Page 90 - Studio International - April 1968

stud1ograph1c 1 a graphic design supplement
published three times a year
in January, April and September

editors Colin Banks and John Miles
cover: Cherc/zez la femme
A relief collage by Jiri lfolar 196(-i

Applied art for fine art's sake art and plenty of it. But whatever happened to the 'fine' ?
The unsuspecting reader of 189.'3 would have been
Hilary Evans justified in demanding half his money back.

Suppose 'The Studio had been more conscientious about
chronicling the fine art of the day, what would we
find in its pages? That great mid-century surge of
British art had spent its force. Think of Milla is: the
brilliant prodigy of early pre-Raphael ism had
degenerated into a huntin' shootin' gentleman-painter­
and what was worse, a gentleman-painter who made
£35,000 a year from his art. His career was paralleled
by the decline of British art as a whole-for here in
England we had no underground movement sapping at
the foundations of the Academy. No Van Gogh was
at work in the Black Country, nor did the English
Sunday see any native Rousseau translating his private
visions onto canvas. The RAs had the field to
themselves, and reaped their golden harvest
undisturbed.
''The Studio An illustrated magazine of fine and applied That 'The Studio chose to ignore the official fine art of
art'-a harmless enough sub-title for a brand-new the day was the first sign of its bolshevism. It felt
art magazine. 'Fine' and 'applied' are firm classical intuitively what we today see clearly, that the stream
r
distinctions, indicating that the new journal is soundly of inspiration had been diverted to a f esh channel.
rooted in the status quo. No revolutionary manifesto For the applied arts, as we see them reflected in
here, no anarchic undermining of the artistic establish­ 'The Studio, are 'finer' than the applied arts of any period
ment, one would think. before or since. Art nouveau, the term we give today
Turn the pages of those early issues, and 'The Studio to the characteristic art of the period ( though 'The
looks tamer still. If it's the raptures and roses of the Studio at the time reserved the phrase only for its
aesthetic movement you're looking for, apply elsewhere: continental manifestations), is, with the possible
try 'The Yellow Book or The Savoy. True, The Studio's exception of Jazz-Modern, the least natural, the most
first issue contains a feature on Aubrey Beardsley mannered of all decorative tyles.
('a new illustrator') and a month later there are (We may note, incidentally, that this reversal of the
photographs of naked Italian boys by Baron Corvo. usual state of affairs was more complete in Britain than
But thereafter, scarcely a hint of purple passions: we anywhere else. Because our art scene was more totally
are almost shocked when we find a poster for absinthe blanketed by the academic establishment, our reaction
reproduced in its pages. 'The Studio reader might was the more extreme. True, a few brilliant Continental
be inspired to paint lilies over the fireplace of his examples-Mucha, certain Belgian architecture,
'common-place room' or carve them on his oak settle: Paris metro stations-carry the movement to its finest
but he will find no encouragement here to walk dow11 manifestations: but in bulk the movement remains
Piccadilly with one in his hand. primarily a British one. 'The Studio was generously
Yet it was not timidity which enabled 'Ihe Studio to broad-minded, and continually surveyed the arts and
survive when 'The Yellow Book and 'Tlze Savoy had passed crafts of other countries: both in quantity and
into history. In its own way-though no doubt quality they fall far short of the achievements of
unwittingly-it was more revolutionary than many a more British artists.)
blatantly iconoclastic journal. Its subversive tendencies Ruskin had preached that art was the expression of
are never openly expressed, but they are implicit on man's joy in his work, its purpose 'to make man's work
every page. Leaf again through those early volumes. happy and his rest fruitful'. His high priest, William
Here are gesso work and gardening, bookplates and Morris, bringing the prophet's high-flying phrases down
embroidery, architecture and metalwork-applied to earth, saw part of his job as 'adding a certain
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