THE MODERNIST OF HIS DAY!

Evening Star, Issue 21284, 13 December 1932, Page 2

THE MODERNIST OF HIS DAY!

immY OF SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN TERCENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH The service at St. Paul’s Cathedral, commemorating the tercentenary of the birth of its illustrious designer, was a fitting and dignified ceremony. That so many should have assembled was doubtless due, as Canon Alexander stated in his address, to the fact that the more closely Wren was studied by the expert, the stronger became his claims to bo considered one of the greatest men in British history. The greatness of Wren was becoming more and more impressed upon the minds of the public to-day. It was impossible to ignore the fact that his work was based upon his character, and his character upon his religion, which explained his forbearance under great provocation, and enabled him, in a profligate age, to wear the white flower of a blameless life. INTERNATIONAL TRIBUTES. At the conclusion of tho service the presidents of the Royal Academy, the Royal Society, the R.1.8.A., the London Society, and others attended in the crypt to lay various wreaths on Wren's grave. Among these tributes was a laurel wreath, with violet velvet ribbons, from the R.1.8.A.; a bronze spray of palm branches from La Societe Centrale des Architects of France; a palm spray, with violets and violet ribbon, from La Societo des Afchitectes Diplomes par le Gouvernement, France; a laurel wreath, with scarlet velvet ribbons, from the Architectural League of New York; a laurel and palm chaplet, with red and white ribbons, from the Akademisk - Arcliitekt - Forening, Denmark; and a laurel wreath, with brown velvet ribbons, from the Architects of Canada, which was deposited on the tomb by Dr John A. Pearson, past president of the Ontario Association of Architects, PRESS APPRECIATION. The tercentenary celebration was notable for many appreciative articles upon Wren in the general Press, but it is to be regretted that one eminent architect should have taken his eulogium in a leading contemporary as an opportunity to attack ‘‘modern foibles ” evinced in tho work of the modernist designer. Wren' was the modernist of his day, and had he been living in ours, this critic admits that “ he would have accepted the girder the stanchion, the concrete beam, and all tho mysteries of reinforcement.” Wren would have been an innovator in any age; and the prognostication that he would have banned surface concrete and all ersatz materials may be very seriously doubted. As one commentator on this effort observed: “ Modernists may he misguided, but they do choose the difficult path when the way of great gables and humpbacked ridges is so easy—and so remunerative. It is strange -what irritation they set up in the popular mind. Athens and Rome are sanctified: can any good come out of Hamburg? The same cry has been raised before. That another genius should have had such an intelligent memorial at Stratford is surprising and encouraging.” HUNGARIAN TRIBUTE. The Royal Institute of British Architects received the following telegram from the Society of Hungarian Engineers and Architects on the tercentenary of the birth of Sir Christopher Wren:—

“ Society of Hungarian Engineers and Architects begs you to take notice of following resolution unanimously adopted on occasion your to-day festivity. Christopher Wren having been one of the prominent architects ever lived and shed lustre on the arts we too shall for ever keep in reverent remembrance memory of the great man pride not only of Great Britain hut of the whole world.— Foesteh, President.”