Evening star., 1926-04-01
THE NORTH WINDOW
By Leila MechIin.

| 4 Dt LeUU msCHiH.
| On q portrait OF Erasmus painted
! by Holbein in 1923, which now hangs
! In Longford Castle, England. there ~
a Latin inscription, which. being hber-
ally translated, reads as follows:
| am Hans Holbein: it is easier to critl-
| cize me than to copy me-.
] How many artists today, II they
| dared, would place this same inscrip-
/ ton on their paintings. How much
| easier it is, in truth, to criticize than
| TO do! And. yet the majority OF per
] sons who visit exhibitions of art feei
| that they are called upon to criticize.
Some years ago at one of the Car
! negie Institutes international eXhibi-
! tions a bewildered layman stepped up
to a well known artist who had been
| expressing freely his appreciation or
a certain painting and said viii
| you kindly tell me- sir. what you see
| in that picture to admire" 1t hap
pened to be an extremely subtle work.
| and after looking an instant In the be-
| wildered cOuntena nee OF the inquirer
the artist sadly shook his head and re-
piled, "if you don't see IL yourself
fear ! cannot tell you" This was a
| discouraging answer, but TO the paint
er the lack of understanding was not
| Only IncUmpTeDenSlbIe, Dut an IHSui-
| mountable obstacle to a common un-
! dersta nding just as the inquiries of Il
| totally deaf person would have been
to musician if the inquiry had had
| to deal with an orchestral perform
ance.
There are, OF course, those persons
| who know what they like. but don't
know what is good; and. alas. there
are still many more who do not even
| know what they like, but like what
| some one tells them to. The real
basis OF understanding, however, is an
ability 10 comprehend the artists
| viewpoint. receptivity to varied
forms Of expression.
There has probably never been
time of greater confusion of thought
in regard to what constitutes merit in
| works Of art than there is today. and
this confusion is within as we'll as
! without the profession. Not only Is
there contention between the academ mi
clans and the modernists, but among
the modernists themselves. Post i'm
pressionism, cubism and futurism
have been turning things upside down.
and some of their chief exponents are
now claiming recognition az classi-
cists. az the real heirs OF the ages. But
despite all this confusion there are
certain basic principles upon which
the ma jority will agree, and a knowl-
edge OF these will materially help the
layman not only to discover what is
good, but why.
The first of these is design. 1t
is natural supposition on the part
of the casual observer. particularly
In connection with great works OF
art. that they happen. as 1t were, by
accident. Before a supreme accom-
plishment In this feld-a portrait by
a great master. a superb work of
sculpture or a building perfect in
proportion and detail-the result is
fell to have been unavOidabl BILE. in
evitable and that IL could not have
! been otherwise" Not only do we
not wish it changed, but we cannot
believe there could have been any
question in the mind of the artist
from the moment Of its conception
| This is one OF the supreme tests OF
q work of art. Let the artist nod
ever SO little. fan short the smallest
atom of a degree. and we are apt
TO he conscious of fumbling. a
slight uneasiness, which arouses q
query in our own minds.
One cannot talk long with group
OIL aftIStS WlInOuI nearing OIL re-
peated the words design" pattern
The modernists stress the impor
tance of pattern in composition stu
premely: subject Is as nothing in
mparison: but the great masters
have done the same. only they have
ultimately subordina ted il O.. what I
seemed to them the largerehrpose
of their work We have pattern and
design in carpets. rugs, cretonnes
silks. 1t may surprise some 10 know
that we also have them as dominant
factors In portrait paintings. figure
compositions. landscapes and still
life.
J Hear what Kenyon Cox said on
The subject: THE word design con
veys the true Idea of an original
guiding thought. a principle of unity
ont of which the parts and details
; of picture are developed by q
natural and organic growth. You
compose a pudding or a black
draught--you design a work of art
: Design is arrangement, is order Is
selection Design is the thing thai
makes work of art a unit. thai
makes IT a whole ra ther than a hap
hazard collection of unrelated things
or a slice Of unassimiia ed nature. II
does not merely concern itself with
/ great decorative compositions oil
: Iarrsneements OF many fgures--it is
necessarily present in the simplest
problems art can set itself
You cannot escape from design; YOU
cannot avoid composing You may
| compose badly, but compose yoU
must and the task of com
position is not done until the last
touch has been placed upon the can
vas"
Birge Harrison. likewise a distin
guished painter, has given as one OF
, the rules of composition in landscape
the following: Don't try to say two
, things on one canvas, and don't divide
; your picture into spaces OF equal size
, and proportion. A vast sky always
! lends nobility to a picture. while the
suppression or nearly total elimina
ton of the sky tends TO convert the
/, canvas into sort of transcendent
still life Don't repeat the main line
+ of your picture with another impor
. itant line parallel to 1t. And above
all" SAYS this master. don't let the
+ dominant line of your picture end aim
+ lessly in midair."
= But" says the layman. how am
I to know good design from bad?" First
, and always through careful observa
, , ton of this factor. by noting 1t az ar
, element In the beauty of the work
, even going so far as to experiment
: with change by holding ones hand al
: arms length and eliminating portions
, of the design: by asking ones sell
whether this change or that would be
. desirable. and, above all. again. by
. endeavoring to get the painters point
! of view.
!, 1t would be as foreign to the average
layman to design a painting as to de
/, sign q chair. vet trained perception
al tn1I l. a T. l.
signing done by another Is good OF
, bad, whether all the elements of the
, composition have been put together
: with q nice ad iuSt ment of values nd