DOI issue:
No. 131 (February, 1904)
DOI article:The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19881#0081
The International Exhibition
hasty reformers desired to preach to a painfully
indifferent public. So this aggressive convention
grew until it seemed likely to become as ridiculous
and useless as the mannerism of the tame followers
of the academic school.
Happily the present exhibition of the society
at the New Gallery, proves that this irrational
attitude has been abandoned. There is plenty
of eccentricity in the collection, but it is eccen-
tricity which is directed by intelligence and has
its vehemence under the control of common-
sense. It is not the result of a kind of childish
petulance at the readiness of the public to believe
in the correctness of the conventions to which they
have become accustomed, but the expression in
most cases of a sincere intention on the part of the
artists themselves to give full play to personal
convictions—to advance an individual creed not
because they want particularly to shock other
people, but because they wish to be free to deal
with their art in the manner that they honestly
hold to be right. The strong man who has come
to an independent conclusion about the part he
ought to play in his profession, cannot be expected
to bring himself down to the level of the admirers
of pretty trifles. For good or ill he must follow
his own course, and if this happens to run counter
to the prejudices of his weaker fellows, he cannot
be accused of seeking wilfully to cause offence.
The deeper thinkers who recognise the soundness
of his intention will welcome his performance,
because it has a real meaning, because it demon-
strates what they are constantly arguing—that art
is not a dead language with a formalised grammar
and a set of immutable rules, but a living thing
which is susceptible of endless change according
to the condition under which it is practised. All
they ask is that every unconventional departure
should be sincere and untainted by any trace of
affectation.
There is certainly much in the collection ar-
ranged in the New Gallery which will entirely
satisfy this demand. In portraiture, figure com-
positions, and especially in landscapes, which show
both individuality of thought and remarkable
power of execution, the exhibition is richer than
65
hasty reformers desired to preach to a painfully
indifferent public. So this aggressive convention
grew until it seemed likely to become as ridiculous
and useless as the mannerism of the tame followers
of the academic school.
Happily the present exhibition of the society
at the New Gallery, proves that this irrational
attitude has been abandoned. There is plenty
of eccentricity in the collection, but it is eccen-
tricity which is directed by intelligence and has
its vehemence under the control of common-
sense. It is not the result of a kind of childish
petulance at the readiness of the public to believe
in the correctness of the conventions to which they
have become accustomed, but the expression in
most cases of a sincere intention on the part of the
artists themselves to give full play to personal
convictions—to advance an individual creed not
because they want particularly to shock other
people, but because they wish to be free to deal
with their art in the manner that they honestly
hold to be right. The strong man who has come
to an independent conclusion about the part he
ought to play in his profession, cannot be expected
to bring himself down to the level of the admirers
of pretty trifles. For good or ill he must follow
his own course, and if this happens to run counter
to the prejudices of his weaker fellows, he cannot
be accused of seeking wilfully to cause offence.
The deeper thinkers who recognise the soundness
of his intention will welcome his performance,
because it has a real meaning, because it demon-
strates what they are constantly arguing—that art
is not a dead language with a formalised grammar
and a set of immutable rules, but a living thing
which is susceptible of endless change according
to the condition under which it is practised. All
they ask is that every unconventional departure
should be sincere and untainted by any trace of
affectation.
There is certainly much in the collection ar-
ranged in the New Gallery which will entirely
satisfy this demand. In portraiture, figure com-
positions, and especially in landscapes, which show
both individuality of thought and remarkable
power of execution, the exhibition is richer than
65