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The Art of the Exposition

E >> Eugen Neuhaus >> The Art of the Exposition




Guérin certainly knows color, and I take it for granted that a man of
his training and experience knows how to use paint. His exposition
buildings look for all the world like a live Guérin print taken from the
Century Magazine and put down alongside of the bay which seems to have
responded, as have the other natural assets, for a blending of the
entire creation into one harmonious unit. I fancy such a thing was
possible only in California, where natural conditions invite such a
technical and artistic innovation.

The general effect is one of great warmth. The basic tone of the
travertine furnishes a very rich foundation for the other colors added.
The whole range of color is very simple and it is simplicity and
repetition over large areas that make the colors so effective. There are
three different greens, for instance - the patina green on many minor
domes, suggesting aged copper surfaces; a very strong primary green, on
the small doors of the palaces and most of the lattice work; and another
very pale, pinkish green, a sort of an abalone shell green, used on all
the flagpole bases, always topped off with a light pinkish red, used
above the light green base on all the flagpoles.

Then there are the reds, a number of different reds, running from a
pinkish brick color to a darker russet red, to be found exclusively in
all vertical panels serving as background for detailed statuary - for
instance, in all the courts. Next to the red there is a brilliant
orange, used in relatively small quantities here and there in the
mouldings, as around the Brangwyn paintings in the Court of Abundance.

This leaves yet to be named the few soothing blues that abound in the
ceilings, in the deep recesses of the walls, and the coffered arches,
serving as backgrounds for the many richly-modeled terra cotta rosettes.

This is practically the entire range of colors, but they assume, of
course, endless variations of tone and intensity, owing to the
difference of the surfaces and the play of light and shadow. The
relation of the whole color scheme to the colors furnished by nature is
by no means accidental. The effect of the ensemble, on a calm, sunny
day, is hard to describe in its gorgeous beauty.

The pressing into service of nature as applied to color was particularly
inviting, of course, on the bay side, where simple sweeps of skies,
foothills, and plain bodies of water furnish almost ideal conditions.
This is true in a similar way for the background in the west, but toward
the south - well, we had better forget such mournful outward aspects of
our great city of San Francisco, known around the world for its gay
temperament.

Appreciating the importance of detail, Guérin extended his color
treatment to practically everything presenting surface. Nothing could
escape his vigilant eyes. Even the sand covering of the asphalted roads
is of a peculiarly attractive blend. It seems like a mixture of ordinary
sand with a touch of cinnamon. Even that corps of stalwart guards had to
submit to a tonal harmony of drabs, with touches of yellow metal, warm
red puttees, and neat little yellow Spanish canes. They all seem very
proud and appreciative of their part in the concert of colors. And they
speak of it with feeling and reverence. Not long ago, during a rather
stormy, wet day, I happened to notice several of these cicerones hiding
in a doorway of one of the palaces, looking most disconsolate. The
reason for it became immediately apparent; the un-Californian weather
had forced them to put on civilian overcoats of indescribable hues, and
the shame of being out of color was plainly written in their faces. It
shows that art is largely a matter of education.

I fancy that all that a respectful and appreciative public could do, in
order to live up to the occasion, would be to have Exposition suits
built of pongee silk, or some other harmonious material. So far, on all
of my visits, I observed a shocking preponderance of black, which I hope
will eventually yield to the softer colors of lighter materials, with
the arrival of warmer weather.

The careful observer will find that the crimson vermilion red of the
fire alarm boxes had to yield to a more refined vivid orange, much, I
understand, to the consternation of the Exposition fire marshal, who
must have been shocked at this intrusion.

The horticultural effect of the grounds, flower beds, and shrubbery will
always adapt itself properly to the color scheme, and a preponderance of
warm yellows, reds, and orange will simultaneously fill out the garden
areas. At first yellow pansies and daffodils had control, to be replaced
in due season by the uniform appearance of tulips, hyacinths, and
successions of other flowers. This progressive appearance of new flower
carpets will provide ever-changing elements of interest throughout the
entire period of the Exposition.

It seems only right at this time to speak of the great and modestly
contributed services of John McLaren. He, with his wide experience and
unceasing energy, created the garden setting which ties all the
buildings into a natural harmony. Hardly ever have trees, shrubs, and
flowers been used in such profusion in an Exposition. Conventional in
aspect, all great expositions in the past have been lacking in the
invigorating elements, no matter how naturalistic the site may have
been. The few scraggly pines of St. Louis looked more like undesirable
left-overs of a former forest than like a supporting feature of the
Exposition picture.

The stony look of many former expostions is not evident at San
Francisco. Considering the fact that the exposition is largely on made
ground, it is amazing what has been accomplished. With the exception of
the few scattering remains of an old amusement park - the Harbor View
Gardens - so charmingly utilized in the courtyard of the California
building, practically all the trees and shrubs had to be brought in from
the outside. How well Mr. McLaren succeeded in moving whole gardens "en
bloc" to the Exposition is shown by the fact that with the exception of
a few Monterey cypresses on one of the lagoon islands, not a single tree
has died. It was no small task to transplant eucalypti forty feet high,
and aged yew trees, and the tradition that it is impossible to
transplant old trees has again been demonstrated as in the same class
with other old sayings based on the experience of the past, but applying
no longer to our own conditions.

The stately rows of palms on the south avenue contain some specimens of
the Canary Island palms which must be nearly forty years old, and some
of the yews in the colonnade between the Court of the Four Seasons and
the Marina, near Miss Longman's Fountain of Ceres, are probably even
older. The massing of large groups of black acacia, Monterey pines, and
cypresses, filled in at the edge with veronica and many other flowering
shrubs, gives many interesting notes, and serves frequently as
backgrounds for statuary.

Like everything else, from the architecture down, the garden aspect of
the Exposition is not frugal nor skimpy, whatever floral effects are
used. Like shrubbery, trees occur in great profusion, and without regard
for difficulties in transplanting.

The Court of the Universe did not receive the generous treatment from
Mr. McLaren that it almost cries for. The few isolated Italian cypresses
in the Court, near the tower, no doubt help a good deal, but one is
tempted to ask why there are not more of them. Italian cypresses are
hard to transplant, particularly if their feet have become accustomed to
the peaceful conditions of Santa Clara Valley cemeteries, where most of
them, I understand, enjoyed an undisturbed existence until they were
used so very effectively in the Exposition. These successfully moved old
trees are by far the most useful trees in architectural schemes, as
anybody who knows the Villa Borghese in Rome must admit.

I would like to see a law passed that every person at a certain age must
plant six Italian cypresses. I humbly suggest this to our legislators,
who seem to be suffering from a lack of measures to be introduced and
passed for the benefit of the people.

The Italian cypress is our most picturesque tree, and for combination
with architecture, is unrivaled by any other tree. They grow rather
slowly, but do not take much space, on account of their vertical habit.
The making of the Court of Palms is due largely to the liberal use of
these elegant trees, with their somber stateliness.

The lover of outdoors will find no end to his pleasurable investigations
in the many fine, luxurious groupings of flowering shrubs. Heather,
which does so well with us, and blooms when only few flowers brighten
our gardens, has been profusely used in solid beds at the base of the
Kelham towers, around Festival Hall, and in many other places. The
dainty, glistening foliage, interspersed with red berries of another
acclimated alien from the Himalaya Mountains - the Cotoneaster - makes
fine borders around the pool in the Court of the Four Seasons, in the
Court of Palms, and in several of the colonnades.

Evergreen plants and shrubs are the dominant features of the two Italian
Avenues connecting the big court with the side courts. The rich and
luxuriant carpets of the many varieties of box, thuya, taxus, and dwarf
pine, in dark, somber greens and many lighter color variations, are
superb.

In the Court of Abundance great masses of orange trees furnish the
dominant note. They are most effective with their branches heavily laden
with fruit. They are not only a surprise to the outsider, but even to
the Californian, who wonders at the skill and experience which made this
feat possible.



Mural Decorations



In connection with the color, scheme, the mural decorations invite
attention at many places. The outdoor character of the Exposition has
given unusual locations to some of these decorations. There are in all
some thirty. Mr. Guérin, as the director of color, had full charge of
their production, and all of them were painted by men he trusted
personally as regards their ability to execute and to finish on time.
That his choice fell largely on Eastern men was only too natural.

Few people have a proper idea of the magnitude of the work involved in
painting a huge decoration, and Mr. Guérin can hardly be blamed for
his choice of the men of experience who finally did the work, although
not all of them justified the confidence placed in them. The work of
painting such huge decorations is necessarily a big undertaking,
involving many preliminary studies and much physical and mechanical
labor in the end. Many painter-decorators employ large numbers of
trained men, apprentices and independent artists, to assist in the
execution of their commissions, and very frequently the temptation of
yielding the pleasure of execution to other hands is the cause of the
lowering of standards.

Probably, none of the canvases by Mr. Robert Reid, in the dome of the
Fine Arts Palace, can be said to do justice to the remarkable decorative
talent of Mr. Reid. He is so well and prominently known as a painter of
many successful decorations, in the East, that it is to be regretted
that he was not in a happier mood when he came to the task of painting
his eight panels of irregular shape for the Exposition.

The very scattered style of painting so effective in many of his easel
paintings, which show all the fine qualities of a modern impressionistic
school, is not of great help in pictures intended to be viewed from a
great distance. His decorations present very little opportunity for the
eye to rest upon them, and they are altogether too involved, in their
turbulent compositions. Their color is not unattractive, no matter how
cold, and of sufficient interest to atone for the lack of dignified
design. The subjects of all of these are by no means unattractive, and a
description of them reads far better than the pictures look.

The birth of European art is symbolized in the first panel. There are
five dominant figures, grouped about an altar on which burns the sacred
fire. An earthly messenger leans from his chariot to receive in his
right hand from the guardian of the flame the torch of inspiration,
while with his left hand he holds back his rearing steeds. In front of
these a winged attendant checks for an instant their flight. The central
figure, the guardian of the altar, still holds the torch, and below her
are three satellites, one clasping a cruse of oil, another pouring oil
upon the altar, while she holds in her hand a flaming brand, ready to
renew the flame should it falter, a third zealously watching the fire as
it burns. Opposite these a figure holds a crystal gazing-globe, in which
the future has been revealed to her, but her head is turned to watch the
flight of the earthly messenger.

The birth of Oriental art is symbolized in the second panel. The forces
of the earth, wresting inspiration from the powers of the air, are
pictured by a contest between a joyous figure in ancient Chinese armor,
mounted upon a golden dragon, combating an eagle. A female figure under
a huge umbrella represents Japan, while on either side are two other
Oriental figures, in gorgeous attire, symbolic of the long periods of
Oriental art.

The third panel represents the Ideals in Art. There are seven figures,
the Greek ideal of beauty dominating all in a classic nude. Below this
Religion is portrayed, in a Madonna and Child. Heroism is shown in
Jeanne d'Arc, mounted on a war-horse and flinging abroad her victorious
pennant. A young girl represents youth and material beauty, while at her
side a flaunting peacock stands for absolute nature, without ideal or
inspiration. A mystic figure in the background holds the cruse of oil.
Over all of them floats a winged figure holding a laurel wreath for the
victorious living, while a shadowy figure in the foreground holds a palm
for the dead.

The fourth panel represents the inspirations of all Art, five figures
symbolizing Music, Painting, Architecture, Poetry, and Sculpture. Flying
above these are two winged figures, one holding a torch flaming with the
sacred oil that has been brought from the altar, the other drawing back
the veil of darkness, revealing the tangible, visible expression of Art
to mortal eyes.

The four single panels symbolize the four golds of California; the
poppies, the citrus fruits, the metallic gold, and the golden wheat. The
idea of the four golds is particularly novel and will some day yield far
more interesting results, and I hope the subject will not be allowed to
lie idle. It is a very fine idea, too good not to be used permanently in
some dignified building in California.

The Court of the Four Seasons offers a decorative scheme of eight panels
above the doorways in the colonnades and two large panels in the
orchestral niche on the south. All of these ten paintings were done by
Milton Bancroft, one of the younger of the Eastern decorator-painters,
who took his task seriously enough, without rising in any of his
decorations above the conventional, with the exception of the "Autumn"
and the two larger panels in the half dome.

All of the seven decorations belonging to the set of eight smaller ones
are rather academic in their monotony of symmetrical compositions, not
sufficiently relieved by variety of detail. These decorations have to
excess what Reid's decorations are lacking in, namely, repose. Their
coloring is quiet and in thorough harmony with the architecture.

Bancroft's two more importantly placed decorations are, fortunately, his
best efforts. "Art Crowned by Time" and "Man Receiving Instruction in
the Laws of Nature" are very effective in their stateliness and
thoroughly decorative quality. They show the artist's allegiance to the
great decorations of the Renaissance in many quaint ways of filling out
the background spaces by puttos holding tablets, simple bits of
architecture, and conventionalized trees. His figure of "Art" is unique
among his figures in the decorative pattern used on the mantle which
falls gracefully from her shoulders. All the other Bancroft decorations
are devoid of this use of surface patterns, which are so helpful and
interesting in decorative arrangement.

It is only a few steps from the Court of the Four Seasons into the Court
of Palms. In entering through the orchestral niche one passes directly
underneath the lunette which holds the very decorative canvas by Arthur
Mathews, the acknowledged leader in the art of California. It must be
said that it does not seem right, in the light of what has been
contributed by men from elsewhere, that Mathews' superb talent should
have been employed only in one panel. His "Victorious Spirit," a rich
and noble composition, has certain enduring qualities which are not to
be found in a single one of any of the others. Simply taken as a
decoration, his picture is most effective by its richness of color, and
without going into the question of its meaning, it is thoroughly
satisfactory as a decoration.

Childe Hassam's lunette, said to represent "Fruit and Flowers," is
almost anaemic alongside Mathews' fullness of expression. Nobody ever
suspected Childe Hassam of being a decorator, no matter how admittedly
important a place he holds in the field of easel painting. The
composition of his decorations is frugal in every sense, largely owing
to the small scale of his figures. In the physical center of the
composition nothing of interest happens, and the composition breaks
almost in two. The coloring is insipid, and altogether not in keeping,
in its extreme coldness, with the happy warmth of the travertine
surrounding it.

Directly opposite, Charles Holloway presents himself in a very happy
painting called "The Pursuit of Pleasure." A study of this picture can
result in nothing but complete satisfaction. It is well and
interestingly composed, lively in arrangement, in good scale, and not
lacking in a certain feeling of repose, so essential in a good
decoration, and, for that matter, in any work of art.

In the great arch of the Tower of Jewels the most elaborate decorations
of Mr. William de Leftwich Dodge, of New York, command attention first
of all by their fine and lively colors. These decorations show a most
experienced artist, treating a wide variety of interrelated subjects
with great skill. These enormous canvases, sixteen by ninety-six feet in
size, are divided into a triptych, each picture continuing its central
scheme into two smaller side panels.

The great composition to the left is labeled "The Atlantic and the
Pacific," with a picture of "The Purchase" on the right and "The
Discovery" on the left. Opposite we have the "Gateway of all Nations,"
with "Labor Crowned" and "The Achievement" on either side.

Mr. Dodge has a very fine sense of decoration, which he used with much
skill. His command of human forms, together with the complete mastery of
all other detail, enables him to paint very easily decorations which
leave no doubt as to his long and varied experience in this field.

"The Atlantic and the Pacific" is very interesting in its formal
symmetry, splendidly relieved by the individual treatment of the eastern
and western nations which receive with expressions of joy the completion
of the great waterway which means so much for the furthering of their
mutual interests.

"The Gateway of all Nations" on the opposite side is less symmetrical,
but very well balanced in its arrangement of many elements, naturalistic
as well as allegorical. On the left, in the middle picture, one sees the
retiring forces of labor, proudly watching the great procession of
varied ships, moving in a joyous parade, led by Father Neptune and
attendants, towards the recently opened gate. Preceding Father Neptune
are allegorical figures, rhythmically swinging away into the sky. All of
Dodge's decorations are good for their sound decorative treatment,
always sustaining well the architectural surrounding frame, so
particularly important in this great and massive tower. Dodge's
backgrounds are devoid of any naturalistic suggestion, which so often
destroys otherwise effective decorations.

The function of a decoration must always be to preserve the feeling of
the wall, as opposed to the work of the easel painter, who wants to
assist in forgetting that there is a canvas and to suggest that we are
looking into the far distance. A good decoration should, as it were,
allow the driving of a nail into any part of its surface - it should not
make a hole in the wall.

In the two triumphal arches of the Nations of the East and the West,
Frank Vincent Du Mond and Edward Simmons, respectively, contributed to
the scheme of decorations. In the western arch, DuMond painted a
continuous frieze of the march of civilization towards the great West.
His work is most conscientiously done, very intellectual, and most
effective in color, as well as in arrangement. You see in his continued
scheme the entire story of western development.

It begins with the youth departing from his old father, who only
reluctantly - feeling the infirmities of old age - stays behind.
Preceding the young man, the historical prairie-schooner, accompanied by
pioneers, continues the procession. This is developed further in
historical groups of soldiers, priests, and men representing the
intellectual rise of the great West. There is William Keith, with the
palette, Bishop Taylor, Bret Harte, Captain Anza, and other well known
western figures, taking their place in the procession of tent wagons and
allegorical figures, all striving towards that very fine group
representing California in all the gorgeousness and splendor of the
Golden State. This composition of "California," taken by itself, is one
of the very best passages in the whole decoration, and could very
effectively be used all by itself.

On the east, Edward Simmons presents two very charming compositions,
full of great refinement and delicacy. The refined coloring of his
decorations, so very delightful by themselves, is not in accord with the
architecture, and in the overawing surroundings of the great arch they
do not look as well as they might in a more intimate scheme of smaller
scale. The one to the left, as seen from the Court of the Universe,
tells of the dreams which led to the exploring and exploiting of the
great West. Carefully designed figures of great refinement. represent
"Hope" and "Illusory Hope," scattering tempting bubbles, heading the
procession of stately women. They are followed by "Adventure," "Art,"
"Imagination," "Truth," and "Religion" and a group suggesting family
life.

On the opposite side the westward trend of War, Commerce, Conquest,
Imagination, and Religion from all corners of the earth is typified.

Mr. Simmons in all his work employs a very unusual technique of broken
columns, without losing a certain desirable simplicity of surface. His
allegorical theme on the north side will linger in the minds of the
people as one of the best of the Exposition decorations, particularly
for its graceful drawing.

It seems hardly possible to do adequate justice to the very unusual
genius of Frank Brangwyn, who charms thousands of Exposition visitors
with his eight panels, representing the Four Elements, in the Court of
Abundance. Brangwyn's pictures have one great advantage over all of the
others, which lies in their accessible location, well controlled by
daylight. All the other decorations seem to me to be situated too high
above the ground. Brangwyn's have no such disadvantage to contend with.
How much more important, for instance, Mathews' lunette would look,
placed somewhere nearer the level of the eye.

Brangwyn's canvases are a veritable riot of color, full of animation and
life. They are almost dynamic. There seems to be something going on in
all of them, all the time, and one hardly knows whether it is the
composition, the color, or the subject, or all three, which gives them
this very pronounced feeling of animation. He knows how to approach the
extreme possibilities in pictorial decoration without losing sight of
certain elements of repose. Seen from a distance, their effect at first
is somewhat startling, owing to their new note, not reminiscent in the
very least of the work of any other living - or past - painter. On
closer examination they disclose a great wealth of form, very skillfully
treated. There is every indication that it gave the artist the utmost
pleasure to paint them. This spirit of personal enjoyment, which all of
them convey in a remarkably sustained fashion, is contagious, and
disarms all criticism. They are primarily great paintings in a technical
sense. Added to that quality is a passionate love of pure color,
juxtaposed with fine feeling for complementary colors of great
intensity.

Brangwyn's glass window technique, of separation into many primary and
secondary colors by many broad contrasts of neutral browns and grays, is
very effective in bringing a feeling of harmony in all of his paintings,
no matter how intense their individual color notes may be.

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