The Little Review, June 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 4)Various
General
The Little Review, June 1914 (Vol. 1, No. 4)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
The picture then having been taken to the Salon, Monsieur Boronali was
asked to pay his membership fee, and thenceforward his name figured
among those of Matisse, Rousseau, Le Fauconnier, and other great. To the
astonishment of the Fantasio group, their prank remained unnoticed for
some time; the critics spoke of Boronali's work along with the other
pictures, and the manifesto of the Excessivists was but slightly
commented upon. In a series of sensational articles and piquant stories
The Fantasio finally succeeded in drawing general attention to their
chef d'oeuvre. The Paris press, as well as the foreign, opened a hot
discussion on the significance of Boronali's work in a serious tone.
Only the Kölnische Zeitung in a review of the manifesto and the picture
carefully remarked, "If it is not a carnival joke"--referring to the
manifesto but not doubting the authenticity of Boronali's canvas. True,
the title of the picture seemed mystifying: why The Sun Asleep over the
Adriatic, when there were neither sun nor sea? The Gazette de France
ridiculed the title. The New York Herald, endeavoring to justify the
name of the picture, suggested that the sun was asleep beneath the
Adriatic--an ingenious hypothesis. The Revue des Beaux-Arts gave a
detailed and scholarly account of the picture, but found in it nothing
extraordinary in comparison with the other Independents. The hardest
blow to Boronali's genius was dealt by De l'Art Ancien et Moderne, which
accused him of being banal. "Among the cosmopolite crowd, along with
Messrs. Ghéon, Klingsor, Jamet ... struts the sheer banality of M.
Boronali."
The scandal that took place after the mystificators had revealed their
trick is of secondary importance. What looms out of this incident is the
dangerously vague line of demarcation between what is true art and what
is mere daubery in Futurism.
The Gaulois summed up the affair in a few significant words:
The scholastics had maintained that "It is much easier for the
ass to disprove than it is for the philosopher to assert." But
here came an ass and proved something in spite of all the
philosophers of the world. He has proved--not a priori but a
posteriori--that the most manifest daubery may pass as a picture
in the eyes of those who accept the non-real, the improbable, and
the absurd for new art.
Thought uttered becomes an untruth.--Thaddeus Tutchev.
A Wonder-Child Violinist
MARGARET C. ANDERSON
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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