Studio: international art (57.1913)

The Lay Figure

THE LAY FIGURE: ON THE
DISAPPEARANCE OF ART.

“ I have been told that art is dying,” said
the Art Critic, “ that it is on the verge of absolute
extinction and that within a generation or two it
will have ceased to exist. What do you think of
the prospect ? ”

“ I think predictions of that sort are preposterous,
and am surprised that any one should give utterance
to such ridiculous nonsense!” cried the Young
Painter. “Art was never so sound or so vigorous
as it is at the present time. It is in a condition of
splendid vitality, and it has endless possibilities of
development. How could it cease to exist ? ”

“Its vitality may be deceptive, the last flicker of a
dying flame,” laughed the Man with the Red Tie.
“ Really, I do not think it is in a healthy state just
now: it seems to me to have a tendency to suffer
from convulsions, and at times it is certainly
rather feverish. I am not altogether satisfied with
its condition.”

“ What you call feverishness is only exuberance
of vitality,” returned the Young Painter. “Artis
breaking out in so many new directions that it can-
not help appearing rather restless and unsettled.
But that is not to be regarded as a symptom of
ill-health, and certainly does not suggest an early
decease.”

“ But some people think this uneasiness is a sign
of decay,” said the Critic, “so there may be some-
thing after all in the gloomy anticipations of the
pessimists. One never knows ! ”

“ I don’t care a rap what the pessimists say,”
declared the Young Painter; “it amuses them to
imagine all sorts of horrors. But I do not believe
that art will disappear until the human race
vanishes off the face of the earth. The craving for
art is one of the strongest of human instincts, and
so long as there are human beings who have any
instincts at all there will be art in some form or
other.”

“ Ah, yes, in some form or other,” broke in
the Man with the Red Tie. You are admitting the
possibility that art as we know it now may die
out. No doubt there would be something else
to take its place, but would that be art as we
understand it?”

“Perhaps not,” replied the Young Painter.
“Not having the gift of prophecy, I do not profess
to be able to say what the art of two or three
centuries hence may be like ; but that there will be
art, and art that will satisfy the popular demand,

I feel perfectly convinced.”

180

“ Then what the pessimists assume to be signs
of decay are only warnings of a coming change,”
commented the Critic. “ I think you are right. I
am with you in the belief that art is one of the
fundamental human instincts, and that the desire
for artistic expression which was an attribute of the
human race in the remote past when men were
savages and lived in caves, will continue to be one
of its attributes in the far future.”

“ But the art of the future may be quite unlike
what we now accept and believe in. That is pos-
sible, is it not ? ” insisted the Man with the Red Tie.

“Of course it is possible,” agreed the Young
Painter. “ I should even be inclined to regard it
as probable. The human mind changes with the
lapse of time, and therefore it is only reasonable
to expect changes in the manner of expressing
mental impressions.”

“The analogy of the past is against you,”
suggested the Critic. “ The art of the Stone Age
differed not at all in intention from the art of
to-day, and it differed little enough in manner of
expression. The savage artist, living in a cave
hundreds of thousands of years ago, really saw and
interpreted nature in pretty much the same way as
his present-day descendants. He had more limited
materials, but such as they were he used them quite
in the modern fashion.”

“ Because a thing has not been, it does not follow
that it never will be,” objected the Man with the
Red Tie. “ As art has run for so many years along
particular lines there seems to me to be all the
greater probability that it will be shunted sooner or
later on to other lines. Why should not this
diversion be close at hand?”

“ For the simple reason that any real or definite
diversion is, I believe, impossible,” declared the
Critic. Whatever may be the period of art that
you examine, early or late, you will find that it has
the same underlying motive, the same fundamental
purpose. It is only the convention of expression
that varies, not the art itself. We may be just now
on the verge of a change of convention; we may
be going to hark back to one that has been out of
favour for centuries, we may even be going to adopt
a new one. There are fashions in art as there are
in everything else; new mannerisms are always
being invented, played with, and dropped for
something else ; there is no finality in any method
of aesthetic expression. But behind the new
mannerism there will be the same old art, just as it
has always been—that will never change or die.”
“No, of course not,” agreed the Young Painter.

The Lay Figure.