International studio (41.1910)

IVood Carving and Architecture

oak panel-the last supper by i. kirchmayer

WOOD CARVING AND ARCHI- demands powers not inferior to those of the com-
TECTURE—WORK BY I. petent in any of the arts of design.
KIRCHMAYER AND OTHERS For let none suppose that the acquisition of a
BY F. W. COBURN little deftness in piercing and undercutting makes

up the necessary equipment of a good wood carver.
Professionalism, proper and salutary, has come Knowledge of the traditions and the present prob-
to mark almost wood carving in this country. A lems of art, appreciation of the facts of form and
standard has been established in this department
of handicraft which only the most gifted and per-
sistent of those who take up gouge, router and
veiner as a pastime can hope to attain.

For the pace is set by well-trained artists—
sculptors in wood—who make the chips fly as long
as daylight lasts and who carve evenings for
recreation. No other applied art, in fact—with the
possible exception of printing and bookbinding—
has advanced further in the United States in the
past ten years than has the art of wood working.
Indeed, Mr. I. Kirchmayer, educated as to the
elements of his profession in the Bavarian schools
and in the higher possibilities of the calling during
a long American experience as carver for various
architects and manufacturers of ecclesiastical fur-
niture, assures me that, in his judgment, no better
wood carving is being done to-day in Europe than
stands to the credit of a score or more of craftsmen
working on this side of the Atlantic.

The influence of cooperation between carvers and
architects merits consideration both from the many
amateurs who undertake wood carving simply as
a means toward decoration of the household and
from those who take lessons at the bench with an
idea of ultimately earning a living from the craft, carvings for by i. kirchmayer

The calling itself is an arduous one; to succeed st. Paul's cathedral, Chicago

lxhi