An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art GalleryCheney, Sheldon
History
An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art Gallery
Cheney, Sheldon
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
It is hardly necessary to add that George W. Kelham designed this court
too.
Sculpture. The center of the court is dominated by Edgar Walter's Beauty
and the Beast Fountain. The surmounting statue is a curious combination
of graceful lines and grotesque effects. The strange Beast is no less
fantastic than the young lady herself-she who has adorned her fair
body with nothing more than a Spring hat and a pair of sandals. It is
probably this near-nudeness, without pure nakedness, that creates the
jarring note of the group Certainly there is a bizarre touch that
somewhat offsets the sinuous charm of the figure. Under the upper basin
are four piping Pans, not notable individually, but adding to the
decorative effect. The wall around the lower pool carries a playful
frieze of animals in low relief.
The Pioneer is the title of the equestrian statue at the south end of
the court, on the Avenue of Palms. The man is typically the Western
pioneer, as every resident of the Pacific Coast has known him-a
patriarchal figure who foreran civilization here in the West of America
as he has in all other new lands. Head up, axe and gun in hand, looking
straight forward, he is a fine visualization of the "Forty-niner." He
is, too, an interesting racial contrast to the Indian of "The End of the
Trail." One wonders, however, about the horse, with the elaborate
trappings that clearly belong to another era-to the days of Spanish
conquest, perhaps. Certainly horse and rider do not seem to be conceived
in the same spirit. The group lacks, too, that vital intensity of
feeling and that emotional strength which distinguish "The End of the
Trail," the companion-statue in the Court of Palms. The "Pioneer" is by
Solon Borglum.
The minor sculpture here consists of A. Stirling Calder's attractive
"Flower Girl," repeated in the niches along the loggia; dignified Lions,
by Albert Laessle, flanking the three portals; and again Carl Gruppe's
"The Fairy," atop the Italian Towers.
The Tower of Jewels, and the Fountain of Energy
It was planned that the Tower of Jewels should be the great dominating
feature of the architectural scheme of the Exposition; that this unit
more than any other should stand as a triumphal monument to celebrate
the opening of the Panama Canal. The mural paintings, the sculpture and
the inscriptions all carry out this idea, but the tower, in its
architectural aspect alone, fails to live up fully to its purpose. It
serves well to "center" the whole scheme, and to afford an imposing pile
at the main entrance. Nevertheless it falls short of the high
architectural standard of the courts and palaces.
Architecture
The architectural forms used in the design of the tower are in general
classic; but the architect has shown considerable originality in their
arrangement and massing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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