International studio (59.1916)

A rt and the Man

ART AND THE MAN: ART SO-
/\ CIETIES AND PERMANENT
AA COLLECTIONS
* BY RAYMOND WYER
One can review all the difficulties that beset
mankind in his desire to improve social condi-
tions, yet nothing in all altruistic endeavour is so
pregnant with difficulties as the work of an art
society in a small city, buying paintings for a
permanent collection. I refer to organizations
without a museum and unable to engage an
expert advisei.
The buying committee of an art association is
usually made up of men and women. The men
are usually chosen for their business experience,
the women for their interest in art. Before they
have proceeded very far, the business man either
inflicts his business judgment on the organiza-
tion without regard to its purpose, or, finding
himself beset with a multitude of conflicting ideas
from people with art opinions, and further per-
plexed by the insistence of artists and dealers
with pictures to sell, throws up his hands in
despair and does nothing.
Of course, much of his confusion is due to the
fact that he is uncertain as to the purpose of art.
Whether collections are formed to merely enter-
tain the public or as a source of instruction and
illumination, he does not know. He often is not
able to decide whether a work of art should be
something that a person can understand at once,
or whether it has a more profound meaning which
has to be studied before it can be fully appreciated.
Believing in the former is very much like choosing
a wife solely because she has a pretty face.
Of course it is possible to obtain sound advice
from art authorities of good standing, but the
difficulty is that, however much confidence you
have in this authority, as soon as the pictures are
not the kind that the public like, then the adviser
will be accused of not being disinterested. Yet
if people would only think a little it would be
plain that pictures which easily please the ma-
jority of the public are the most easily obtained,
and that any one with ulterior motives would be
likely to take the line of the least resistance and
select paintings which would be popular.
The charlatan, whether in art or politics, always
makes a direct appeal to the unthinking majority,
by never offering anything that is difficult to un-
derstand. This is his whole stock in trade. He

thrives on platitudes. He takes advantage of the
feelings which are inherent in every one, of love
for country, justice and an aversion to paying
taxes, by trading on spurious conceptions of
patriotism, democracy and economy.
The question, therefore, is not only what is the
best plan for a committee of laymen to adopt to
ensure obtaining paintings with the maximum of
quality at a reasonable price, but how to have the
art value of these paintings endorsed by those
whose judgment is considered beyond dispute so
as to preclude or at least to make it difficult for
unintelligent hostile criticism.
There are several ways for an art society to
obtain paintings: First, buy from a dealer. This
is by no means a bad method if care is taken to
select a reputable one. Another way is to buy
from the one-man exhibitions which come to the
city. The success of this, of course, depends upon
the discrimination in selecting these exhibitions.
I was recently speaking to Mr. Charles Francis
Browne, of Chicago, late chairman of the Art
Committee of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, on
the subject, and his solution to this most difficult
problem seemed to be the only one. His sugges-
tion was to buy only those paintings which have
been awarded distinction in the important mu-
seums. He explained that such a painting is
endorsed twice. This impressed me as being
the safest way for a committee without much
experience and knowledge to select those works
of art which will later on probably be the nucleus
of a permanent collection in a museum. I would
not consider this a complete solution, however.
The most that can be said is that it is the safest
way. That it approaches infallibility cannot be
claimed in view of the extraordinary awards
which are not uncommonly made. Yet, in the
long run, looking at it from a financial as well as
the artistic standpoint, less harm will result from
the mistake of this method than from those made
by a committee left to the tender mercies of the
conflicting opinions of qualified art judges, of
those painters who travel with exhibitions of
their own works, painters without a message—
who copy every marketable style and possess all
the points of view except their own, and who
have something in their exhibition to suit every
kind of taste from Corot to Willem Maris.
This method eliminates to a great extent the
retrograding influence of malicious and usually
unintelligent criticism.

LXII