DOI Artikel:
Hoeber, Arthur: Sculpture of Robert Aitken, N.A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0019
Sculpture of Robert Aitken, N.A.
Copyright, the Panama-Pacific Exposition Co.
THE SETTING SUN: HELIOS. DETAIL OF THE FOUNTAIN OF THE EARTH
BY ROBERT AITKEN, N.A.
SCULPTURE OF ROBERT AITKEN, N.A.
BY ARTHUR HOEBER
Again the door of opportunity has
been opened to our American painters
and sculptors, for with the opening of the forth-
coming Panama-Pacific Exposition, these artists
will disclose astonishingly capable, original, virile
performances that once more will call the attention
of our public to the possibilities of native talent.
The great promise indicated by previous fairs at
Chicago and St. Louis will have been more than
fulfilled. These results will, too, come at a happy
moment—for this nation, at least—to prove, as in
many other directions, the resourcefulness of the
native. Large mural spaces have been adequately
filled with significant pictorial compositions;
splendid groups of sculpture have been evolved,
no less worthy and impressive, demanding the
most serious attention.
Robert Aitken, newly elected National Acade-
mician, San Francisconian by birth, pupil of the
schools there, but of recent years identified with
the art life of New York, where he has executed
much important work, has made full use of his
varied and impressive artistic gifts in his commis-
sions for this Panama-Pacific Fair. For the Court
of Honour he has evolved four heroic figures,typify-
ing the elements—Fire, Air, Water, Earth. This
article, however, is concerned with a larger and
more ambitious undertaking, a conception of the
psychology of life as disclosed in his Court of the
Universe, for which Louis Mullgardt has been the
architect. While the reproductions here given are
explanatory, a few words may assist the reader to
a fuller comprehension.
A great main structure rises from a body of
water 150 feet long by 65 feet wide, and leading
up to this is a group of ten crouching figures, a
symbolized Destiny with one enormous out-
stretched hand giving life, while with the other it
takes it. This hand pushes toward the earth from
Prenatal Sleep a woman who awakens to the
ecstatic joy of living, perhaps its realization. A
man offers her the Kiss of Life, and the pair, offer-
ing up the children of their mutual love, are repre-
sentative of the Beginnings of Things. To the
great central edifice now come these humans to
inhabit the earth and make history. They make
a series of four groups of heroic-sized figures, each
flanked by a colossal bronze Hermes, whose arms
reach over the structure and hold up the begin-
nings of animal life of reptilian and piscatorial
origin. All these figures and forms surround a
globe of enormous size, typifying The Earth, over
the surface of which streams of water are thrown,
deluging these prehistoric beasts. This globe, 18
feet in diameter, of glass in a heavy steel armature,
will be illuminated after dark, while a second globe
therein will revolve, producing the effect of the
xv
Copyright, the Panama-Pacific Exposition Co.
THE SETTING SUN: HELIOS. DETAIL OF THE FOUNTAIN OF THE EARTH
BY ROBERT AITKEN, N.A.
SCULPTURE OF ROBERT AITKEN, N.A.
BY ARTHUR HOEBER
Again the door of opportunity has
been opened to our American painters
and sculptors, for with the opening of the forth-
coming Panama-Pacific Exposition, these artists
will disclose astonishingly capable, original, virile
performances that once more will call the attention
of our public to the possibilities of native talent.
The great promise indicated by previous fairs at
Chicago and St. Louis will have been more than
fulfilled. These results will, too, come at a happy
moment—for this nation, at least—to prove, as in
many other directions, the resourcefulness of the
native. Large mural spaces have been adequately
filled with significant pictorial compositions;
splendid groups of sculpture have been evolved,
no less worthy and impressive, demanding the
most serious attention.
Robert Aitken, newly elected National Acade-
mician, San Francisconian by birth, pupil of the
schools there, but of recent years identified with
the art life of New York, where he has executed
much important work, has made full use of his
varied and impressive artistic gifts in his commis-
sions for this Panama-Pacific Fair. For the Court
of Honour he has evolved four heroic figures,typify-
ing the elements—Fire, Air, Water, Earth. This
article, however, is concerned with a larger and
more ambitious undertaking, a conception of the
psychology of life as disclosed in his Court of the
Universe, for which Louis Mullgardt has been the
architect. While the reproductions here given are
explanatory, a few words may assist the reader to
a fuller comprehension.
A great main structure rises from a body of
water 150 feet long by 65 feet wide, and leading
up to this is a group of ten crouching figures, a
symbolized Destiny with one enormous out-
stretched hand giving life, while with the other it
takes it. This hand pushes toward the earth from
Prenatal Sleep a woman who awakens to the
ecstatic joy of living, perhaps its realization. A
man offers her the Kiss of Life, and the pair, offer-
ing up the children of their mutual love, are repre-
sentative of the Beginnings of Things. To the
great central edifice now come these humans to
inhabit the earth and make history. They make
a series of four groups of heroic-sized figures, each
flanked by a colossal bronze Hermes, whose arms
reach over the structure and hold up the begin-
nings of animal life of reptilian and piscatorial
origin. All these figures and forms surround a
globe of enormous size, typifying The Earth, over
the surface of which streams of water are thrown,
deluging these prehistoric beasts. This globe, 18
feet in diameter, of glass in a heavy steel armature,
will be illuminated after dark, while a second globe
therein will revolve, producing the effect of the
xv