No_1_February_and_March__1939 — Page 21

Hong Kong Builder

27

CARVING

HENRY MOORE

DESIGN

L. MOHOLY NAGY

Three diverse creations by artists of the advanced school. Although the discussions or conversations of these three artists would follow on similar and almost identical lines, their works show a diversity manifested in one, by the use of new materials and an almost mobile arrangement; in the other, by an abstraction with free form almost Gothic in its intensity; and in the third, by an almost classical pre-occupation with formal shapes

The bogus element in art is not easy to eradicate in any new form; and the question becomes, therefore, one of sensitivity not printable.

We arrive, in short, at the end of the eighteenth century and there still exists a strong unity between the Arts. The Royal Academy, founded by the architect Chambers, is happy to let sculpture and painting adorn the entire building. The street is the exhibition ground

of the art of architecture.

The essential difference between 1250 and 1750 is one of individuality. The thirteenth century must needs knit a story into its building. The people were unable to read and Christ had to be made popular. The eighteenth century must needs decorate its buildings, but there is no story to tell. The people could, and did, read, and Christ was not very popular.

To the student of modern history the end of the eighteenth century marks the beginning of the chaotic scene of the revivals, culminating in that pre-war jumble

RELIEF

BEN NICHOLSON

which made the St. Pancras Station Gothic Hotel possible and contemporary with Classic St.George's Hall, Liverpool. There existed that dreadful division the Classic and the Gothic, called Romantic.

In sculpture, the Classic element included Canova, Westmacott, Chantrey, Wyatt, Watts, Foley, Woolner, The Romantics were led by Capeaux, Brock, and so on. and included Lanteri, Thornycroft, Ford, Toft, Drury, Frampton, Derwent Wood, etc.

In architecture, the Classic school included Barry, Smirke, Thomson, Shaw, Belcher, and Webb. The Romantics had Street, Scott, Waterhouse, Webb, Bentley, and Stokes.

In painting the Classic element included Landseer; the Romantics, Swan.

This subdivision of the Arts was the direct result of individual effort which indulged in the easel picture and studio modelling to the exclusion of a tradition which had regarded such individualism as minor.

(From "Building")