ART.
AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE IN LONDON. LAST week Lady Astor opened a notable exhibition of American architecture at the Galleries of the Royal Institute of British Architects in Conduit Street. It will remain open, admission free, until December 9th. No one who is interested in America or in architecture can afford to miss this happy chance of learning a great many interesting things about both. Some admirable early work of the Colonial period is shown, old country places in Virginia and Massachusetts; whilst photographs from the Western States show clearly how strongly and how happily the Spanish influence has persisted. It is understood that the R.I.B.A. has been invited to send a similar exhibition to America. We have little that we can teach that country in the way of monumental building, but the very fact that we do not, amid. tecturally speaking, " think heroically," seems to fit us to lead in the more intimate subtleties of domestic design. We and the Americans can certainly help and supplement each other to a peculiar degree in the plastic arts if we both have a mind to. If we are awed by the colossal dignity of such great monuments as the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, or the Temple of the Scottish Rite at Washington—and who is not ?--wc in return may expect reverence for certain modest gems of our own. The American architectural team, containing such champions as McKim, Mead and White, Cass Gilbert and John Pope, has a marvellous record of fine performances to its credit and an immense prestige. One cannot help wondering whether any British team, captained, say, by Sir Edwin Lutyens, could even give them a game. If the suggested English exhibition does actually go to America, no doubt our good cousins, who are admirably frank, will tell us precisely what they think. C. Wit.u.ors-Eurs.
Previous page
