Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts: Descriptive Notes on the Art of the Statuary at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San FranciscoJames, Juliet Helena Lumbard
History
Sculpture of the Exposition Palaces and Courts: Descriptive Notes on the Art of the Statuary at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco
James, Juliet Helena Lumbard
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.); Sculpture
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 compass,
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
titanic 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 principal 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 passage of the Canal. 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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