International studio (82.1925)

mceRHACionAL

LA PORTE d'hONNEUR, EXPOSITION DES ARTS DECORATIFS, PARIS

THE EXPOSITION IN PARIS

hen Cezanne uttered
his historic dictum
that all form could be
reduced to the cone, the
cylinder and the cube, the
corner stone was laid for a
movement which had its
fullest expression in the international Exposition
des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Cezanne's esthetique,
the credo of modern art, was developed simul-
taneously with the age of scientific research and
the glorification of the machine. Both of these
are determining factors in the development of the
new decor. It was, however, due to Cezanne's
pronouncement that we substituted the philosophy
of the angle for the curve, that we came to see
that the intersection of two planes might be as
beautiful as the relation of two colors, and that
beauty was as existent in mere mass and propor-
tion as in ornamented shapes. It is due to this
that we have learned that designs whose inspira-

tions are the clean lines of
the machine may be quite
as beautiful as those deriv-
ing from animal, human or
flower forms. To have ab-
sorbed consciously or not
this esthetique is a neces-
sary perquisite to an enjoyment and appreciation
of the new note for which the international Expo-
sition des Arts Decoratifs stood sponsor.

International by courtesy rather than by fact,
for although the nations of the world were invited
to join in with France to make this a twentieth-
century convention of the decorative arts, twenty-
six of them accepting, it is after all primarily a
French exhibition. France alone is comprehen-
sively represented; it is her exhibits which consti-
tute the major interest and major part of this
great dedication of a modern decor. Interesting
as are many of the foreign pavilions, they can in
no way be said to represent their countries, since

First of two articles on the
International Exposition
des Arts Decoratifs which Is
now open in Paris

Helen, Appleton Read

NOVEMBER I Q 2 5

ninety-tbree