ART.
WAR MEMORIALS EXHIBITION.
THE Civic Arts Association are to be congratulated upon the excellent beginning they have made at their Exhibition, now open at the Galleries of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 9 Conduit Street, in encouraging beautiful and appropriate designs for war memorials. The first feeling of an ordinary member of the public who visits the Exhibition will probably be one of disappoint. ment, or rather of failure to find anything wholly satisfying to the plain man's eye or mind. Those, however, who feel such dissatisfac- tion must remember that what they aro looking at are things in the nature of summaries, epitomes, precis, or even shorthand notes of the poems in stone or metal that are to be. Designs, however elaborate, are but shadows or suggestions of the acts that are coming. For example, how can a green wash on a piece of rough paper give the eye that delight which comes from an actual piece of verd-antique ? In the same way, no man who has not a great deal of musical learning can go into a musical library and judge of the beauties of MS. operas merely from reading the scores. Only the few can hear in mind the swelling harmonies of the full orchestra. To the ordinary man, even if he could read the scores, they would offer him but " maimed rites." In the same way, a competition for playwrights in which only scenarios were to be sent in would appeal very little to the public, though presumably the actor-managers would be able to judge the intended dramas with certainty and celerity.
The object of an Exhibition like the present may be said to be threefold. In the first place, there is a desire to set up a high standard; secondly, to cultivate the taste of the general public; thirdly, and perhaps most essential of all, to bring to the front new men who otherwise might not get any opportunity of showing their powers. Wo want to hunt up and bring to light " the mute, inglorious " Inigo Joneses, Wrens, Grinling Gibbonses, and Flax- mans, if such there be. Judged by this last condition, and it is to us the most important, we think the Civic Arts 'Association are to be complimented on their first attempt. We do not say that the new men who have been discovered by the Exhibition are necessarily going to set the world aflame with their designs. They will want a good deal more than the power to make attractive drafts. But at any rate it is safe to say that the Exhibition has helped to bring to light men of real promise. We say "helped to bring to light" advisedly. We do not suggest for a moment that because members of the general public, like the present writer, or even of the class in which we should not venture to place ourselves—namely, the more cultivated portion of the ignorant— have not heard of them they are unknown to their professional brethren. Therefore if we speak of artists as unknown who have already won the first step to fame by gaining the appreciation of their fellow-artists, we must offer them in anticipation our sincerest apologies.
We cannot attempt to describe the works of particular designers in detail, but among the men of promise we may mention Mr. Thomas Rayson, who has what to us is always a sign, or rather a proof, of the divine flame—fecundity. His name figures in almost every class of design, and in all of them his achievement is striking, bold, vital, and endowed with a touch of originality. His work is to be seen, for example, gaining a book prize in Class V., "Design for a Small War Tablet in Wood." Again, we find him in Class III., " Design for Wall Tablet in Carved Wood." Mr. Rayson also appears in the Class "Design for a Wall Tablet in Marble." Finally, he is to be found in Class I., " Design for a Monument Suitable for Erection in the Centre of the Members' Courtyard of the New County Hall," the memorial being intended " to com- memorate those of the staff of the London County Council who have fallen in the War." (And here we may ask in parenthesis,
why not " servants " instead of " staff " 7 We talk about Civil Servants, we talk about public servants, we talk in official language of the Cabinet itself being composed of the King's servants, and it used to be a proud boast for men to call themselves servants of the East India Company—the correct and official name for the Proconsuls, Judges, and Diplomats who ruled India. Why should we be ashamed to call men " servants of the London County Council" Surely this is a piece of pure snobbery.) In this context we may mention the very beautiful design for the London County Council monument by Mr. Erie Gill, sculptor, and Mr. Charles Holden, architect, in which Christ is driving the merchants and money-changers out of the Temple. That seems far-fetched, but in reality it is not. The suggestion, which to our mind is very attractive, is no doubt that the call of patriotism for self-sacrifice banishes from men's minds the material- ism of the mart and the exchange. But even if the suggestion may be judged far-fetched, it by no means follows that the design would have to be condemned. We must remember that in all monuments the essential thing is that the design should be beautiful in itself. The artist, the poet, or the musician, when he wishes to make a memorial, desires to lay the very best he can accomplish on the altar of his country or upon the tomb of some dead hero.
A most useful and interesting class is No. VIII., " Inexpensive Memorials for the Home." The plan here is to encourage designs which can be so inexpensively executed that they will be within the reach of all purses, and will yet provide memorials which are not cheap and vulgar, and therefore in the end sure to be disgusting, but which are adequate in design, even if they cannot exhibit great perfection in their reproduction. A charming project of this kind is that by Miss Muriel Perrin, which gains a prize. It is No. 19 in the catalogue, and we very much hope that those who visit the Exhibition will not go away without looking at it. It is in medallion form, and represents symbolically the Retreat from Mons. The horse is very finely modelled. The artist has managed to give us a weary charger which does not look like a broken-down cab-horse. Another interesting design of a similar kind is the box for mementoes, No. 82 in the catalogue. It is a very simple and beautiful piece of intarsia work in wood. In the box could be kept`war mementoes either for the " Happy Warrior " when he returns, or of the man who has given his life on some field of France or Flanders. It may be urged against this box that the inlaid figure is not specially appropriate or significant, but here again the doctrine of beauty may come in: It is a well-proportioned and dignified design both as regards the general effect of the box and of the figure, and therefore in that sense it would be an appropriate link with noble and moving memories.
We must end as we began, by congratulating the Civic Arts Association on a very good start. Let us hope that they will now take their Exhibition into the country, and that they will soon
give us another Exhibition in London. Same.
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