Contemporary German
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S D BY G S T I LK E E R LI N PU B LI H E GE O R , B . V A LL R I GHTS R E S ER E D. S D D 1 08 V I G O F C Y G PU B LI H E , E CE M B E R 9 , P R I LE E O P R I HT I N D S A S S V D TH E ACT V D MA C 1 0 UN ITE T TE RE ER E UN DER APPRO E R H 3, 9 5 B Y G G S T I LK E NW . E O R , B ER LI N 7 BY TH E K . CO M PO S ITI O N PR I NTI N G RE I CH S DRUC ERE I, B ERLI N TO N E S B Y G EO R G CO M P . B ER LI N . B E R LI N . Y A - TRANSLATION B M BE RLY OPPLER CHARLOTTENBURG . CO N TEM PO RARY GERM AN ART of . by PAU L CLEMEN , Professor at the University Bonn t can be asserted confidently and without exaggeration that the living Art of the Ger many of to - day is practically unknown to the da A r n form e r tim e s present y me ica . In young Americans went over to Germany fo r the purpose of completing their art education , to the older ones Dusseldorf, the younger ones to Munich . the This generation has almost died out and , among leading o f - who e American artists to day, William M . Chase , studi d at h e e . Munic , is perhaps its sole repr s ntative Further, up to a quarter of a century ago , many German pictures found their e way to America annually . Pl nty of opportunity existed in the country itself to become acquainted with German Art . It now the seems , however, that Knaus and Vautier period was the last o ne regularly represented in American galleries e who and coll ctions , and that the works of painters came after that school are only to be found in out of the way pla ces and that with some exceptions , as for instance Gabriel e for Max, proper representation has been lacking entir ly the last twenty years . h . Naturally, the official ex ibitions at Chicago and St Louis or of comprised , more less , representations official art, and the voices heard in those World fairs were too many and t o o loud for the quiet and pure voice of Art to be heard . It i is only in a few dist nguished private homes , principally in several excellent modern private collections in NewYork and 5 - . Chicago . that German Art of to day finds due recognition a America, and Americ n Art , have been learning from the French fo r the last generation and have passed through the French School . The path opened up by the three pioneers n William Morris Hunt , George I ness , and John La Farge was a o followed then by hundreds . Thirty years g it was the mis sion of France more than any other country to become the “ ” school of what is called good painting . America assimilat o f f ed the best what that School and its traditions could o fer, but has outgrown it now . American Art would form simply a branch establishment o f the Art of Paris were it not to disencumber itself from the fe tters o f that School . American Art has to o many ne w and characteristic ideas to proclaim and must speak its own message ultimately in its own lan r guage . It has grown so rapidly du ing the last ten years and has rushed forward at such a headlong pace that it surely “ can stand on its own feet now . The man who always goes ” behind another man will never get past him , said Michael Angelo . American Art will only become an international power in the moment that it ce ases being international . For of America consequently, it is great and perhaps deci sive value during this period of national purification of its Art to investigate , at home and not at foreign exhibitions ff on the other side of the ocean , the modern e orts and pro ductio ns of the most prominent countries representing Art . And although France may possess an older and finer culture and older technical traditions , yet the most vigorous and the freshest forces , the most energetic vitality and the most pro misin to g youthful generation are be found in Germany . It has been a matter o f belief for some long time past in Ame 6 rica that German Art has been resting on its historic laurels and has fallen into a winter sleep . Scarcely any idea is enter taine d in America of the vigorous regeneration that has taken place in Germany during the last twenty years and of the strong artistic movement which , surging through the w hole of Germany, is gaining more and more in depth and breadth , and which would fair engross the whole of public and domestic life . e the of From an age of intellect Germany , onc nation thin kers and dreamers , emerged and entered on a period of natural sciences and te chnology and it ye arns to quit this for a new artistic age . Art as it is comprehended in Germany should be more than a graceful ornament for mental culture and more than an ingenious emb e llishment for the literary sediment of intellectual life . Art aims at being more than a m e mere orna ent , a luxury or a dainty mors l for the pamper e e ed and spoilt . It do s not desire to be sol ly artists art , studio ’ ’ c o nno is art, l art pour l art , a dish for crafty collectors and s c urs . Art is the highest and finest expression of the national the life of all countries , the national reflection of individual e charact r, a language formed anew by every nation by rea son o f its inward natural forces and in accordance with its so needs , its inmost and purest essence and with its political, cial and intellectual movements . It is a kind ofnecessary mani fe station of power and of the last and highest artistic desires and moods as well as of the last mysterious yearning that has never yet been comprehended and that cannot be expressed r e by words . And if the Art of any period serves as a real fl cti e on and as an abbreviated chronicle of that period , then f — ff the German Art o to day o ers a more complete , impressive and comprehensive picture o f modern German intentions and capabilities than the Art of any neighbouring country . If this great task and this extensive possibility o f expression to r is accorded Art, then the theo y advanced by some small one literary Trusts that there is only international Art, born r to in Paris , to which eve ything else has conform , is in itself untenable . We esteem the great capabilities , the brilliant tech nique and the eminent proficiency o f the French of the last not generation , but it is that for which we are seeking and by which we will abide . The great Frenchmen from Dela to e to croix Man t, from Houdon Rodin, were above all true Gauls , true descendants of a Latin race . And with the same Le ibl o justification Menzel and , B cklin and Klinger, desire above all to be true Germans . Nobody can expect our great of to lyrical poets the last generation chant in French , that Liliencro n Storm should sing like Baudelaire, or like Ver do & laine ; why2 therefore , have artists been expected to so of - Further, the German artists to day, if theybe perfectly frank to can and true themselves , only desire to express and only to n give expression that which lies withi them , to what they . of the are themselves Just as the great Art Greeks, the great of the Art Italian Renaissance was national, so German Art o f the future must be national ; national without Chauvinism, national without Teutonism , Art first and above Nationalism , Art pure , Art that has its origin in ability . All European countries possessing a vigorous artistic life have been the arenas of fierce , frequently passionate strug gles during the last twenty years . An age which hurried along c t so restlessly and with such strides in all other dire ions, which brought with it such a complete revolution in the 8 o f views life , could not abide by the comfortable , uniform pace of former times in the path of Art . There was a long , almost too long, period of fermentation and Art in its fresh youth in Germany seems to have passed through all the childish ailments conceivable . The danger was immine nt that much of what was real and good in the last period would be thrown overboard with the old and dead and above all that the careful training in drawing would be lost entirely . There was perhaps no age in which such a lack ofreve re nc e was dis e play d . The right direction , however, was taken in time . “ ” e I The new school has call d itself the modern . should like e to hang up the f llow who coin e d that word .