Studio: international art (35.1905)

The Venice Exhibition

in Venice to select the works of uninvited artists,
he was unanimously elected to serve as President
of that body.

The exhibition opened literally with a Bang !
for the roar of the guns from the warships in the
harbour was only to be exceeded by the din of
the battle of Tsushima. As the royal proces-
sion of state barges moved down the harbour
just off the Riva, followed by thousands of gondole,
I began to wonder if the old middle age interest
in art had not been revived. But what has all this
to do with art and artists ? the reader will ask.
Simply this. That when one sees day after day
the entire pages of the daily press literally filled
with news stories of an art exhibition, crowding out
all the usual topics of the day, in the same manner
as would the coronation of a king in England, or
the election of a president in the United States,
why then it is we stop and wonder and begin to
compare ; we begin to see the wisdom of Tolstoi’s
words when he said that “Art is not a pleasure or
a pastime, it is a reality.” So it is with the
Venetians. Art is a recognised part of their

existence, brought forward perhaps from the time
when the Republic was in her glory, and when her
art and artists held a place in her court along with
the makers and executors of the law of the land.

To return to the work of the exhibition.
Despite the fact that in every section there is a
very apparent evidence of officialdom, the works
shown are quite representative. To the student of
modern art, whether he be artist or layman, this
exhibition is most interesting. The difference in
national taste is here brought out in a striking
manner, not only in the works shown but in the
setting itself. More, perhaps, is it in the latter,
for the reason that it is in the architecture and
decoration where any country most strongly
commits herself.

Upon entering the Grand Salon, one is struck
with a sense of spaciousness,—not too many things,
but some audaciously large ones; and the able
management of the committee here asserts itself
in having kept these large pictures out of the small
rooms, where, had they been hung, not only would
the room, but every other picture have suffered.

ENGLISH ROOM, VENICE EXHIBITION

DESIGNED BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A.