Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-30
BY THOMAS CRAVEN.

.
CH1tMARK, MARTHA's VINEYARD,
Mass, June 30.-Before the great
economic crash our stock brokers and
bankers who patronize the. fine arts,
our overWorked architects and engineers,
and other cultural optimists. phophesied
the immediate appearance OF an. Amer
lean renaissance.
Today these experts, frantically audit
ing their accounts, seem to have Tor.
gotten their cultural prophesies-
perhaps 1t Is just as we'll. Such utter.
. ances were premature. the result OF
conspicuous extravaganza and insane
vitality. The present condition OF the
arts, II one Is to Judge solely by the
standard of productivity. is not one to
cause the heart to rejoice. But the col
lapse Of the economic order has been
accompanied by wholesale shaking
down Of art values, which, believe, Is
about the most salutary thing that
could have happened to art In America.
Turn to Native Art.
For the first time to any appreciate
extent, American artists are beginning
to be concerned with the materials,
tendencies and resources Of American
life. Heretofore, they have been, al
most to q man. imitaturs Of the Eu-
ropeans: now they are beginning 70
thing In their own right. The relation
Of art to the economic background has
been suddenly blasted upon their minds
by an industrial catastrophe, destroy
ing the weak and invigorating the
strong. Their old notions Of art for arts
sake, or for beautys sake, or for the
sake Of any abstraction whatever, have
been knocked topsy turvy.
At last our artists are waking up
to the fact that they have been buried
in foreign cultures which have no sig
nifcance in an industrial nation. and
that If we are ever to have an in
digenous art, such expression will re-
feet the color and character Of a ma
chine age. For modern mechanical
America, In every aspect OF her de-
velopment, Is opposed to the authority
Of tradition and the respect for obsolete
standards.
All Of which is good for the soul Of
the artist. He Is confronted with a
changing, crushing. terrific industrial
ISM and he must stand or fall accord
ing to his ability to adapt himself to
q machine age in which things are
built for service-to be scrapped ruth
lessly and replaced by newer and better
models-and not as monuments to
esoteric ideals. 1t follows then that he
must utilize the higher instrumental
genuine artist Of every age has always
been the master Of his tools-and that
he must make the machine his ally
and his friend.
Embrace Machine.
The trend of architecture not only
In the large cities but In the smaller
towns, Il toward the sheer structure
with clean surfaces striped Of bridal
cake ornament, cornices which have no
function and all the useless excrescences
borrowed from European classicisn. The
builders Of the future will utilize all
the resources OF the machine and make
the machine an art factor by control
ling 1t intelllgently. The. old limestone
shells perforated by thousands Of holes
for windows will be supplanted by
structures with walls Of glass supported
by steel and copper.
In painting, production is at low tide.
The most hopeful signs are to be found
in the shifting Of the point Of view.
Everywhere I find dissatisfaction with
the tyranny Of worn-out European ira