DOI Heft:
No. 229 (May 1912)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: A painter of romance: Tom Mostyn
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0289
Tom Mostyn
A PAINTER OF ROMANCE: MR.
TOM MOSTYN
At the present moment the art of this
country is subjected to certain influences which
tend to deaden its vitality and to diminish its
range of expression. We live in a material age,
and our artists have become infected by the
materialism which pervades almost all phases of
modern thought. As a consequence they are in
danger of forgetting how much the value and
interest of their effort depends upon the manner
in which they deal with abstract fancies and how
greatly the imaginative quality of their work affects
its right to consideration. They have so far yielded
to the tendencies of the times that they are content
to give their attention chiefly to problems of
technical method, theories of executive practice,
and devices of mechanical treatment, and to make
no serious inquiry about the type of material which
is worthiest of being selected for artistic manipula-
tion. They substitute conventions founded upon
a sort of spurious scientific fonmulafor independent
thought and freshly responsive inspiration, and
they cherish the delusion that subservience to
these conventions is far more important than
freedom of outlook or breadth of mind. In the
struggle to prove themselves to be, as they conceive,
properly up to date they are losing all selective
sense and they are creating an entirely false
standard of artistic practice. ■
Therefore, to such an artist as Mr. Tom Mostyn
a particular welcome can be given because through-
out the whole of his career he has kept very
definitely to a way of his own choosing and has
refused to allow himself to be influenced by any of
the fallacies of the moment. He holds, indeed, a
position of peculiar independence at a time when
the dictation of fashion is more than usually
vehement, and when the artist is generally denied
the right to think for himself; and his indepen-
dence is the more stimulating because it leads
him, consciously or unconsciously, into absolute
opposition to the prevailing materialism. Certainly
there is in his art no hint of subjection to any
popular mannerism and no suggestion that he
would be inclined to conform to any set formula;
on the contrary, there is the clearest possible
“SILENCE ” FROM THE PAINTING BY TOM MOSTYN
266
A PAINTER OF ROMANCE: MR.
TOM MOSTYN
At the present moment the art of this
country is subjected to certain influences which
tend to deaden its vitality and to diminish its
range of expression. We live in a material age,
and our artists have become infected by the
materialism which pervades almost all phases of
modern thought. As a consequence they are in
danger of forgetting how much the value and
interest of their effort depends upon the manner
in which they deal with abstract fancies and how
greatly the imaginative quality of their work affects
its right to consideration. They have so far yielded
to the tendencies of the times that they are content
to give their attention chiefly to problems of
technical method, theories of executive practice,
and devices of mechanical treatment, and to make
no serious inquiry about the type of material which
is worthiest of being selected for artistic manipula-
tion. They substitute conventions founded upon
a sort of spurious scientific fonmulafor independent
thought and freshly responsive inspiration, and
they cherish the delusion that subservience to
these conventions is far more important than
freedom of outlook or breadth of mind. In the
struggle to prove themselves to be, as they conceive,
properly up to date they are losing all selective
sense and they are creating an entirely false
standard of artistic practice. ■
Therefore, to such an artist as Mr. Tom Mostyn
a particular welcome can be given because through-
out the whole of his career he has kept very
definitely to a way of his own choosing and has
refused to allow himself to be influenced by any of
the fallacies of the moment. He holds, indeed, a
position of peculiar independence at a time when
the dictation of fashion is more than usually
vehement, and when the artist is generally denied
the right to think for himself; and his indepen-
dence is the more stimulating because it leads
him, consciously or unconsciously, into absolute
opposition to the prevailing materialism. Certainly
there is in his art no hint of subjection to any
popular mannerism and no suggestion that he
would be inclined to conform to any set formula;
on the contrary, there is the clearest possible
“SILENCE ” FROM THE PAINTING BY TOM MOSTYN
266