DOI issue:
No. 215 (January 1915)
DOI article:Studio-talk
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43457#0303
Studio-Talk
supporters of the sculptor’s art, and the scene
generally is meant to typify an Italian garden. In
Architecture the supporting figures are those ot
Geometry and Proportion, and in Painting the
winged youthful figure symbolising the Sphere of
Imagination is prominently placed, while on the
other side of the central figure is a young female
holding the mirror of nature. The old man here
represents Tradition, and near him the discovery
of new truth is symbolised by the withdrawal of
drapery from the sleeping female. Truth herself,
holding a mirror, is seated at the fountain, which
with the orange trees and other vegetation of course
stands for the perennial vitality of art. In Crafts-
manship the artist’s idea was “to suggest the funda-
mental importance of the handicrafts, and that art
with life is dependent upon productive labour, and
that the finer arts depend upon the useful arts, or
Arts and Crafts as we now term them,” and in the
light of this explanation the com-
position will be readily understood.
The artist has symbolised Peace and
War, though the helmet is that of
Pallas Athene the Goddess of the
Arts, and the smiths are beating
“swords into pruning hooks.” The
ship at anchor in the background is
particularly appropriate to Bristol.
LIVERPOOL. — With conserva-
tism characteristic of this
city the Autumn Exhibition
—/ at the Walker Art Gallery
clings to the Royal Academy tra-
dition, while other cities have
abandoned the great labour involved
in such an enterprise in favour of
smaller collections of invited pic-
tures, which are easy to prepare and
easy to make more completely artistic
than these large open exhibitions,
with their ponderous hanging com-
mittees and bewildering abundance
of uninvited work, much of which
cannot be rejected, even when of
doubtful merit, because of various
interests involved. We know how
this sort of thing affects the big
exhibitions in London, and we can
recognise the adverse effect of similar
considerations at Liverpool. There,
too, the customary reverent attitude
towards the Royal Academy dies
hard, and we see important places
216
given to tedious pictures by members of that august
corporation.
The best defence of the exhibition is that it is
generously catholic in its recognition of all kinds of
art, except, perhaps, the most eccentric. It shows
none of the narrowness of outlook laid to the charge
of Burlington House. Local talent, too, by no
means negligible at Liverpool, is generously treated;
as regards the quasi-amateur element, rather too
generously. This last is most apparent in the
water-colour section, which, in spite of the admix-
ture, is strong and interesting, including as it does
excellent drawings by such artists as A. W. Rich,
D. Y. Cameron, Laura Knight, Edgar Bundy,
Mary L. Gow, Edwin Alexander, R. W. Allan, Kate
Cameron, F. E. James, the late Joseph Craw’hall,
A. K. Brown, S. J. Lamorna Birch, W. Russell
Flint, and Julia B. Matthews. Local talent shows
CASE OF JEWELLERY
(Autumn Exhibition,
BY MISS FLORENCE STERN
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)
supporters of the sculptor’s art, and the scene
generally is meant to typify an Italian garden. In
Architecture the supporting figures are those ot
Geometry and Proportion, and in Painting the
winged youthful figure symbolising the Sphere of
Imagination is prominently placed, while on the
other side of the central figure is a young female
holding the mirror of nature. The old man here
represents Tradition, and near him the discovery
of new truth is symbolised by the withdrawal of
drapery from the sleeping female. Truth herself,
holding a mirror, is seated at the fountain, which
with the orange trees and other vegetation of course
stands for the perennial vitality of art. In Crafts-
manship the artist’s idea was “to suggest the funda-
mental importance of the handicrafts, and that art
with life is dependent upon productive labour, and
that the finer arts depend upon the useful arts, or
Arts and Crafts as we now term them,” and in the
light of this explanation the com-
position will be readily understood.
The artist has symbolised Peace and
War, though the helmet is that of
Pallas Athene the Goddess of the
Arts, and the smiths are beating
“swords into pruning hooks.” The
ship at anchor in the background is
particularly appropriate to Bristol.
LIVERPOOL. — With conserva-
tism characteristic of this
city the Autumn Exhibition
—/ at the Walker Art Gallery
clings to the Royal Academy tra-
dition, while other cities have
abandoned the great labour involved
in such an enterprise in favour of
smaller collections of invited pic-
tures, which are easy to prepare and
easy to make more completely artistic
than these large open exhibitions,
with their ponderous hanging com-
mittees and bewildering abundance
of uninvited work, much of which
cannot be rejected, even when of
doubtful merit, because of various
interests involved. We know how
this sort of thing affects the big
exhibitions in London, and we can
recognise the adverse effect of similar
considerations at Liverpool. There,
too, the customary reverent attitude
towards the Royal Academy dies
hard, and we see important places
216
given to tedious pictures by members of that august
corporation.
The best defence of the exhibition is that it is
generously catholic in its recognition of all kinds of
art, except, perhaps, the most eccentric. It shows
none of the narrowness of outlook laid to the charge
of Burlington House. Local talent, too, by no
means negligible at Liverpool, is generously treated;
as regards the quasi-amateur element, rather too
generously. This last is most apparent in the
water-colour section, which, in spite of the admix-
ture, is strong and interesting, including as it does
excellent drawings by such artists as A. W. Rich,
D. Y. Cameron, Laura Knight, Edgar Bundy,
Mary L. Gow, Edwin Alexander, R. W. Allan, Kate
Cameron, F. E. James, the late Joseph Craw’hall,
A. K. Brown, S. J. Lamorna Birch, W. Russell
Flint, and Julia B. Matthews. Local talent shows
CASE OF JEWELLERY
(Autumn Exhibition,
BY MISS FLORENCE STERN
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)