DOI issue:
No. 63 (May, 1902)
DOI article:Some work by the students of the Liverpool School of Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22773#0191
Liverpool School of A rt
boy who is pampered in his food and
takes too little exercise. The truth is,
it is impossible to say for certain what is
best for original talent.
Some there are who think that the
spur of need is essential to its well-being,
and that a prejudice in favour of its
discouragement is better, as a rule, than
the present-day custom of pampering it
in a multitude of art schools, where
prizes are awarded as recklessly as sugar-
plums are given to spoilt children. But
this view of the matter is to-day much
less frequently expressed than it was a
few years ago, for the British art schools
are not only ceasing to be nurses of
incompetence, they are gradually bringing
themselves in touch with the all-important
Part which design and craftsmanship must
needs play, and play strenuously, in the
stern competition between civilised na
tions. Little by little, after much hesita
tion, we are going away from the old and
erroneous notions that the sum of art
]s always to be found in oil-painting, and that
decoration and design are worthy of no lot more
dignified than that of being tightly bound up in the
swathing-bands of precedent. Now that these
absurd notions have had their day, a new life in
CUSHION COVER
BY WINIFRED TURNBULL
the art schools has begun to stir the imagina-
tion and to awaken enthusiasm. Original gifts
have now a much fairer chance of showing
what they can do within the limitations set
both by the materials used and also by those
principles and conventions of constructive design
which are most in sympathy with the “ genius ” of
the material. Master the grammar of design, learn
to think out your subject freely in its relation to
the chosen material—these are the maxims of the
new systems of art-training that give interest and
value to such schools of art as those of Liverpool,
Glasgow, Birmingham, and New Cross. And the
same maxims are being made popular both by the
Home Arts and Industries Association and by
the free schools, in many of which little children
are taught to design freely with a brush, much to
their joy and advantage. Such a method of train-
ing in art cannot but quicken the intelligence and
conduce to decision of thought and character,
though it may, no doubt, be overdone.
As an example of this, we nray instance the fact
that some students of design are left so much to
the cultivation of their own ideas that they never
acquire a practical working knowledge of the old
styles. Consequently, when they wish to make
a start in life—not by any means an easy thing—
they look in vain for employment from the “firms ”
of decorators. Now, as long as the old styles of
decoration survive with the architecture of historic
Hi
Design for a corbel
BY G. E. H. RAWLINS
boy who is pampered in his food and
takes too little exercise. The truth is,
it is impossible to say for certain what is
best for original talent.
Some there are who think that the
spur of need is essential to its well-being,
and that a prejudice in favour of its
discouragement is better, as a rule, than
the present-day custom of pampering it
in a multitude of art schools, where
prizes are awarded as recklessly as sugar-
plums are given to spoilt children. But
this view of the matter is to-day much
less frequently expressed than it was a
few years ago, for the British art schools
are not only ceasing to be nurses of
incompetence, they are gradually bringing
themselves in touch with the all-important
Part which design and craftsmanship must
needs play, and play strenuously, in the
stern competition between civilised na
tions. Little by little, after much hesita
tion, we are going away from the old and
erroneous notions that the sum of art
]s always to be found in oil-painting, and that
decoration and design are worthy of no lot more
dignified than that of being tightly bound up in the
swathing-bands of precedent. Now that these
absurd notions have had their day, a new life in
CUSHION COVER
BY WINIFRED TURNBULL
the art schools has begun to stir the imagina-
tion and to awaken enthusiasm. Original gifts
have now a much fairer chance of showing
what they can do within the limitations set
both by the materials used and also by those
principles and conventions of constructive design
which are most in sympathy with the “ genius ” of
the material. Master the grammar of design, learn
to think out your subject freely in its relation to
the chosen material—these are the maxims of the
new systems of art-training that give interest and
value to such schools of art as those of Liverpool,
Glasgow, Birmingham, and New Cross. And the
same maxims are being made popular both by the
Home Arts and Industries Association and by
the free schools, in many of which little children
are taught to design freely with a brush, much to
their joy and advantage. Such a method of train-
ing in art cannot but quicken the intelligence and
conduce to decision of thought and character,
though it may, no doubt, be overdone.
As an example of this, we nray instance the fact
that some students of design are left so much to
the cultivation of their own ideas that they never
acquire a practical working knowledge of the old
styles. Consequently, when they wish to make
a start in life—not by any means an easy thing—
they look in vain for employment from the “firms ”
of decorators. Now, as long as the old styles of
decoration survive with the architecture of historic
Hi
Design for a corbel
BY G. E. H. RAWLINS