The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1916)

ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION
IN THE UNITED STATES. BY ALFRED
YOCKNEY
SINCE the last issue of The Studio Year BooK,thegreat Panama-
Pacific Exposition has been opened and closed, the Palace of
Fine Arts remaining intact till this year. From all parts of the
world visitors have assembled at San Francisco and seen there,
under the most impressive conditions, examples of American art of all
descriptions. Under different circumstances the display and attendance
would have been more international in character, but the collections
were sufficiently varied in this respect to enable comparisons to be
made. As regards the buildings themselves, the absence of the custom-
ary “gingerbread” effects was noted with pleasure, and the exterior
beauties of the exhibition did not fail to attract those who understand
the difficulties of combining utility and grace. Those responsible for
these structures deserved and received many tributes, while the success
of the arrangements was enhanced by the enterprise of the promoters in
securing the best architectural advice. Inside the different “palaces”
were arranged all kinds of objects, artistic and industrial, often in com-
bination : and it was noticeable that such an alliance found favour with
more certainty than ever. Among artists themselves this has long been
an ideal—“the great partnership of Art and Commerce” being the
theme of as many learned addresses and essays as was the case in Eng-
land during the upheaval caused by William Morris and his associates.
But mere repetition of such sentiments in artistic coteries does not ad-
vance matters far beyond the charmed circle of the workers themselves,
and the real signs of progress are to be found elsewhere. It is a fact that
hard-headed America is becoming convinced of the utility of art, and a
hearing seems to be given to all propositions for employing craftsmen
in work once considered to be hopelessly submerged in the depths of
commercial inepitude. Design, after all, is worth consideration in
things small as well as great, simple and elaborate, single and multi-
plied ; and nowhere are the growing possibilities of a union between
beauty and materialism to be realized better than at festivals such as
that which has taken place recently on the shores of the Pacific.
What will be the outcome of the Exposition at San Francisco beyond
the immediate one of international comparison and readjustment of
standards remains to be seen. Such events bear fruit in distant days,
sometimes a surprisingly long time afterwards. The truth of this was
brought home to the British public in 1913, when three-year scholar-
ships in architecture, sculpture, and decorative painting, each worth
£200 per annum, were instituted out of surplus funds from the 1851
Exhibition in London, the successful competitors proceeding to Rome ;
and it is significant that the American Academy in Rome owes its origin
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