Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1907 (Heft 19))

importance, the one thing of supreme value given one to contribute to the
world. It therefore behooves one to coin the metal that is in one instead of
attempting more or less clumsy counterfeits of other men. No matter how
poor and mean this metal may appear in self-analysis, it will always have a
value high above pretentious imitations of so-called nobler metals. It will
always ring true ! And that is what so much of the art in this country to-day
does not do. Men are ashamed of the talents given them if perchance they
seem of smaller dimensions than those of their neighbor. So they wrap up
their birthright most carefully in a napkin and bury it, believing the while
they can hoodwink man and God into taking their foolish counterfeits of
men of larger stature as the expression of themselves. The result is a sou-
venir-postal-card art, which only needs the trade-mark, “Made in Germany,”
to be altogether complete.
It is such work as this that, in the eyes of many people, discredits the
noble art of painting, puzzling and confusing some, and hoodwinking the
unwary and indiscriminating into accepting it on the plea that it is art for
art's sake. A more shallow and meaningless phrase, juggled by the ignorant
and even resorted to by the intelligent to escape responsibility, has never
been invented. If it were true, then the gold nugget would be of equal
value with the delicately wrought masterpieces of the Venetian goldsmiths.
Art is for Beauty’s sake, and the closer it comes to interpreting life the
greater is the art.
In one of Bliss Carman’s recent essays in criticism he says: “An epigram
has been wittily defined as a statement of fact, which is brief, false and con-
clusive.” This expresses perfectly the relation to truth of the art dictum
promulgated by Whistler, when he said that: “The master stands in no
relation to the moment at which he occurs — a monument of isolation —
hinting at sadness — having no part in the progress of his fellow-men.”
The confutation of this statement is found in the work of the great masters
of expression, from Job to Ibsen, from the creator of the “Discus Thrower”
to the painter of the “ Man with the Hoe,” and rest assured it will always
be so. The speech of the artist is as much colored by his environment and
the spirit of the time as is the unconscious prattle of the child. The greater
the man, the more perfectly will he respond to those subtle and all-perva-
sive influences in which the best thought of an age has its origin. His work
will reflect the spirit of the time in which it was produced with greater cer-
tainty and authority than the chronicles of the assiduous historian. This
divorcing of life from art has let loose upon the world a horde of incompe-
tents, who threaten to swamp us with rubbish, while they blandly try to re-
assure us with their parrot-like cackle that it is all art for art’s sake. So
doting fathers and fond mothers go threadbare that a mawkish youth or
maiden, empty of ideas and bereft of all feeling for life and its beauty, may
unload their aimless efforts upon a long-suffering public. That juries should
encourage this state of affairs by hanging the soul-sickening things one sees
at exhibitions is the most discouraging feature of a far from hopeful situation.
When juries shall have arrived at a keener sense of responsibility in this
matter; when they shall be imbued with a finer discrimination in the selec-
tion and rejection of works, and when they will have the courage to face it
squarely without fear or favor, there will be exhibitions that will be of real
benefit to the people. Then, and not 'till then, will Nature take the place
J. Nilsen Laurvik.

of the mirror.