Studio: international art (23.1901)

Gordon Craig

the progressive stages in the work of one or two
designers who are represented by work of their
student days and of maturer years ; but enough
has been said to show that the collection here
brought together, though small, is of considerable
interest, and justifies a hope that the newly-
awakened public interest in applied art may be
but the germ of a great revival.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE ART
OF GORDON CRAIG, WITH
PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO
STAGE CRAFT. BY HALDANE
MACFALL.

Mr. Gordon Craig is a rebel. His tilt is
against the conventions of the playhouse. Rebellion
is criticism in action ; when, therefore, a critic
comes before us we are entitled to ask—and we
ought to ask—on what foundations he bases his

"OUTWARDLY I WAS A CURATE"

BY GORDON CRAIG

246

BOOK PLATE BY GORDON CRAIG

authority to be heard: otherwise this world of
men would be but a vulgar noisy shout—as,
indeed, to a large extent it is. As a matter
of bad habit (into which we have fallen), when
criticism shouts we do not ask—we do not put it
to the wall and test its sanity, nor even its fighting
capacity ; we have grown into the bent attitude of
a humble bow to every loud-voiced fellow who
finds his way into print. So it comes that critics
as often as not express their contempt of literary
genius in the most halting of English. The attack
is with them—the law is wilh them—and the
hee-haw of the people. They have come to
authority by stealing authority—they are as safe
from rebuke as parsons in high pulpits.

Now the greatest of critics is the rebel—though
he never put pen to paper. (Hence crude peoples
burn him.) It behoves us, therefore, to see whether
this is but a mere clever fellow, whetting prepos-
terous axes, or whether the vehemence of his
protest is founded on a potentiality of overwhelm-
ing revolution—whether, in point of fact, he is
entitled to the splendid epithet ot rebel at all.

To arrive at an appreciation of the influence
which Mr. Gordon Craig is destined to exert upon
the stage, we had best first of all become acquainted
with his achievements in illustration; and, in the
doing, it is significant that we shall ever find, in
his simplest design, the aim and the vitalising