ART
ART AND COMMERCE
THERE has been a great deal of controversy lately in the daily Press concerning advertising. The recurrent plea for truth in
advertisements seems rather fatuous, for truth in this sphere would resolve itself into plain, bald statements of fact which would ultimately defeat the competitive aims for which adver-
tisements exist : we should find certain hair cream described as " a medium as suitable as and less objectionable than drip- ping for keeping the hair in position "—and similar adver- tisements. Since advertising is part of our age we must, as realists, accept its exaggerations, hope that they will be per- petuated with as great a degree of dignity as possible, and also try to understand how much we stand to gain from the inter- esting and pleasant distortions which appear. Provided it has other merits, a well-advertised article should lead, in the long run, to cheapness, since the superior organization necessitated by production on a large scale ought to prevent the economic leakage which occurs in small-scale production. It follows from this that the public may gain a certain benefit from judicious advertisement. Nevertheless, since that public does actually pay for the advertising along with the goods it buys, it has the right to expect that its baiting shall be carried out with as much artistic grace as possible. Our hoardings (the Art Gallery of the People," as they have been described by the Prince of Wales) should provide us with a certain amount of aesthetic pleasure, instead of being, as they are, a shock to our sensibilities at every street corner. The business man seems to have failed to realize the advertising possibilities of good design.
Other things being equal, the poster of good design is bound to make a greater appeal than one of bad design, for, to judge by the high standard attained in folk art, mankind seems to have some fundamental hankering for design. Too often our posters consist of a conglomeration of objects slung haphazardly into the space amongst a mass of childish slogans interwoven into disorganized confusion. As far as can be gathered, the business man's attitude to the artist is rather a strange one. When the artist paints for his drawing-room, the man of commerce looks upon him with a degree of reverential awe which amounts to absurdity, but when the artist attempts to bring his art to commerce he is treated as a fool who cannot be given credit for knowing his own job. Once the carpenter has been given the required in- structions, it is naturally assumed that he knows his work better than his customer, and he is left in peace ; but seldom does the artist obtain this recognition as a craftsman who understands what he is about when he is engaged upon com- mercial art. On the other hand, the artist imagines, too often, that he is selling his soul when he takes to poster art ; he openly despises business and comes to it with an air of con- descension. He considers that he is losing his artistic integrity by following the business man's preliminary instructions. When we consider how often the old masters were restricted in their subject matter, and how little their work has suffered by it, this modern attitude becomes rather ludicrous. There is good reason to believe, indeed, that the very problem in- volved in fitting his art to the subject prescribed may prove to be such a healthy stimulus to the artist that his work may train rather than lose from it. The knowledge, too, that his r, work will be circulated so widely might well stimulate any artist to give of his very best. For too long the artist has been regarded as a little " tin-god " ; to be accepted as an honest tradesman and for art to be again placed on the footing of . sound craftsmanship as it was in the Middle Ages is perhaps one of the healthiest signs of our time. That art and com- merce can be united without either suffering is one of the lessons that the Arts League of Service hopes to teach to both the business man and the student, through the forthcoming Exhibition of Mr. E. McKnight Kauffer's posters at 60 Gower Street in May. To judge from the preliminary arrangements and the purposes of the Exhibition, the layman should also find much to interest him there.
W. McCikwcE.
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