Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
It should be duplicated in permanent form. No doubt a proper site, with
a setting of water and trees, can best be found in Golden Gate Park. The
steel frame and roof of the main gallery could easily be transferred
there and set up again. While it would cost too much to duplicate in
real marble the pillars of the colonnade and dome, yet these can be
reproduced in artificial stone as successfully as they have here been
imitated in plaster. In the Pennsylvania Railroad station in New York
travertine has been counterfeited so well that no one can tell where the
real ends and the imitation begins.
Every other considerable city in the civilized world has its art
gallery. San Francisco has already the full-sized model of surely the
most beautiful one in the world. Made permanent in the Park, this Palace
of Art would not only honor San Francisco, but would be "a joy forever"
to all America.
The Fine Arts Exhibit[1].--The Palace of Fine Arts contains what the
International Jury declares the best and most important collection of
modern art that has yet been assembled in America. The war in Europe had
a two-fold effect on this exhibition. While it prevented some countries,
like Russia and Germany, from sending their paintings and sculptures, it
led others, such as France and Italy, to send more than they otherwise
would have sent. The number the Exposition might have was limited only
by its funds available for insurance. So many were the works of art sent
over on the Vega and the Jason that an Annex was required to house them.
It must be remembered that this art exhibit, like the other exhibits of
the Exposition, is contemporaneous. It represents, with exceptions, the
work of the last decade. Most of the exceptions are in the rooms of the
Historical Section, the Abbey, Sargent, Whistler, Keith, and other loan
collections, and the great Chinese exhibit of ancient paintings on silk.
In general, the paintings and sculptures made famous by time are not in
the Fine Arts Palace. Its rooms are mainly filled with the latest work
of artists of the day, exhibited under the Exposition's rule which
limits competition in all departments to current production. This
explains, for instance, why the French Government has placed its
Meissoniers and Detailles, with Rodin's bronzes, in the French Pavilion.
A Michelangelo, works of Benvenuto Cellini, and many old paintings and
statues are in the beautiful Italian Pavilion. Other paintings of value
are in the Belgian section of the French Pavilion, and in the Danish
Pavilion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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