Evening star., 1935-02-24
Aviation Art Tagging.

That aviation. with its opening Of
new horizons and the almost universal
appeal it makes to the Imagination of
mankind, has not had a more pro-
found influence on art than has been
appointment to many.
Perhaps the most enduring success
in aviation art has been achieved in
the field of photography, especially
in Great Britain and Germany. In
England Capt. Alfred G. Buckhem
has produced number of aerial pho
tographs which are as truly indi-
vidual expression as paintings and
which rank as real works Of art. In
Capt. Albert w. Stevens. the Army
Air Corps boasts one of the finest
scientific aerial photographers in the
world, but his work is almost en-
tirely scientific in character.
Clayton Knight. the American
painter, is entitled to rank among
the worlds best aviation painters. He
has done some very good work in oils,
water colors and pencil, and has
caught much of the feeling of flight
in his pictures. An exhibition Of
Clayton Knight works was held re-
Gently in the National Museum.
There have been some notable Brit
ish etchings. chiefly those by John
MacGilchrist.
Sculptors Have Slight Success.
Sculptors have had little success
with aviation subjects, even alle-
gorically. Washington boasts some
glaring examples of their lack Of
success, particularly in the aviation
insults the spirit from the wall Of
the Department of Commerce. The
aviation monuments which have been
erected, including the memorial to
human flight at Kitty Hawk, N. c.,
go, at best, heavy-footed.
There has been some effort. most
Of it abortive. to catch the aviation
spirit in architecture. particularly in
connection with the designing of air
port structures. One of the best
examples is said to be the new Pam
American Airways base at Dinner
Key, Fla
The lack of distinction in aviation
art is keenly felt abroad and recently
has been commented upon by c. G.
Grey, the British aeronautical au-
thority.
"One would have thought" said
Grey, that everything to do with fly
ing, the fact of reaching hitherto un-
attainable heights, passing over hith-
erto unmapped countries and oceans,
and mans ability to control mechan-
ism Of his own creation in the air and
make it do things which no bird could
possibly do--and which, incidentally,
no sensible bird would ever want to
do-would have inspired every artistic
mind in the world to height records
Of artistic achievement. And yet in
no branch of art has aviation inspired
anything worth doing"
No True Poetic Results.
Aviation. Grey finds, has inspired no
poetry which truly can be claSsed as
art and there has not even been an
approach in music.
I'm pictorial art" says Grey, count
less professional artists have produced
innumerable drawings and paintings
of aeroplanes-good, bad and indif-
erent, but naturally mostly bad"
Commenting on the results OF an
important sculptural competition for
the Rome scholarship on the subject,
1.-The Conquest of the Air by Man,"
Grey observed that most Of the de-
signs suggest a mixture of Epstein
cum-Egypt, although some are so un-
related to anything that they suggest
rather Einstein-cum- -Assyria."
"One of us suggests" Grey concludes,
"that possibly the reason for this Ia
mentable lack Of achievement in all
branches of art is that artists are in
herently conservative, although they
try to humbug themselves into the
belief that they are progressive, or
even revolutionary, and consequently
have not vet grasped the possibilities
or implications of aviation. And GER
tainly none has yet received its in
spirations. In fact, the only products
Of aviation which are joy to the
eye are the lines of few, very few,
aeroplanes."
Another reason. perhaps. is that the
so-called modernistic school, with its
abandonment of nature and its con.
tempt Of the idealistic, Is wholly In.
capable of gauging the events that are
shaping world thought and progress.