Studio: international art (54.1912)

Isidore Konti

these lines and this style might seem almost as
empty as it seems full to those who respond to the
theme. To the writer, Mr. Bauer's art is par-
ticularly interesting, as a very perfect specimen of
its kind. It is not, of course, the only kind of art ;
it does not take upon itself some of the greatest
problems, but, so far as it goes, it goes in the spirit
of the very greatest art : an art in which subject
and craft cannot ever be thought of separately,
and in which the subject takes its character from
the craftsman, and is great if it expresses a great
mind.

It is obvious from Mr. Bauer's pictures that he
has a very long artistic memory, that he draws
upon inexhaustible resources in this respect when
he outlines a composition. He has the freedom
of a great range of subject-matter, because his
imagination moves unembarrassed in a realm of its
own. The necessity to supplement the resources
of memory by references to models is of the
smallest. The confidence which belongs to such
an art is part of the spirit in it that carries us
away. It need not even be true to detail—we
shall not find it out, its plausibility is enough for
our imagination. It is a Japanese conception of
painting—in so far as the Japanese in this were
like all other masters, but, as in the case of
the Japanese, effortless as this art may seem, it
is the product of a long and cautious storing of
the memory; laborious has been the filling of the
reservoirs of fancy from which such an abundance

flows easily. Probably a subject is never more
truthfully drawn than when it has passed through
the process of memory—instead of being drawn
directly from nature. The essential elements of
any scene are to be known by the fact that they
remain impressed upon the memory—and thus
the personal element colours art of this kind,
according to whose memory it is. And as is
notably the case with Mr. Bauer, in this kind of
art a strong taste for a certain aspect of life will
control the selection of the things represented per-
haps before the perception of the beauty of the
things themselves. T. M. W.

[We are indebted to Messrs. P. and D. Colnaghi
and Obach, London, and to Messrs. E. J. van
Wisselingh and Co., of Amsterdam, for giving
facilities for the reproduction of Mr. Bauer's
pictures.—The Editor.]

ISIDORE KONTI : A HUNGARIAN
SCULPTOR IN AMERICA.
Many European artists, including not a few
Hungarians, have elected to make America their
field of labour, for here the really capable foreigner
quickly finds recognition. Ampng those who have
sought a home in the new country, which to them
offers so much freedom, is Isidore Konti, who
crossed the Atlantic in 1891. He chose Chicago as
his first resting-place, and with occasional visits

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