Studio: international art (23.1901)

Studio- Talk

well-being and development of the society to which
he belongs.

The dominating tendency of the " Nihon-
Gwakai" is to resist to the utmost the daily-
increasing spread of European influences, and thus
to prevent the extinction of the national spirit,
which for ages past has constituted the strength
and the unity of Japanese art.

Can it be that in their heart of hearts these
artists hold the sincere conviction that the ancient
methods of Japan are capable of enduring in the
future, and that a dying tradition may be galvanised
into new and durable life by the sheer will of a
handful of enthusiasts ? In other words, that it
can be kept alive, as it were, artificially. The
Japanese art of old is dead, quite dead—which
is by no means the same thing as saying that
Japan is dead artistically.

New forms must needs take the place of the old.
What was must be followed by what is, and what
is to be. The freshness, the still vigorous sap or
Japan will come victoriously through the crisis.
From contact with the Western world will spring a
mingled art. The present period is one of transi-
tion, and the works it produces are interesting
in that they mark a stage between that which is
no more and that which is to come.

Thus does M. S. Bing express himself in the
short preface he has written for the catalogue of
this exhibition. The author of " Japon Artistique "
has very happily characterised the aims and
ambitions of the artists whose fresh and charming
works he has been displaying to our view in the
galleries of the "Art Nouveau." In most of these
productions one was conscious of an interesting
striving after novelty, a spontaneous effort in the
direction of modernity, coupled nevertheless with
a respect for tradition, in which there was no

" vue d'un port"
280

by kwason souzouki