DOI Heft:
No. 128 (October, 1907)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure: on misdirected ingenuity
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28252#0354
The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE: ON MIS-
DIRECTED INGENUITY.
“ How true it is that the evil that men
do lives after them,” said the Art Critic. “ In
art, as in morals, the consequences of one wrong
step seem to be strangely far-reaching and to lead
to developments which could scarcely have been
foreseen. One aesthetic mistake is sufficient to
set up a false tradition which spreads all over the
world and affects generation after generation.”
“ Pessimist! ” laughed the Man with the Red
Tie. “ Why this portentous gravity ? What
friend of yours has been committing unspeakable
crimes? Tell us all about it.”
“ No friend of mine,” returned the Critic ; “ I
am not bewailing the misdeeds of anyone I know.
My complaint is a general one and applies to
principles rather than individuals, but I feel that
it is justified, nevertheless.”
“No doubt,” said the Man with the Red Tie,
“ but we want to know what is the meaning of
your dark sayings. Who has been setting up false
traditions and upsetting the world ? ”
“ Well ; you have, of course, heard much of
late of the vast commercial advantage which has
resulted from the invention of aniline dyes,” said
the Critic, “and you have noted, no doubt, how
the recent death of the inventor of them has
been made the occasion for many enthusiastic
comments upon the wonderful nature of his
discovery.”
“And quite rightly,” interrupted the Business
Man ; “ the discovery to which you allude is one
of the most important that has been made in our
time. It has revolutionised many branches of
trade, and has had a practically world-wide
influence.”
“I know it,” sighed the Critic, “and for that
very reason I lament that it should ever have been
made. It has put into the hands of commercial
men the power of controlling artistic production in
a great number of directions, and of dictating the
way in which many kinds of art work should
be carried out; and when the commercial man
gets art under his thumb the result is usually
disastrous.”
“ Nonsense ! ” cried the Business Man. “ Com-
merce is the one thing which makes possible the
existence of art. Without commercial encourage-
ment the art worker would be helpless and would
be starved out of existence.”
“ Wait a bit! ” broke in the Man with the Red
Tie. “ Do you really contend that what you call
338
commercial encouragement promotes the produc-
tion of good art ? ”
“ Certainly I do,” replied the Business Man ;
“ it provides the art worker with a market for his
wares and it helps him to find out in what direc-
tions he can most profitably apply his energies.
Good art, I take it, is that which is in widest
demand, and everything which enlarges the demand
tends to improve the general quality of art
production.”
“ What a creed ! ” exclaimed the Man with the
Red Tie. “ I should have said that the art which
was in widest demand was usually bad, and that the
greater its popularity the worse it became in quality.”
“That is, perhaps, going a little too far,” said
the Critic; “ but there is a very large amount of
truth in what you say. The popular demand is
usually for an art of a comparatively low type, and
as it is solely with the popular demand that the
commercial man concerns himself, it follows that
he usually encourages an inferior kind of art pro-
duction.”
“ But what has all this to do with aniline dyes ?”
asked the Business Man.
“ More than you think,” replied the Critic.
“ The invention of these dyes has put at the dis-
posal of commerce a cheap and effective way of
appealing to the popular craving for crudity of
colour. The colour effects attainable by means of
these r' es please people who know no better—in
othei words, the majority of the public; and bad
though these effects are, they have been accepted
by commercial men as establishing a really popular
colour standard. As a consequence, by the mis-
directed ingenuity of a single inventor, the colour
taste of the world has been perverted. The mis-
chief began in this country, and like a kind of
contagious plague it has spread in every direction
with extraordinary rapidity; every nation in turn
has caught the infection. Not only has the colour
feeling of Europe been demoralised, but we have
taught the artists of the East to abandon their
splendid colour traditions, and to adopt as a
commercial expedient our new aniline convention.
We have imposed upon them our crude ideas, and
by applying the commercial screw have forced
them, our superiors in aesthetic perceptions, to
obey our ignorant dictation. The inventor himself
is dead, but the evil he has done lives after him,
and is being exploited by commercial men for
their own advantage. And in this vast develop-
ment of bad taste, art necessarily goes to the
wall. Am I a pessimist ? I do not think so.”
The Ray Fjgure.
THE LAY FIGURE: ON MIS-
DIRECTED INGENUITY.
“ How true it is that the evil that men
do lives after them,” said the Art Critic. “ In
art, as in morals, the consequences of one wrong
step seem to be strangely far-reaching and to lead
to developments which could scarcely have been
foreseen. One aesthetic mistake is sufficient to
set up a false tradition which spreads all over the
world and affects generation after generation.”
“ Pessimist! ” laughed the Man with the Red
Tie. “ Why this portentous gravity ? What
friend of yours has been committing unspeakable
crimes? Tell us all about it.”
“ No friend of mine,” returned the Critic ; “ I
am not bewailing the misdeeds of anyone I know.
My complaint is a general one and applies to
principles rather than individuals, but I feel that
it is justified, nevertheless.”
“No doubt,” said the Man with the Red Tie,
“ but we want to know what is the meaning of
your dark sayings. Who has been setting up false
traditions and upsetting the world ? ”
“ Well ; you have, of course, heard much of
late of the vast commercial advantage which has
resulted from the invention of aniline dyes,” said
the Critic, “and you have noted, no doubt, how
the recent death of the inventor of them has
been made the occasion for many enthusiastic
comments upon the wonderful nature of his
discovery.”
“And quite rightly,” interrupted the Business
Man ; “ the discovery to which you allude is one
of the most important that has been made in our
time. It has revolutionised many branches of
trade, and has had a practically world-wide
influence.”
“I know it,” sighed the Critic, “and for that
very reason I lament that it should ever have been
made. It has put into the hands of commercial
men the power of controlling artistic production in
a great number of directions, and of dictating the
way in which many kinds of art work should
be carried out; and when the commercial man
gets art under his thumb the result is usually
disastrous.”
“ Nonsense ! ” cried the Business Man. “ Com-
merce is the one thing which makes possible the
existence of art. Without commercial encourage-
ment the art worker would be helpless and would
be starved out of existence.”
“ Wait a bit! ” broke in the Man with the Red
Tie. “ Do you really contend that what you call
338
commercial encouragement promotes the produc-
tion of good art ? ”
“ Certainly I do,” replied the Business Man ;
“ it provides the art worker with a market for his
wares and it helps him to find out in what direc-
tions he can most profitably apply his energies.
Good art, I take it, is that which is in widest
demand, and everything which enlarges the demand
tends to improve the general quality of art
production.”
“ What a creed ! ” exclaimed the Man with the
Red Tie. “ I should have said that the art which
was in widest demand was usually bad, and that the
greater its popularity the worse it became in quality.”
“That is, perhaps, going a little too far,” said
the Critic; “ but there is a very large amount of
truth in what you say. The popular demand is
usually for an art of a comparatively low type, and
as it is solely with the popular demand that the
commercial man concerns himself, it follows that
he usually encourages an inferior kind of art pro-
duction.”
“ But what has all this to do with aniline dyes ?”
asked the Business Man.
“ More than you think,” replied the Critic.
“ The invention of these dyes has put at the dis-
posal of commerce a cheap and effective way of
appealing to the popular craving for crudity of
colour. The colour effects attainable by means of
these r' es please people who know no better—in
othei words, the majority of the public; and bad
though these effects are, they have been accepted
by commercial men as establishing a really popular
colour standard. As a consequence, by the mis-
directed ingenuity of a single inventor, the colour
taste of the world has been perverted. The mis-
chief began in this country, and like a kind of
contagious plague it has spread in every direction
with extraordinary rapidity; every nation in turn
has caught the infection. Not only has the colour
feeling of Europe been demoralised, but we have
taught the artists of the East to abandon their
splendid colour traditions, and to adopt as a
commercial expedient our new aniline convention.
We have imposed upon them our crude ideas, and
by applying the commercial screw have forced
them, our superiors in aesthetic perceptions, to
obey our ignorant dictation. The inventor himself
is dead, but the evil he has done lives after him,
and is being exploited by commercial men for
their own advantage. And in this vast develop-
ment of bad taste, art necessarily goes to the
wall. Am I a pessimist ? I do not think so.”
The Ray Fjgure.