and police protection.
For after all, it is the appreciation of
the beautiful and the cultivation of
the spirit that distinguishes man from
he brute.
One evil in cities that Mr.. Arm
strong points out as specially needing
L remedy, is the billboard nuisance
which DEGREES that no mans property ,
nay be taken for public use without
compensation, has been construed by
he courts TO mean that use of a mans
property cannot be regulated by law
IN solely artistic or aesthetic grounds
rhe owner may erect and maintain
my structure on his ground, in anv
tyle that suits his fancy, paint it any
,olor he desires, and make any use
f it he likes, provided such use is not
Illegal in the accepted sense, does not /
'ffend thru health disturbing noise,4
NELL, violation of sanitation fules or
" the casting of dirt on other peo-
lies premises In short the owner
nay offend the eyes of humanity to
lis hearts content and nobody may /
all him to account.
This Interpretation OF the law Mr.
armstrong believes to be erroneous.
lie insists, and justly, that offense to u
he aesthetic sense, and the vitiation III
f public taste thru bad example, are
9th a real injury to society that will
n time become tangibly manifest
He urges upon the people of Mem
his in particular and on good citi-
ems of all towns in general to work
or a fairer Interpretation OF the law :
nd so prevent selfish and ignorantt
ersons from spelling the beauty OF 2
IN erican towns and cities
a process reproduction of a paint