Evening star., 1925-03-19
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

lne the SCfnlC UedulJ
of their outlook, remarked, I'VE have
scenery on the island-plenty of it;
only we're settin' on It," This is ex-
actly the position in which many of
US find ourselves with regard to CO.
temporary art. We are too close TO
1t to realize its beauty or judge OF its
merit. To do either correctly we must
have perspective; we must look
across a span-in this case, OF years.
Thomas Jefferson counseled his Vir-
ginia colleagues who were planning
to erect a State capitol at Richmond
to take as examples those great
buildings of the past, the design of
which generations had agreed to
admire" 1t was a safe standard, for
as perspective is prolonged that
which is not great disappears from
view. And yet there are those today
who would have us discard such ac-
cumulative wisdom, those who hold
that the past Is utterly unrelated TO
the present, and that il holds no
value for US save in matter of avoid
ance.
The commission appointed by the
Secretary of Commerce to visit and
report upon the International Exposi-
ton OF Modern and Decorative In
dustrial Art in Paris in 1926 has is
sued recently for publication state
ment concerning the program OF this
exposition. After calling attention to
the importance of the exhibition and
tho fact that practically every for
eign country will exhibit therein its
artistic productions, mention is MADE
of the restrictive clause barring out
all reproductions. limitations and
counterfeits of ancient styles" For
ternational exposition is TO be held
that will be confined to examples or
decorative and industrial art con-
ceived in the modern spirit-a very
significant event in the history OF
arts" Then comes this interesting
paragraph:
The exposition represents very
important milestone in the long
stretch of years from the time when
the machine replaced the rtsman
as the labor element in producing
industrial art-years that were mark
ed for half a century by awful ex-
amples of the forid and ornate, and
in later times by slavish copying of
the older forms and methods. OF
these later years NJ. Clouzot, conser-
yateur of the Musee Galliera, has
said: We assist at the extraordinary
spectacle of a society which is heated
by steam and lighted by electricity,
which travels by automobile and con-
verses by telephone, living in a dec
oration of the period when Nine. de
Maintenon was carried in her chair
and when Nine. de Sevigne wrote
letters which required 15 days TO
reach Brittany"
Clever enough this sounds, but what
does IL mean? Because we live in
81. .t.-ts ier1.t tod
houses must we cast away the really
fine things which our ancestors have
handed down to us either in fact or
ideal? What kind of art, may we
ask, would be in accord with steam
heat and electric lighting. automo-
biles and other twentieth century
conveniences? Obviously, we should
not be merely imitators, but likewise,
reasonably, we should not insist upon
being consistently and in all things
up TO date, or we lose much that is
precious.
Writing on the new American wing
OF the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
a recent number of Scribner's Maga-
zine, Royal Cortissoz had the follow
ing to say:
The visitor to the American wing
will miss the service IL Is there TO
render who fails to grasp it as the
embodiment of an idea 1t is based
upon archaeological research, but IL is
concerned essentially with warm hu-
man things. 1t answers first and last
the question of countless inquirers-
the question as TO how the instinct
for art was implanted and nourished
in the genius of the American people.
Il don't think they were very subtle
folk, these ancestors of ours | donS
think there was anything recondite
about their esthetic outlook at all.
Indeed, It is an open question as TO
whether the word 'esthetic' had any
great status in their vocabulary. AS
l have indicated. / do not see them
as collectors in the strict sense, even
though they had their occasional col
lections of prints and ceramics. I see
them, rather. just as people of good
breeding and consequent good taste
Art as the American wing puts il
before US, art as 1t was brought over
from England, and somewhat artless-
ly nurtured here, was wreaked upon
nothing more nor less than social
amenity. And in its very detachment
from the milieu of the collector, the
connoisseur, il kept itself free to
strengthen the one quality which was
The seasoned collector pays a certain
penalty for his role. 1t makes him a
complex being and makes his taste
eclectic. We began with a strong
tincture of fairly classical simplicity
and the outstanding lesson of the
American wing is that it stayed with
US for full 200 years.
This is the spirit of our early
American art, the spirit which, in
surrounding ourselves by it's best ex-
amples, we manage TO retain in small
measure today in our homes in spite
of steam heat. electric light, inces-
SAINT telephone calls and the hooting
of automobile horns.
y x y x
Writing some time ago of Joseph
Pennell's etchings of Old Brooklyn
Elisabeth Luther Cary, art critic OF
the New York Times, ventured the
suggestion that we turn with pleas
ure to this art of the past today for
this very reason-becauSe it seems to
be surrounded still with the quiet
the composure, the seIf-poise of the
time in which it was brought forth
Nothing under the sun will pre-
vent a man or woman from being
original if he or she possesses origi-
nality; originality is something which
cannot be suppressed, but neither can
1t be forced. So great preacher as
Phillips Brooks once said, Dreadful
will be the day when the world be-
comes contented." Contentment in
art blocks progress, but We should
not confuse contentment with snug
ness. 1t is those who know the most
who are the most modest. The really
great are always simple.
Nicholas Murray Butler once said
that there are only two things which
are permanent in this world, two
things which endure-art and ideas
He might have added that the for
mer reflects the latter, for after all
the spirit of an age is invariably
manifested in its art. In this sense
perhaps the steam-heated and elec-