Evening star., 1938-09-11

again looking at things Realistically.
Idealism brought man to his man
hood. It was imagination, spiritual
aspiration that gave humanity its art,
poetry, music, religion, and its sci
entific achievements as well. Without
the divine urge of idealism man would
still be cave dweller."
IT IS the lack of this quality in mod
ern art (using the expression in
wide sense) that has caused much
CONSERVATION among thinking people,
but there is evidence undoubtedly of
turning Of the tide. The head of
the Painting Section of the w. P. A.
in New York reported some months
ago that institutions to which works
by artists on relief had been assigned
were, at the expiration of 12-month
period, bringing them back and ask
ing for better The Painting and
Sculpture Section of the Procurement
Division of the Treasury Department
has commissioned a Well-knoWn artist
to execute for the public warehouse
murals ridiculing some of those in the
Post Office and Justice Departments
which have met with derisive COM
ment. Education sometimes takes
strange as well as devious courses to
perform its great ends.
The higher things of life are pos
sessed. it is true, not by the many, but
the few. One must climb to attain
them. To suppose that the finest of
art will ever meet with universal ap-
probation is foolish dream, but no
one will deny that such art should be
within the reach of those who have
the inward urge to seek it. Under
standing comes through contact. The
paintings of the early renaissance were
produced for the people and beloved
by them, although they may not have
comprehended the measure of skill
required to bring them forth.
Gothic sculpture was likewise pro-
duced as picture books of Bible stories
for the illiterate and touched the
hearts of those who gazed upon them.
The great art of all time has been
priced by the people and has en-
nobled them. But popularity has never
been achieved through definite pur-
pose or by the lowering of standard.
WHEN the Venetian glassmakers set
~ aside their pride and produced
for the American tourist trade objects
which they knew to be inferior they
damaged their art irretrievably. Japa-
nese prints were issued at few cents
each for the common people and
gained great popularity, but the Japa-
nese printmakers maintained from first
to last their standard as artists. In
a jazz age there is a larger audience
for the compositions of Beethoven,
Mozart. Bach and Brahms than ever
before. To suppose for moment that
to be popular a work must be inferior
IN quality is absurd. 1t is the supreme
ly good which finds widest acceptance
and longest life.
Obviously, impeccable Judgment can
not be expected even of the few. Time,
and time alone, is the deciding factor.
But Of one thing we can be very sure
unless work of art has charm and
merit 1t will not long hold the atten-
ton of the crowd When it has. it
does. For example, if the vote of all
visitors to the Corcoran Gallery of
Art were taken yearly, the picture
which in all probability would head the
list In the matter of popularity would
be The Helping Hand" by Emile Re-
nouf, French painter of the past
century. There are some who con-
slider this work trivial, but for it the
painter was awarded a gold medal in
the Exposition Universelle, Paris, in
1889, by a jury of experts, and made
member of the Legion of Honor by
the government of France