The Business Of Decoration Previous Page (90)
The marbleizing of walls and woodwork, which has been resorted to in one or two shops seems to be a legitimate and artistic method of treatment if the whole is well designed and is executed by a skillful painter. The fact that it is frankly artificial is not a serious objection, for we should deprive ourselves of half our civilization if we insisted on naturalism either
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110INTERIOR DECORATING
in our lives or in our art. The very frankness of its artificiality is one of its merits
We have, then, a wide choice of materials, styles and colors for use in this important field of showrooms, and really more of an opportunity for originality in them than perhaps elsewhere, except in the largest residences, and in scenes for the stage, and we should certainly avail ourselves of this to attempt the creation of some genuinely new and vital and characteristic effects.
Page 110a
A suggestion for the show window of a piano manufacturer. The piano case decorated in colors and gold, the talking machine cabinet and the other furniture, are of modern conception.
Page 110b
The interior of the Belasco Theatre, showing the rather bizarre and gloomy but effective use of fabric, in connection with Chinese details.
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CHAPTER IX
THE HOPE OF A GREAT DECORATIVE ART IN AMERICA
WE have probably in America today the greatest opportunity that has existed in the history of the world for the creation of a superb, original art. We have had the wealth of the world showered at our feet, and wealth is a factor not to be disdained in the development of new artistic impulses. We have, also, among our own artists, and those who have come over to us, a significant measure of talent. Nevertheless, 'our decorative work is barren and imitative. We must face this fact frankly and fearlessly if we are to hope for any salutary change. Our nouveaux riches are worshippers of the antique; they fear and despise any touch of originality; and our decorators have hastened at their heels, forever collecting and copying, copying and collecting, until we have become the masters of every style that has existed "since the Gothic; but in the mastering of them we are in the gravest danger of losing our souls.
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