Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1913 (Heft 41))

THE EVOLUTION OF FORM —INTRODUCTION

Art in its most recent and advanced manifestations differentiates
itself primarily from the older manifestations of the art of our race by a dif-
ferent conception of Form. In order properly to understand this new
Form it is necessary to have a proper comprehension of the evolution of
Form throughout the different races and civilizations. Art being closely
related in its evolution to the evolution of man in his individual social and racial
evolution, we are led logically to a study of the allied sciences of anthropology,
ethnology, sociology, psychology, metaphysics and the so called exact sciences.
The field to be covered is a considerable one. We publish in this number of
Camera Work the introductory chapter of Marius de Zayas’ book, now under
way, “The Evolution of Form.” The subsequent chapters will appear serially
in later numbers of Camera Work. From this first instalment it will be seen
that Marius de Zayas introduces an entirely new theory of anthropology and
a new theory of the evolution of Form.
This book promises to be one of the most important contributions to the
sciences of Anthropology and Ethnology as well as to the comprehension of
Form in Modern Art, as it clears up in its logical reasoning many problems
which have heretofore only been touched upon and never solved.
It may possibly lead to the publication in Camera Work of many articles
on subjects apparently alien to Art but in reality closely related, as all mani-
festations of the evolution of man are closely related, while the understanding
of all is necessary to the understanding of any one of them.—Editors.

A RT, in its latest manifestation has opened its doors wide to Science; it
r\ has ceased to be merely emotional in order to become intellectual.
Art, in its latest manifestation, has brought Form again into promi-
nence, not as a medium to symbolize a belief, or to realize an ideal, but
to express a psychological reason.
It is through the study of the meaning of Form that Art has evolved
from the research of beauty into the determination of the significance of the
psychological phenomena, belonging to the expression of the Idea.
For a long time Science has striven to explain the law governing artistic
phenomena, without being able to come even to an acceptable hypothesis.
It was not until Art felt the powerful influence of the progress of Science that
it awoke and broadened its horizon, calling to its aid the resources which
Science had accumulated. Possibly, this only means the absorption of Art
by Science.
The fact is that Form, in all its manifestations throughout the evolution
of man, has never in the History of Art been fully understood until the present
time. When the artist left the poetical conception of Art and turned to
Ethnology in search of a new conception of Form, Art emerged from the
mysterious atmosphere into which idealism had plunged it. The beautiful

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