DOI Heft:
No. 111 (June, 1902)
DOI Artikel:Thovez, Enrico: The first International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Art at Turin
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19876#0058
Turin Exhibition
Moreover, that programme gave no doubtful
sound. It declared very clearly that nothing
would be accepted but original work showing a
decided effort at renovation of form, it declared that
every reproduction of historic styles would be
rigorously excluded, so that it was necessary that
every product exhibited of any industrial craft should
be designed with true art feeling.
It was the distinctness, or, if you will, the
obstinacy of the programme thus laid down, which
made the fortune of the exhibition. All the
pioneers of modern art, all the famous masters who
had run the gauntlet of ridicule before they won
their position, all the humble neophytes still at the
outset of their struggle, welcomed with enthusiasm
the idea of an exhibition at which modern art
would at last be seen alone, no longer mixed up
with, and suffocated by purely mechanical produc-
tions. From Walter Crane to Horta, from Hoffmann
to Eckmann, from Olbrich to Mackintosh, from
Lalique to Otto Wagner, the most flattering ex-
pressions of approval have been received by the
committee, and the enthusiastic co-operation of
the leading exponents of modern decorative art
have given to that committee assurance of success
in the achievement of their difficult task.
And now at last the dream has become a reality.
The imposing re-union of every State of Europe
and America assures to the Turin Exhibition an
exceptional importance in the history of art. At
last we can see side by side the most various
examples of modern decorative art; at last we
are able to compare them with each other, and
to evolve from that comparison a prophecy for
the future. We see side by side the vases of
Copenhagen, the tissues of Nancy, the tapestries
of William Morris, the furniture of the Belgian
School, the glass of Tiffany and the tapestries of
Sweden, the jewellery of Lalique, and the enamels
of Hungary; whilst Italy, the last to join in the
new movement, proves that she too still has the
power of renewing her art life, of reviving the
golden age of her past history.
Exquisitely beautiful is the English section,
Moreover, that programme gave no doubtful
sound. It declared very clearly that nothing
would be accepted but original work showing a
decided effort at renovation of form, it declared that
every reproduction of historic styles would be
rigorously excluded, so that it was necessary that
every product exhibited of any industrial craft should
be designed with true art feeling.
It was the distinctness, or, if you will, the
obstinacy of the programme thus laid down, which
made the fortune of the exhibition. All the
pioneers of modern art, all the famous masters who
had run the gauntlet of ridicule before they won
their position, all the humble neophytes still at the
outset of their struggle, welcomed with enthusiasm
the idea of an exhibition at which modern art
would at last be seen alone, no longer mixed up
with, and suffocated by purely mechanical produc-
tions. From Walter Crane to Horta, from Hoffmann
to Eckmann, from Olbrich to Mackintosh, from
Lalique to Otto Wagner, the most flattering ex-
pressions of approval have been received by the
committee, and the enthusiastic co-operation of
the leading exponents of modern decorative art
have given to that committee assurance of success
in the achievement of their difficult task.
And now at last the dream has become a reality.
The imposing re-union of every State of Europe
and America assures to the Turin Exhibition an
exceptional importance in the history of art. At
last we can see side by side the most various
examples of modern decorative art; at last we
are able to compare them with each other, and
to evolve from that comparison a prophecy for
the future. We see side by side the vases of
Copenhagen, the tissues of Nancy, the tapestries
of William Morris, the furniture of the Belgian
School, the glass of Tiffany and the tapestries of
Sweden, the jewellery of Lalique, and the enamels
of Hungary; whilst Italy, the last to join in the
new movement, proves that she too still has the
power of renewing her art life, of reviving the
golden age of her past history.
Exquisitely beautiful is the English section,