International studio (80.1925)

mueRHACionAL

the world of etching to
wake up. It is time
that etchings cease to
be judged as etcbiiigs
and begin to be judged
as works of art.

The tradition re-
ferred to as having so
profoundly influenced
etching is, of course,
representation. Be-
fore Rembrandt popu-
larized representation,
the etchers and en-
gravers, like the paint-
ers, had built their
pictures into works of
art as an architect
builds a cathedral, or
a composer a sym-
phony. Every line,
form and space was
part of a structure,
was built into an or-
ganization, was a unit

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must be used to direct
the eye of the observer
to the head of the
Christ, and to balance,
as a form, the bent
torso of the soldier,
then no petty details
of coat-sleeve wrinkles
were allowed to dis-
tract the eye from fol-
lowing that organized
direction. The arm
was simplified in the
drawing. Even if
drawn from a model it
was so changed that it
no longer was a repre-
sentation of a particu-
lar arm of a particular
model, but became a
universal arm serving
three or more purposes
—that of conveying
the concept "arm" to
the mind, and the

in definite visual rela- ....... equally important

. . Number Two. An etching in which organization of lines, r n-

tion to all other units. , , , , „, , J ones ot controlling eye

shapes, Jorms, ana above alt textures, is strikingly present. • i • i

Such conformity to movement within the

the needs of the organization forced certain changes picture, and of holding its place as a shape or form

on the treatment of subject matter. For instance, related to all other shapes and forms about it.

if the arm of a man in the foreground of a picture The changes thus consciously imposed on subject

Number Three. The semi-abstract arrangement of landscape Jorms in the right-hand portion oj this picture reminds one of
much oj the strong modern work oj today, particularly that of Derain. Since Derain arrived at his results by a very different
process than that of imitation, the similarity proves the basic kinship of old and new.

three eighty-eight

FEBRUARY I 9 2 j