International studio (57.1915/1916)

Sculpture at the Panama-Pacific Exposition

^surface are numerous familiar figures that have
never before appeared to like advantage. They
are creatures of the open these fauns, nymphs,
shepherd lads, and playful water sprites. They
demand, one and all, the shifting caress of light
and shade and the fitful stir of the wind. While
there are various matters upon which the De-
partment of Fine Arts cannot be congratulated
it merits, in this par¬
ticular instance, un¬
grudging praise. Mis¬
takes have inevitably
been made, the most
flagrant being the de¬
positing of Mr. Gra-
fly’s Pioneer Mother
stolidly in front of the
main portal of the Pal¬
ace of Fine Arts, but
on the whole few ex¬
ceptions can be taken
R) the general propri¬
ety of the scheme.
The climax of this
happy outdoor treat¬
ment is attained in
Ralph Stackpole’s
Shrine of Inspiration,
which rises upon a
slight eminence in
front of the Rotunda.
You have in this com¬
position an essentially
sculptural conception
given the requisite
poeticand imaginative
significance through
the unique beauty of
its entourage.
The development of
American sculpture
since the somewhat
dim, indeterminate
days when Patience Wright, of Bordentown, first
began modelling wax portraits and silhouettes
of celebrities local and national, is fraught with
vicissitudes. Reference has already been made
to the Canova-Thorvaldsen period, though it is
doubtful whether this particular epoch was more
inimical to taste than was the era of the- monu-
ment manufacturers which followed the con-
clusion of the Civil War. We have sinned

grievously in this latter regard. We have dis-
figured many a noble space and obstructed
countless streets and public squares, yet still we
are somehow learning our lesson aright. At
Philadelphia in 1876 sculpture was not identified
with architecture. It was something apart,
isolated from the ensemble. At Chicago it
was employed in purely festal fashion after the
manner of the French.
A still further advance
has been recorded at
San Francisco. You
are herewith not con-
fronted with separate
works the significance
of which it is difficult
if not impossible to
determine. The aim
has been to fuse all
the arts into a single
eloquent, unified im-
pression. And while
the possibilities of
plastic form have not
been so keenly real-
ized or so consistently
applied as have those
of colour, a distinct
improvement has been
made upon anything
of the sort hitherto
attempted on so am-
bitious a scale.
We shall not linger
to review in detail the
miscellaneous detach-
ments of native sculp-
ture which are im-
mured in the Palace
of Fine Arts. Most
of this work being
already well known,
we shall proceed to
a consideration of the various foreign sections,
for, after all, it is not specific issues, but gen-
eral outlines, which we aim to discuss in these
brief papers. Most of the principal nations
represented in the Palace of Fine Arts also
possess separate Pavilions of their own, in the
embellishment of which sculpture plays an ap-
propriate part. The most elaborate of these
structures is that of Italy, and it is also the most


SMILING

INFANT

Argentine Section, Panama-Pacific Exposition
BY JUAN CARLOS OLIVA NAVARRO


VII