Studio: international art (54.1912)

Austrian Schools for IVeaving

FIG. 24. TEXTILE DESIGN. BV A STUDENT OF THE
IMPERIAL SCHOOL FOR TEXTILE INDUSTRY, VIENNA
(I'ROF. STANZEL'S CLASS)

degrees that self-confidence without which nothing
can be achieved. He learns, besides the right
feeling for light and colour and the harmonious
blending of colours, the feeling for due proportion
in all things, and that the greatness of a design
does not consist in the multiplicity of ornament,
which only too often serves to hide other mistakes
in drawing, for instance, but in simplicity, in
naturalness and reticence in composition.

The exhibitions held at the Imperial Fachschule
fiir Textilindustrie in Vienna serve another purpose,
namely, that of free criticism on the part of the
students, in which they are encouraged by the
director and the professors. This is of great
value, for the pupils learn to understand one
another better, while, when the exhibitions include
the work done by the students in the country
towns, as did the one referred to above, the
students meet as it were on common ground and
benefit accordingly.

If it be only an ivy-leaf it can be represented in
more ways than one ; the study of a flower reveals
wonderful beauties, which can be expressed in
various ways according to the different impressions
it makes on the onlooker. The student soon learns
to seek the colouring for himself and feel the decora-
tive element. He finds continual new joy in his
work, he gives his whole self to that work and is ever
desirous of creating something new. In this way
school, instead of being a burden to him, becomes
a pleasure, it is the place in which perhaps the
happiest hours of his life are spent, and therefore it
is of vast importance for the State to recognise what
a great part such schools play in the life of the
child who has left the elementary school and who,
though unequipped for the battle of life, is yet
often obliged by force of circumstances to throw
himself into the midst of it. By the establishment