International studio (50.1913)

An Exhibition of Art

in Modern Industries

EXHIBITION OF ART IN [MOD-
ERN INDUSTRIES
A new era has dawned. People see
the value of the art quality in every-
day life. They no longer meekly accept the
efforts of the past or the bad canvas of the present
as the last word in art. Both pictures and the
more vital things of life must have the same
inherent quality of harmony in all their relation-
ships. This knowledge held in consciousness by
the American will soon produce an American art
which will be the life and breath of every domestic
industry. The language of art to human beings
is expressed in materials, therefore the material,
form and combinations in material must change
with every changed condition and must be modi-
fied to adequately express man’s every added
need as civilization advances.
The joy one feels in responding to pure, ab-
stract beauty is the feeling of “art for art’s
sake,” but the satisfaction experienced in dealing
in materials with objects perfectly adapted to
one’s use, and yet saturate with the beauty
quality is the feeling of “art for life’s sake.”
This last is the modern viewpoint in art, this is
the new art ideal, and the teaching of art for the
sake of its quality in everything connected with
man’s social and religious activities is the modern
viewpoint of art teaching.
A particularly striking illustration of the
recognition of these truths, and the adaption of


SKETCH FROM ILLUSTRATED ADVERTISING CLASS


art teaching to industrial requirement is seen in
the recent exhibition at the New York School of
Fine and Applied Art. This school is founded on
the firm conviction that there is a sane balance
between the academic viewpoints of twenty-five
years ago and the reactionary modern view that
all art must be instantaneously turned into a
money value. It recognizes the truth that the
art quality, if present in the consciousness of
man, must be expressed in all his activities, and

ORIGINAL DECORATIVE DESIGNS FOR COSTUMES, I913


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