International studio (49.1913)

Current Art, Native and Foreign

ity. “ 291 ” has been the scene of many an earnest
struggle for public comprehension, but none more
absorbing than that occasioned by the rhythmic
lines and chromatic improvisations of this apostle
in paint of “the objectivity of a subjectivity,” as
Picabia succinctly defines his pictorial purpose.
III. German Applied Art. It not infre-
quently happens that the most significant exhibi-
tions attract the least amount of public notice, this
observation applying alike to the appearance of
Previati at the Catholic Club, and the uniquely
instructive collection of modern German applied
art recently on view at the National Arts. Not

have an added richness and humanity, while in
Austria the feeling for style is far more highly
developed. It is these fundamentally racial char-
acteristics which you see reflected in modern
Germanic applied art. The taste and inclination
of the public are being awakened by men who
know and make clear through the medium of form,
color, and design, the essential basis, ethnic and
esthetic, of the community at large. In this pot-
tery, in these textiles, in the province of interior
decoration, printing, bookbinding, posters, and
labels for simple household commodities, you see
the same salutary influences at work. Philosophi-

since the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition
at St. Louis in 1904
has contemporary
Teutonic decorative
art been seen to such
advantage in Amer-
ica, and it may be
added that at that
period the Germans
had by no means de-
veloped the distinct-
ively native style
which to-day charac-
terizes their work in
this particular field.
The display at the
Arts Club, which had
previously been seen
in Newark, Chicago,
Indianapolis, Pitts-
burgh, Cincinnati,
and elsewhere, was

National Arts Club


GERMAN APPLIED ART

PORCELAIN FIGURINES

cally sound, this art
is full of splendid cre-
ative exuberance and
vitality. No nation
is applying the prin-
ciple of decorative
composition with any
thing like the system-
atic thoroughness as
are these same Ger-
mans, and the results
of their efforts speak
for themselves.
There is not an artist
in America who could
not have learned
something from this
illuminating display,
and it is only to be
hoped that our vari-
ous business firms
may some day feel
impelled, to invoke

organized under the auspices of the Deutsches
Museum fur Kunst in Handel und Gewerbe of
Hagen, with the co-operation of the Vienna Mu-
seum fur Kunst und Industrie. Each special
branch of applied art was under the direct super-
vision of a leading authority, the whole being
assembled by Herr Direktor Karl Ernst Osthaus,
of the progressive institution in Westphalia, which
during the past few years has made such a name
for itself in the Teutonic art world.
Throbbing with energy, learning their lessons
from England, France, or Belgium, and seeking
above all to foster and purify a proudly national
expression in all departments of esthetic activity,
the Germans and Austrians have accomplished
sheer marvels during the past decade. A sense of
force, weight, and relentless, rhythmic onrush is
typical of the Prussian work. In Bavaria you

the aid of beauty in the disposal of their wares.
It is impossible too strongly to protest against
the unredeemed crudity of our current advertise-
ments, whether seen on printed page, bill board,
or in tram car. While one occasionally notes a
refined and effective head of some popular actress,
sketched, say, by Ernest Haskell, such gracious and
comely visions are all too rare. There are but
two prominent houses in New York City to whom
high-class advertising seems to present possibili-
ties, and they are Wanamakers and Gimbels—•
both, by the way, originally Philadelphia firms
whose art departments are largely recruited from
the ranks of former or actual pupils of the Penn-
sylvania Academy. The influence of this splendid
institution is unique in American art, and it is a
pity that others do not to a kindred degree assist
in the leavening of commonplace commercialism.

LVIII