Those great symbolic figures by Robert Aitken, at once giving a reminder of Michael Angelo, impressed me as being perfectly adapted to the Court, and to their subjects, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.But my companion thought they were too big.He agreed, however, that they were both original and strong.There was cleverness in making the salamander, with his fiery breath and his sting, ready to attack a Greek warrior, symbolize fire.Under the winged girl representing air there was a humorous reference to man's early efforts to fly in the use of the quaint little figure of Icarus.Water and earth were more conventional, but worked out with splendid vigor, the two figures under earth suggesting the competitive struggle of men."I remember Aitken in his beginning here in San Francisco.Though he often did poor stuff, everything of his showed artistic courage and initiative.Even then anyone could see there was something in him.Now it's coming out in the work he has contributed to this Exposition.The qualities in these four statues we shall see again when we reach the fountain that Aitken made for the Court of Abundance.They are individual without being eccentric.
Compare these four figures with the groups in front of the two arches, by Paul Manship, another American sculptor of ability, but different from Aitken in his devotion to the early Greek.When Manship began his work a few years ago he was influenced by Rodin.Then he went to Rome and became charmed with the antique.Now he follows the antique method altogether.He deliberately conventionalizes.And yet his work is not at all conventional.He manages to put distinct life into it.These two groups, the 'Dancing Girls' and 'Music,' would have delighted the sculptors of the classic period."Under the Arch of the Rising Sun two delicate murals by Edward Simmons charmed us by their grace, their lovely coloring, by the richness of their fancy and by the extraordinary fineness of their workmanship.
"There's a big difference of opinion about those canvases as murals.But there's no difference of opinion in regard to their artistic merit.They are unquestionably masterpieces.Kelham and Guerin, who had a good deal to do with putting them up there, believe they are in exactly the right place.But a good many others think they are almost lost in all this heavy architecture.You see, Simmons didn't take Guerin's advice as to a subject.Each of his two murals has a meaning, or rather a good many meanings, but no central theme, no story that binds the figures into a distinct unity.So, from the point of view of the public, they are somewhat puzzling.People look up there and wonder what those figures are doing.But to the artist they find their justification merely in being what they are, beautiful in outline and in posture and coloring.
You don't often get such atmosphere in mural work, or such subtlety and richness of feeling."Both murals unmistakably showed the same hand."There's not another man in the country who could do work of just that kind.That group in the center of the mural to the north could be cut out and made into a picture just as it stands.It doesn't help much to know that the middle figure, with the upraised arm, is Inspiration with Commerce at her right and Truth at her left.They might express almost any symbols that were related to beauty.And the symbolism of the groups at either end seems rather gratuitous.They might be many other things besides true hope and false hope and abundance standing beside the family.But the girl chasing the bubble blown out by false hope makes a quaint conceit to express adventure, though perhaps only one out of a million would see the point if it weren't explained."The opposite mural we found a little more definite in its symbolism, if not so pictorial or charming.The figures consisted of the imaginary type of the figure from the lost Atlantis; the Roman fighter; the Spanish adventurer, suggesting Columbus; the English type of sea-faring explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh; the priest who followed in the wake of the discoverer, the bearer of the cross to the new land; the artist, spreading civilization, and the laborer, modern in type, universal in significance, interesting here as standing for the industrial enterprise of today.
"Those murals suggest what a big chance our decorators have in the themes that come out of our industrial life.They've only made a start.
As mural decoration advances in this country, we ought to produce men able to deal in a vigorous and imaginative way with the big spiritual and economic conceptions that are associated with our new ideals of industry."One feature of this court made a special appeal to the architect, the use of the large green vases under the arches."They're so good they're likely to be overlooked.They blend perfectly in the general scheme.
Their coloring could not have been better chosen and their design is particularly happy."
