Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-12-18
The North Window
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

SHe spoke the truth. The. word
art" alas, seems to have been so
i'll used that ii has to a large ex-
tent lost its precious meaning.
Curiously enough, this calamity
has not befallen the word music
No matter how bad the manifesto
tions are-and they run the gamut
from the novice pianist to the dis
cordant church choir-the word
music always has a glamour, and
II has the power to stir the magma
ton and quicken the heartbeat Along
comes Jazz, but the glamour is not
lessened; jazz is jazz, music is music
always has been, and always will
be. But why? Even had some name
like jazz been invented for a similar
FORM OF modernistic expression in art
1t would have made no difference.
The word art" in the popular mind
Is not associated with joyousness.
festivity, good times
Misuse and association of ideas cam
not altogether explain this difference,
Tor though we see advertised art
metal beds today, we cannot forget
that generation or two ago we had
musical stools and chairs-delfeht
ful pieces of furniture so constructed
that when in use music box tinkled
out FAMILIAR tunes. No, the difference
goes deeper than this. We have not
~
delight-giving power of art.
x
In his lecture last week on Realism
IN seven Arts" given at the Central
Hlsh school under the auspices of
the Washington Society of the Fine
Arts, Stark Young suggested that
part-a large part-of the trouble
IN all or the arts today is our demand
IoI realism, our supposition that in
CT Ind
the actual in life. Architecture he
pointed out, was free. of this limita
tion. We do not expect to see a
guiding resembling a man or q tree
a morse or a dog, or even a. noun
tam 1t is a thing apart. and sufi-
Gent unto itself. To an extent. music
Is 1ree' Tor, rs he put 1t; the naioritv
know That when music begins imi
e common sounds it. is getting
~ VI the realm of pure music To
De sure, some of the modern com
posers are making efforts in this di-
rectlon, but they are still taken as
occasions Tor mirth rather than sub
Ject LOT serious admiration.
out IN painting. and still more in
-. re- the mlsconce ption prevails
ttat the artist is trying to initiate
solhethlne in nature. and the closer
-, .r,e imitation the better the art
mere Is nothing more difficult to ex-
pain 10 the average layman than that
the picture painted so accurately +bst
III deCelVeS the eye is NOT the acme
OF me expression. 1t is this necee
sitv Whlch in large measure has in
uuceu the modernist movement in
painting and sculpture. To he. sura
II mas gone too far. so far that MANY
OF It's manifestations have little or
no likeness to anything that one has
yer seem and, unhappily, almost no
element of beauty, without which mo
art can survive. But, despfte ALI tbis
IL has served to stress the fact that
art is by no means inherently or pri-
harlly a matter of repetition, of imi-
tdtloh' me great artists Of all
times have been those who have nos
sessed originality and found. uncon-
sciously, individual and new express
sion.
In Italy and in France the word
arr, which is practically the same in
an languages, shares today the dis
junction among common people that
al mere give TO music. In Italy and
france to the boy and girl on the
street or the laborer in the ditch. the
shopkeeper behind his counter. art
mas a magic, quality, and offers in
stantly the suggestion of recreation
OF a delightful means of employment
OF leisure time. The problem for MS
IN America today is how to inoculate
our own people with this suggestion.
In an address made at a nuhIic
meeting recently Mr.. Frederick Ken
pei OF New York, at one time assist
ant Secretary of War, said: From
every possible source time is being
saved. The electric washer is quite
as important a factor In this time
saving as the eight-hour day. but for
what Is time being saved? That is
the great problem" He lamented the
fact that so little of this leisure time
is being devoted to the arts. The
remarkable thing" he said, lis that
people like the American neonIe
have gone so far in other directions
while they have succeeded in going
so short way in the appreciation
and consideration of the opportunities
IN the production of the arts" add
ing: Il do not suppose any great
civilization in the history of the
world has ever gone as far as we
have with so few people drawing
from that inexhaustible spring." Re
ferring later to this spring. he con-
tinued: The peculiar quality, the
peculiar value of the art side OF our
appeal or the appeal of the art to U.S.
or course, is it's absolute directness
You do not have to have long prem
aratfon to enjoy great art. II YOU
have 1T in you you will do it the first
time. And it stimulates and vitalizes
all the other things where we do
have to have preparation" He urged
most strongly teamwork in the arts,
community effort. Unity of the
arts" he reminded his listeners, lis
nothing new, but it is what was
commonplace in the earlier civiliza-
lions. All the arts grouped around
the temple or around the forum or
around the cathedral; they were the
great coverings of the human spirit
in the past" If we hope to have
similar coverings today, Mr.. Keppel
thought, it must come through sim
liar effort.
Along this same line of thought
Homer Saint Gaudens, in an address
made at the meeting held last week
at the home of Mrs. William C. Eustis,
made the following contribution:
Nowadays he said, I'VE consciously
think of art only in terms of painting
and sculpture, yet really, when we
get down to brass tacks, in all our
surroundings, whether they be ele-
vator g-ills or fin-de-siecle automo-
bile bodies, or neckties, or our wife's
hat, or dressing a dinner table every
single one of us is subconsciously at
tracted and interested to some extent
by charm in color and form-attracted
with little taste and discrimination,
I hope, but anyhow attracted And
that desire Is the fine, wholesome
universal appetite for art
1t is this unsatisf1ed appetite which
is causing, some think, not a little
of the restlessness Of today. The So
called amusements do not cure the
hunger; it goes deeper than this.
X X X X