DOI Heft:
No. 284 (November 1916)
DOI Artikel:The lay figure: on discretion in design
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24575#0114
The Lay Figure
THE LAY FIGURE: ON DIS-
CRETION IN DESIGN.
"Why are all you art people talking so
much about commercial questions just now ?"
asked the Business Man. " Is it not rather a new
line for you to take up, and are such matters any
concern of yours ? "
" Those three queries are easily answered,"
returned the Man with the Red Tie. " We are
discussing commercial questions because they are
intimately our concern, and because they have
always been our concern ; and we are discussing
them now, particularly, because the views of the
art workers need to be made especially prominent
when all the trade conditions in this country are
undergoing a process of revision."
" But the artist is neither a manufacturer nor a
trader," protested the Business Man ; " and the
things that happen in the commercial world have
nothing to do with him."
"Have they not?" broke in the Art Critic.
" Think again. Surely the artist is affected by
everything which changes the commercial condi-
tions in the country in which he lives. Has
he no part in the discussions of the business
man ? "
" Oh, he can talk if he likes," laughed the
Business Man; "but when there are so many
practical, serious problems to be settled his funny
little fancies seem rather waste of time."
" Don't you recognise that his funny little fancies
will help to settle many of the practical, serious
problems ? " demanded the Man with the Red Tie.
" Don't you see that he is himself a practical
working man with a right to be heard ? "
" No, I do not," replied the Business Man.
" The artist supplies only the embroideries of
existence, in the real facts of life he has no part.
The commercial world does not want him."
"There you give tongue to a dangerous delusion,"
cried the Critic. "If it is true that the art worker
supplies only the embroideries of existence it is
because you have excluded him from his right
share in the real facts; and to this exclusion is
due the failure of our commerce to hold its own
against foreign competition."
" That I cannot admit," declared the Business
Man. " If a thing is useful people will buy it to
use. They will not buy it more readily because
it has been ornamented by an artist and has
become less useful and more expensive."
"That is the common argument of the men who
know nothing about art," sneered the Man with
to6
the Red Tie. " To them art is always a super-
fluity and an extra expense ! "
"Yes, and if it has become a superfluity it is
because the commercial men have made it so,"
agreed the Critic. " The manufacturer makes a
thing which he thinks will be useful, and then
hands it over to the artist to decorate—an extra
expense. The artist contends, and rightly, that he
ought to handle that article from the very beginning,
so that its ornamental quality might be not something
extraneous but actually part of its usefulness."
" But how can that be ?" asked the Business
Man. " Ornament can only be an embellishment
of something already produced; it cannot be one
of the initial processes of manufacture."
" Oh, can it not ? " returned the Critic. " Con-
sideration for form and respect for material are as
essential for the usefulness of an article as they
are for its artistic quality, and the thing which is
designed well from the beginning will not need
any overlaying with ornament to make it a work
of art. What you call embellishment is wholly
undesirable if the original design of the object is
artistically sound."
"You cannot make a commonplace object in-
tended for everyday use artistic without increasing
the cost of it," declared the Business Man.
"Surely everything has to be designed more
or less," argued the Critic; "and a good design
does not cost appreciably more than a bad one.
The artist who uses discretion in his design keeps
always in view the purpose to which the article is
to be applied and makes fitness his first considera-
tion. Indeed, I believe that what he designed
would be less costly to produce because he would
perceive instinctively how the material at his
disposal could be best applied."
"Ah! There I am with you," exclaimed the
Business Man. " I have no objection to art if it
does not add to my working expenses."
" Well, I believe that if you encourage the
designer to exercise what I call discretion in his
designing you will find that commercially you have
made a wise move," said the Critic. "There is no
reason whatever why the everyday things which we
must have and must use should not be artistically
satisfying, and that without any conscious em-
bellishment. If they were, they would be just as
useful, and they would be more marketable because
they would be pleasing to the eye. Take the
artist into your confidence and seek his services in
your business. It will pay you well."
"It might be worth trying," admitted the
Business Man. The Lay Figure.
THE LAY FIGURE: ON DIS-
CRETION IN DESIGN.
"Why are all you art people talking so
much about commercial questions just now ?"
asked the Business Man. " Is it not rather a new
line for you to take up, and are such matters any
concern of yours ? "
" Those three queries are easily answered,"
returned the Man with the Red Tie. " We are
discussing commercial questions because they are
intimately our concern, and because they have
always been our concern ; and we are discussing
them now, particularly, because the views of the
art workers need to be made especially prominent
when all the trade conditions in this country are
undergoing a process of revision."
" But the artist is neither a manufacturer nor a
trader," protested the Business Man ; " and the
things that happen in the commercial world have
nothing to do with him."
"Have they not?" broke in the Art Critic.
" Think again. Surely the artist is affected by
everything which changes the commercial condi-
tions in the country in which he lives. Has
he no part in the discussions of the business
man ? "
" Oh, he can talk if he likes," laughed the
Business Man; "but when there are so many
practical, serious problems to be settled his funny
little fancies seem rather waste of time."
" Don't you recognise that his funny little fancies
will help to settle many of the practical, serious
problems ? " demanded the Man with the Red Tie.
" Don't you see that he is himself a practical
working man with a right to be heard ? "
" No, I do not," replied the Business Man.
" The artist supplies only the embroideries of
existence, in the real facts of life he has no part.
The commercial world does not want him."
"There you give tongue to a dangerous delusion,"
cried the Critic. "If it is true that the art worker
supplies only the embroideries of existence it is
because you have excluded him from his right
share in the real facts; and to this exclusion is
due the failure of our commerce to hold its own
against foreign competition."
" That I cannot admit," declared the Business
Man. " If a thing is useful people will buy it to
use. They will not buy it more readily because
it has been ornamented by an artist and has
become less useful and more expensive."
"That is the common argument of the men who
know nothing about art," sneered the Man with
to6
the Red Tie. " To them art is always a super-
fluity and an extra expense ! "
"Yes, and if it has become a superfluity it is
because the commercial men have made it so,"
agreed the Critic. " The manufacturer makes a
thing which he thinks will be useful, and then
hands it over to the artist to decorate—an extra
expense. The artist contends, and rightly, that he
ought to handle that article from the very beginning,
so that its ornamental quality might be not something
extraneous but actually part of its usefulness."
" But how can that be ?" asked the Business
Man. " Ornament can only be an embellishment
of something already produced; it cannot be one
of the initial processes of manufacture."
" Oh, can it not ? " returned the Critic. " Con-
sideration for form and respect for material are as
essential for the usefulness of an article as they
are for its artistic quality, and the thing which is
designed well from the beginning will not need
any overlaying with ornament to make it a work
of art. What you call embellishment is wholly
undesirable if the original design of the object is
artistically sound."
"You cannot make a commonplace object in-
tended for everyday use artistic without increasing
the cost of it," declared the Business Man.
"Surely everything has to be designed more
or less," argued the Critic; "and a good design
does not cost appreciably more than a bad one.
The artist who uses discretion in his design keeps
always in view the purpose to which the article is
to be applied and makes fitness his first considera-
tion. Indeed, I believe that what he designed
would be less costly to produce because he would
perceive instinctively how the material at his
disposal could be best applied."
"Ah! There I am with you," exclaimed the
Business Man. " I have no objection to art if it
does not add to my working expenses."
" Well, I believe that if you encourage the
designer to exercise what I call discretion in his
designing you will find that commercially you have
made a wise move," said the Critic. "There is no
reason whatever why the everyday things which we
must have and must use should not be artistically
satisfying, and that without any conscious em-
bellishment. If they were, they would be just as
useful, and they would be more marketable because
they would be pleasing to the eye. Take the
artist into your confidence and seek his services in
your business. It will pay you well."
"It might be worth trying," admitted the
Business Man. The Lay Figure.