FUNCTIONAL ART
AFTER moping over his misfortune for some time, a man who found himself stranded on some uninhabited island would, in
all probability, begin to apply himself to the construction of a number of contrivances which would add to his comfort and Conserve his energy and temper. These contrivances would be determined by his various habits and needs and, at first, would take the form of fairly crude " gadgets." Before the first batch had worn out, however, he would probably (if only
to keep himself from being bored) proceed to make others which had a much greater degree of finesse in their construction, until finally he attained a standard of functional per- fection in them, upon which he could not improve. If, after this period, he did not take up some " fine art " (i.e., an art which *Mild be thoroughly useless) as a means of overcoming his boredom but still continued to tinker with his craftwork,
he would, were he still able to recall the civilization from which he had been so inconveniently wrested, begin to envelop the
shapes -of his-contrivances in all kind of extravagances. By this time he would have adopted a very snobbish attitude towards his former ielf. - Were we to discover these articles after his death we might quite easily be deceived into believing,
on this evidence alone, that a civilization had lived and died there. We might say, Of the first period, that it possessed a great degree of power which lacked grace ; of the second period that it had both power and grace ; and, of the third, that it
represented the decadence of the race and had neither power nor grace. It is along lines somewhat similar to these that almost all crafts have developed. The first crude strivings seem to be permeated -with some of the terrific energy that
went towards the mastery of-the medium. The craftsman then conquers his material so thoroughly that he can deVote his attention to functional perfection, but later he seems to
find his task so much like child's play that he must begin to play tricks with his material: - In this final stage he begins to make wood look like ribbon; clay like basket-work, stone like
wax. In modern times this trickery has had a powerful accom- plice in the machine. Strange as it may seem, however, the machines themselves have, so far, escaped this fate. Being still in process of functional improvement they have been fashioned purely from their functions : their designers have had little time for extravagances. We find, therefore, that the aeroplane, the automobile, certain tube trains, the steam engine and many other machines still possess all the ele- ments of good design. We do, however, often come across
articles • which are- designed with a certain degree of sanity. The chief tendency in their design seems to be a return to a greater simplicity, and although this simplicity often expresses itself in crudeness, still we can only look Upon it as a move in the-right direction. There are signs, moreover, that this relapse into crudeness of execution and design is beginning to be replaced by a greater respect for functional appropriateness and fine proportion.. We seem to have suc- cessfully passed through our craze for New Art—a craze, that gave us backwoodsman's furniture which was only fit for heroes to use with any comfort, and pottery whose glaze became infused with our tea. There is now a serious attempt lseing made to bring Art and Industry into-closer relationship. This attempt can only meet with failure .Unless the artists are prepared to understand the craft for which they_ design. It is of no use their sitting in studios and submitting designs to manufacturers ; they must understand the mannfaAtirer's processes. Only so will their designs have that appro- priateness which is essential. It is a significant fact that the worst examples of design in the motor-car industry are the mascots contributed by artists ; these incon- gruities which adorn the radiators would probably have assumed much better proportions and lines had they been left to the motor engineers themselves. At any rate they could not have been much worse. Mr. Gloag, in Time, Taste and Furni- ture, gives a good example of this sit-at-home method of designing. He remarks on the designs which illustrateda book of Chippendale's that : The fearful and wonderful com- plexity of some of the designs suggests that Chippendale with a pencil in hig hand and the idea of a series of illustrations in his mind was a very different person from the craftsman who could produce ornate but beautifully proportioned furniture." In the same book (one of the very few books, by the way, which criticize the periods with which they deal and are concerned more with beauty than antiquity) the author gives some examples of modern craftsmanship which compare favourably with almost anything that has been done in the past ; examples of the work of Gimson, Sydney Barnsley, Peter Waals, Gordon Russell, J. Palmer Jones and other notable craftsmen, whose work should do much towards the revival of good design in furnishing. His book is an admirable guide to'taste in furniture of all periods. Another book which will help us to estimate the amount of good art that is beginning to find a place in industry is the profusely illustrated Year Book of the Design and Industries Association. One im- portant omission from this book, however, is the medallic work which has recently been done at the Royal Mint. No branch of industry has made such rapid strides in so short a space of time. This desire for the fusion of Industry and Art seems not to be confined to England but to be meeting with even greater success in France, if we can judge by the variety of 'examples which. are illustrated in Pon?. Comprendre L'Art Decoratif Moderne cn France, by Henri Verne and
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