Studio: international art (90.1925)

BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM. — Among the changes
which, in recent years, have taken
place in the methods of art teaching,
perhaps one of the most healthy is due to
the realisation of the fact that it is im-
possible to separate the designer from the
executant. Those of us who remember
the work once upon a time submitted in
the National Competition will recall the
multitude of designs drawn on paper for
every conceivable kind of craft-work by
students having no experience whatever
of the practical requirements of the material
in which these works were intended to be
carried out. 0000a
The gradual introduction into schools
of art of all kinds of handicraft has cleared
the way for the recognition of the vital
fact that each different material possesses
its own inherent and peculiar qualities and
limitations, respect for which, so far from
being a hindrance, is, in reality, an oppor-
tunity. We have now the designer cutting
his own wood block, the embroideress
extemporising her own fancies on the linen,
and the sculptor carving his statue from
the rough block of stone. a 0 0
In the department of sculpture, the old
method of modelling in clay (which is a
process of building up and super-imposing

"SLEEPING LAMB." DIRECT
CARVING BY FRANK BULLOWS

(Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts)

form) has largely given place to the practice
of carving with the chisel, which is true
sculpture, a course of training by which
the student is brought face to face from the
beginning with the properties and limita-
tions of stone ; the clay being used only
for study of form or suggestive sketches.
Indeed many teachers hold that clay should
only be used for the preparation of the
mould for metal-casting, or for finished
works to be fired. 0000
At the Birmingham School of Arts and
Crafts, the students have, for some time
past, been set to carve the actual stone, or,
for purposes of study, solid slabs or blocks
of plaster, the working of which is very
similar, but, of course, easier to manipulate
than the harder and more intractable
material. These remarks will serve to
introduce the illustrations which we give
of works executed in the school, which are
remarkable not only for their beauty of
design and vigour of execution, but also
for the fact that they are the outcome of
the method of study referred to. Our space
will not allow of more than a small
selection from a large number of excellent
works, which include inscriptions and
panels of lettering, a very important branch
of the stone-cutter's craft. 000

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