ART FAKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 615, 18 March 1929, Page 2

ART FAKES

American Explains “Great Eye" Principle for Detection 1 1 ' l The principle ot infinite division of J light and shadow by use ot planes, a secret which explains the lure ot , the diamond through its facets, was j declared by George Grey Barnard, i , American sculptor, to be the basis | t of all “living art.” , , I s This was the method by which lie , could detect fakes such as those re- | « centlv disclosed as the work of Italian i j moderns, to the dismay of several art : institutions. Even from photographs, m some . cases, he asserted, he is able* to de-j . tect the imitation in works lacking i the vision, of the ‘‘Great Eye. , “There is no new dishonesty in the -< fakes which have been pawned off > on some museums in recent > ears, . Mr. Barnard said. “Even in the , Louvre the experts have been tricked. In many cases the fake sculptors hat e ; - succeeded in their dishonesty because J i they have realised that in the ab- i ; sence of the division of light and j shadow in their works lay their fail- j ure. and so they carefully blasted j away with sand the surface, not just j to give it the appearance of age, but j to hide the piece’s lack of the ’living j touch. What is left is nothing, just j as a real work, with its surface j blasted away, the lights and shadows ! gone, has lost its life. I do not be- , lieve there are more than half a dozen artists to-day who have achieved the ‘Great Eye’ which is able to pierce the surface and perceive the gradations of light and shadow, which mean that the master has looked upon it. Sees Challenge to Artists In these fakes Mr. Barnard sees a challenge to artists to develop the “Great Eye,” and he has suggested “student rooms” in museums as a means to that end. Seated in an easy chair in his great living room, the sculptor revealed the principle he has followed in his career and the “revelation” which has been the basis of his work —a revelation which he admitted has come to him only after more than 15 years of intensive study of art. Light, the basis of life, he explained, is the basis of enduring art as well. “The division of light and shadow through an infinite number of planes, I ! which in sculpture may be produced i only by the use of the chisel or knife, is the secret of all living paintings j or sculpture, whether of Greek or Gothic or Egyptian origin,” the sculp-1 tor said. He illustrated his point by the “twist” effect on a stone which is a part of his mantel, one surface j of the twist reflecting light while the other balanced with the appearance of holding a shadow. “Only by employing such planes j and straight lines that go with them i is depth and life, such as Michael Angelo depicted, possible in art,” he j went on. “In painting, the principle : is exactly the same, save that three | dimensions are not used. Through use of this principle, with lights and shadows in proper juxtaposition over } and over again to the point where the face of a pieGe of sculpture bearing the imprint of the master appears to 1 the untrained eye merely a symphonic j whole, is produced an effect breathing with life and with depth, such as is found in a diamond. Principle Is Simple “The principle is so simple,” he said, “and yet I never have seen it! expressed, and there have been few - artists who have achieved the ‘Great Eye,’ which enabled them to see this i division of light and shade. It was fifteen, almost twenty, years after I I started my life work that I began ’ to catch a vision of it all, and in those years, too, I worked 16 hours a day, always gazing upon the pieces I found in museums or had as my own, in which this living art is expressed. “It cannot be achieved by students of to-day, who work with plaster casts, pictures, or models, for the vision of the ‘Great Eye’ is lost even in a fine reproduction, because that eye ; has not gazed upon it.” So hopeful is the sculptor that the next “living age in art" will come that he has offered £2OO funds, which he believes may be augmented by - other substantial donations, to the i Cathedral in Washington and the ’ Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. I He has done this with the conviction 1 that to develop such an art period 1 in America, where now he sees little are being produced, students must be ; supplied with rooms at museums • where they may have true masteri pieces of sculpture to gaze upon, so f that they may develop the “Great { Eye,” which has come to only a few - masters in three or four periods of • art history, an eye which allows them e t£> perceive the facets hidden on the B surface in myriad lights and shadows, e Necessity For Vision

“In a painting what we call the layman sees a beautiful picture, a whole result which pleases his eve. In a recital by Paderewski he hears wonderful music. But only th - trained artist may catch the infinite gradations of light and shadow, or the gradations of sound, the one through the eye, the other through the ear. Paderewski has mastered in his mind’s eye and ear what a great sculptor has caught in his ‘Great Eye.’ His hands merely carry out his vision. An artist who has caught the soul of Rembrandt or Michael Angelo doubtless could learn to transfer his vision to canvas or to stone, in gradations of light and shadow on the principle I have just explained, with his brush or chisel held in his teeth or toes. The vision is the thing, and once it is caught there is little | need of a teacher. The student him j self has become the teacher, and it [ is comparatively easy for him to transfer his object to material of stone or canvas. For the face, the body of every living thing is made up of these plane lights and shadows. “The reason the art of the Middle Ages has lived is due to the fact that the Frenchmen, the stone cutters o' the 12th century and thereabout, worked in the open all day long an ’ learned to interpret light from the sun at all its angles. “The Frenchmen preserved for us the art of the Greeks. It is up to us to build an art worthy to succeed that of the Middle Ages. It Is only to be achieved by allowing our young men and young women, too, to study day after day, year after year, these examples of true art found mainlv in great museums,”