International studio (50.1913)

Studio- Talk

under the direction of the sculptor Gotthard Son-
nenfeld. The proposals of this artist for a better
training of assistants, for the procuration of economic
advantages, and his new method for ensuring the
permanence of wood marked him out as the right
man for this place. The exhibition promises to
have a stimulating effect on the new movement, for
in presence of so much good work fresh sympathy
for this neglected branch of art has been aroused.
Renowned masters like Herter, Schott, Kruse,
Janensch, Manzel, Breuer, Schaper, Havercamp,
Boeltzig, Hosaeus, Misfeld, and others contributed
replicas or fine new offerings. Combinations of
wood and metal, or materials like horn, marble,
and amber, manifested the adaptable nature of
wood. A group of Elephants by Breuer in ebony
was convincing in its realism, as was the Boat-
builder by Janensch, finely executed in teak
wood. Sonnenfeld gave proof of technical versa-
tility and revealed the eye of the psychologist in
busts intended as studies of physiognomy. Monu-
mentality as well as genre gaiety, in fact every
species of emotion from tragic
pathos to buoyant laughter, was
successfully represented among
the exhibits. J. J.
STUTTGART. — Early in
May the first “Grosse
Kunstausstellung ” was
opened here, an event
which "marks the entrance of the
capital of Wiirtemberg within the
class of German cities .where large
art exhibitions are held periodi-
cally, in most cases annually. The
circumstance which enabled Stutt-
gart to enter into this competition
was the completion of an exhibition
building, and to this structure, de-
signed by Theodor Fischer, the
principal interest is attached.

On the outside this has the
ephemeral, unpretentious, not to
say unprepossessing look which
such exhibition buildings usually
have. At the front we have a low
seven-arched portico, which calls
a crematory to mind. At the sides
and the back we see all the sky-
lights or “lanterns” looming up
irregularly so that we are reminded

of the buildings of a circus. But the interior is built
and finished off with the care and elaboration one
expects in a permanent museum. As in such a one
all, the walls are solid and no alteration of any kind
can be arranged. The principal piece is a very large,
central twelve-sided hall with a gallery at the top,
surmounted by a huge dodecahedral dome, or
“lantern” rather. The exhibition rooms—none of
them exceeds 50 feet in length—are situated along
three sides of this hall, the fourth being reserved
for a large restaurant accessible from the street.
The hanging space is, I should judge, about one-
fifth of that at Dresden, and perhaps one-tenth
of that of the Munich or Berlin exhibition palaces.
The catalogue of this first show runs to seven
hundred and eighty-five numbers, but more than
half of these are either small prints and drawings
or else sculptures which are mostly exhibited in the
grounds. _
The show itself is a very satisfactory one, although
it does not contain any particularly impressive work.


“man without prejudice” (wood) by gotthard sonnenfeld
(Nene Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin)