ART AN INDUSTRY AT PARIS SHOW

Evening Star, Issue 22631, 24 April 1937, Page 26

ART AN INDUSTRY AT PARIS SHOW

FIFTY NATIONS CONCERNED Two hundred acres in the heart of lovely Paris will house_ the self-styled “ International Exhibition of Arts and Crafts,” which is to be held there from May to November. The title seems modest when one studies the tremendous scope of the whole scheme, embracing as it does every branch of art, industry, and science, without forgetting for an instant the lowlier needs of the mere pleasure-seeker. Some visitors will spend enraptured hours in the sections devoted to graphic and plastic arts, while furniture and decoration, or books and magazines, will occupy the time and attention of others. The social student will turn to the exhibits which deal with social problems and l work, and with the various branches of town-planning, housing, and domestic architecture. Modern

inventions, such as photography, phonography, radio, and television, 'will attract their innumerable devotees. Building, from concrete construction to electric fittings, occupies an important section, and the vast field of 1 modern transport. is dealt with from every angle. ‘ Artistic Trades,’ such as goldsmith’s work, glass, and ceramics, have a section to themselves — and here one may expect to find some exquisite work, and under the engaging title of ‘ Ornamental Works _’ are grouped all the luxury trades^— jewellery, furs, perfumery, and clothing and millinery in all their manifestations. All this, be it remembered, applies to the French section alone. Nearly 50 other nations are exhibiting, some In pavilions of their own, others grouped together in the various lovely buildings which are hastening to completion for the opening on May 1. “ Fun and games ’’ figure prominently in the exhibition programme; an elaborate series of pageants, fetes, and ■ sports have been arranged, and most attractive of all are the promised Festivals of Light, when the Seine itself, meandering through the Exhibition grounds, will be turned to a river of gold or silver, and the whole vast area is to be illuminated with every lighting effect that art and science oan devise.