Studio: international art (86.1923)

MR. MAXWELL ARMFIELD’S
AMERICAN PICTURES a 0

THESE pictures exemplify the theory
of the mechanical or economic factor
in the shaping of all art. Constructed with
no thought of beauty, the average com-
mercial building in the United States
achieves a beauty which is far beyond
most of the conscious imitations of classic
building too often seen in European work
and in the more self-conscious American
edifices such as capitols, libraries and
university buildings. a 0 0

Take such a group of buildings as we
see in The Ice Plant. This is a practically
unaltered rendering of an ammonia factory

(I think) and the neighbouring plant for
the manufacture of ice. This is the black
Chinese-looking erection on its massive
looking base. These shapes arisefrom the use
of the material most suitable in such a way
as to produce the maximum of result with
the minimum of material. Such economic
law is at the base of all natural construction,
such as the formation of seed vessels and
leaf-distribution in plants, and was de-
veloped with the Egyptian and Greek
artists into a modus of proportion which
still baffles those ignorant of Prof. J.
Hambidge's rediscovery of it. 0 0

The Coal Elevator, New York, again was
noticed when recently re-painted: the
upper tracery and iron work a vivid

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250

u GRAIN ELEVATORS, KANSAS ”
BY MAXWELL ARMFIELD

(Dorien Leigh Galleries)