Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts Part 1

Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts.

by Juliet James.

Foreword

What accents itself in the mind of the layman who makes even a cursory study of the sculptors and their works at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition is the fine, inspiring sincerity and uplift that each man brings to his work. One cannot be a great sculptor otherwise.

The sculptor's work calls for steadfastness of purpose through long years of study, acute observation, the highest standards, fine intellectual ability and above all a decided universalism - otherwise the world soon pa.s.ses him by.

It is astonishing to see brought together the work of so many really great sculptors. America has a very large number of talented men expressing themselves on the plastic side - and a few geniuses.

The Exposition of 1915 has given the world the opportunity of seeing the purposeful heights to which these men have climbed.

We have today real American sculpture - work that savors of American soil - a splendid national expression.

Never before have so many remarkable works been brought together; and American sculpture is only in its infancy - born, one might say, after the Centennial Exposition of 1876.

The wholesome part of it all is that men and women are working independently in their expressions. We do not see that effect here of one man trying to fit himself to another man's clothing. The work is all distinctly individual. This individualism for any art is a hopeful outlook.

The sculpture has vitalized the whole marvelous Exposition. It is not an accessory, as has been the sculpture of previous Expositions, but it goes hand in hand with the architecture, poignantly existing for its own sake and adding greatly to the decorative architectural effects. In many cases the architecture is only the background or often only a pedestal for the figure or group, pregnant with spirit and meaning.

Those who have the city's growth at heart should see to it that these men of brain and skill and inspiration are employed to help beautify the commercial centers, the parks, the boulevards of our cities.

We need the fine lessons of beauty and uplift around us.

We beautify our houses and spend very little time in them. Why not beautify our outside world where we spend the bulk of our time?

We, a pleasure-loving people, are devoting more time every year to outside life. Would it not be a thorough joy to the most prosaic of us to have our cities beautified with inspiring sculpture?

We do a great deal in the line of horticultural beautifying - we could do far more - but how little we have done with one of the most meaningful and stimulating of the arts.

Let us see to it, in San Francisco at least, that a few of these works are made permanent.

Take as an example James Earle Fraser's "End of the Trail." Imagine the effect of that fine work silhouetted against the sky out near Fort Point, on a western headland, with the animal's head toward the sea, so that it would be evident to the onlooker that the Indian had reached the very end of the trail. It would play a wonderful part in the beauty of the landscape.

Or take Edith Woodman Burroughs' "Youth." What a delight a permanent reproduction of that fountain would be if placed against the side of one of the green hills out at Golden Gate Park - say near the Children's Playground - with a pool at its base. It is only by concerted action that we will ever get these works among us. Who is going to take the lead?

Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts

"The influence of sculpture is far reaching. The mind that loves this art and understands its language will more and more insist on a certain order and decorum in visual life. It opens an avenue for the expression of aesthetic enjoyment somewhere between poetry and music and akin to drama. - Arthur Hoeber

The Fountain of Energy

A. Stirling Calder, Sculptor [See Frontispiece]

The Fountain of Energy is a monumental aquatic composition expressing in exuberant allegory the triumph of Energy, the Lord of the Isthmian Way.

It is the central sculptural feature of the South Garden, occupying the great quatrefoil pool in front of the tower. The theme is Energy, the Conqueror - the Over Lord - the Master; Energy, mental and physical; Energy - the Will, the indomitable power that achieved the Waterway between the Oceans at Panama. The Earth Sphere, supported by an undulating frieze of mer-men and women, is his pedestal. Advancing from it in the water at the four relatively respective points of the compa.s.s, North, South, East and West, are groups representing the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans and the North and the South Seas; groups richly imaginative, expressing types of Oriental, Occidental, Southern and Northern land and sea life. The interrupted outer circle of water motifs represent Nereids driving spouting fish. Vertical zones of writhing figures ascend the sphere at the base of the Victor. Across the upper portions of the sphere, and modeled as parts of the Earth, stretch t.i.tanic zoomorphs, representing the Hemispheres, East and West. The spirit of the Eastern Hemisphere is conceived as feline and characterized as a human tiger cat. The spirit of the Western Hemisphere is conceived as taurine and characterized as a human bull. The base of the Equestrian is surrounded by a frieze of architecturalized fish and the rearing sea horses that furnish the princ.i.p.al upper motif for the play of water. Energy himself is presented as a nude male, typically American, standing in his stirrups astride a snorting charger - an exultant super-horse needing no rein - commanding with grandly elemental gesture of extended arms, the pa.s.sage of the Ca.n.a.l. Growing from his shoulders, winged figures of Fame and Valor with trumpet, sword and laurel, forming a crest above his controlling head, acclaim his triumph.

The Fountain embodies the mood of joyous, exultant power and exactly expresses the spirit of the Exposition. Its unique decorative character has been aptly described as heraldic, "The Power of America rising from the Sea."

A. Stirling Calder

The Mother of Tomorrow

A. Stirling Calder, Sculptor

With upturned face, with steady onward gaze, the stalwart Mother of Tomorrow moves ahead. Hers is the firm, determined purpose, the will to do - to accomplish that for which she has started. She marches ahead of the types of the Occident. It has taken all these types striving with common purpose to produce the future, therefore they form the Mother of Tomorrow, the matrix from which the future generations are to come. Mr.

Calder's high, splendid ideals are directly mirrored in this one figure.

It is not hard to read the man in his handiwork.

The Nations of the Occident

A. Stirling Calder, Frederick Roth, Leo Lentelli, Sculptors

Into the great Court of the Universe, from the top of the Arch of the Occident, march the types of men who have made the Western civilization.

From left to right - the French-Canadian, the Alaskan, the German, the Latin-American, the Italian, the Anglo-American, the Squaw, the American Indian. In the center of this well-balanced pyramidal group, surmounted by Enterprise and drawn by st.u.r.dy oxen, comes the old prairie schooner.

To right and left atop are seen the Heroes of Tomorrow - one a white boy, the other a negro type. In front marches the splendid Mother of Tomorrow.

The Nations of the Orient

A. Stirling Calder, Frederick Roth, Leo Lentelli, Sculptors

Atop the Arch of the Orient is the superb tableau representing the types of men that form the Orientals. From left to right - the Arab Sheik, the Negro Servitor, the Egyptian Warrior, the Arab Falconer, the Indian Prince and Spirit of the East, the Lama, the Mohammedan Warrior, the Negro Servitor, the Mongolian Warrior. On they come to join the Nations of the West in the great Court of the Universe. This group is as fine as any group ever seen at an exposition. It rises in its impressive pyramidal height to a climax in the Spirit of the East - a fitting pivot on which to turn the types.