Studio: international art (41.1907)

The National Competition, jgoy

DESIGN FOR A PANEL FOR MURAL DECORATION BY GWYNEDD HUDSON (BRIGHTON)

with the simplicity and reserve of the Dublin work
that is placed beside it. A nice appreciation of
colour and harmony is shown by Mr. William T.
Blackband in the arrangement of the enamelled
leaves, opals, and amethyst, in the circular pendant
for which he has been awarded a gold medal.

There is not much ironwork, either designed or
executed, at South Kensington, and the few pieces
shown are with one exception inconspicuous.
Things like handles, hinges, door-plates and keys
are well within the powers of the student, and are
capable, as a recent exhibition at the Fine Art
Society's brought home to us, of high development
on artistic lines. The key especially lends itself to
fine treatment, but not one is to be found among
the executed designs in the National Art Competi-
tion Exhibition, and only an insignificant group of
door-plates and hinges. The best thing by far
among the ironwork is the design by Mr. Albert
Halliday of Bradford for a chancel screen. A full
sketch of the design is shown accompanied by a
panel wrought by the student. The little brazier
in wrought iron shown by Mr. Frank Martin, of
Birmingham, attracts by its simplicity, but its small
scale makes it look like a stand for a flower pot.
The electric light lantern in wrought iron by Mr.
G. R. Glandfield, of Plymouth, is overloaded with
unnecessary ornament.

A tendency to add ornament for ornament's sake
and not because it is an essential part of the design
is naturally common among the work of students

who have not learnt properly to appreciate the
value of simplicity. There are many examples of
this failing in the present exhibition, and of that
other frequent weakness of the student—the strain-
ing after novelty at the expense of fitness and
beauty. For example, the examiners in their report
welcome the attempt that is being made to produce
designs for wicker furniture, and hope to see
further efforts in this direction. But in the two or
three drawings of wicker furniture that are shown,
the student appears only to have aimed at pro-
ducing something different from instead of better
than the articles in everyday use. The wicker chair
of commerce is not as a rule ungraceful, and in its
commonest form is superior to those seen in the
drawings to which the examiners have given a
National Book Prize. Again, the examiners
welcome " practical efforts in boot and shoe
decoration," and perhaps our footgear does leave
something to be desired in beauty and elegance.
That the boot - and still more the shoe—can be
beautiful we know from those that have come down
to us from earlier and possibly more artistic periods,
but it is questionable whether the beauties of those
examples can be combined with the needs of the
twentieth century. In any case, there is nothing
except a little more ornamentation in the arrange-
ment of the stitching to differentiate the "gent's
golf or walking boots " and the " ladies' Balmoral
shoes," honoured in the National Art Competi-
tion, from the ordinary boot or shoe sold in the

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