Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May-Oct 1922)

Page Six CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST By RAY LEWIS RT GALLERIES and Art Museums were conceived and erected for the benefit of the masses. Not that they might admire the excellent and flawless draughtmanship of master-paintings, the blending and richness of color, but that they might by this contact become impregnated with the ideal which inspired the artist In Europe they have had Art Galleries for many years; and Europe has given birth to the great Masters of Art. Europe is old enough to be slow enough to give birth to big ideas and people. These Art Galleries are the treasure-houses for the safe-keeping and preservation of treasures which “moth and rust” could corrupt. In the old country the masses are in the habit of visiting the Art Galleries, it is a holiday with them; and so familiar are they with the various paintings that it is not unusual to find what one might term a most ordinary individual discussing in a most extraordinary manner the various paintings, their artists, and the schools these paintings represent, even though unsigned by the artist. Reproductions and engravings of world-famous masterpieces are found in very simple European homes also. The old country appears to breathe in and breathe out art. On the American continent we appear to breathe in and breathe out dollars. The casual observer of life might remark that painting, sculpture, literature, in fact all the arts, are appreciated only by the cultured classes, that one must belong to the “species of high-brow” to contact the thrill that art in its perfected form inspires. The acceptance of the apparently uncultured masses of the Masterpieces of Art disproves the theory that there is anything which is truly good, too good for the masses. Moving Pictures belong to the masses, first, last and all the time. Again The Master-Projector projected a force for that Centre wherein Life’s Interest, the very Life of Life, lies. Moving Pictures were born for the inspiration, entertainment and elevation, the spiral ascent of the masses. Those who have attempted to make Moving Pictures exclusive, by appealing to the classes, first by making admission prices a luxury, and the production of pictures on a camouflaged plan, have been baffled in endeavoring to discover the reason of their defeat. This class of picture stands in the same relation, to the genuine article, as the school of futuristic abortions, called paintings, stand in relationship to the Old Masters. The classes are not interested in Moving Pictures, but casually. It is not the scheme of life that they shall be. The masses are vitally interested; and if the enthusiasm of the masses appears to be dampened it is because the camouflaged article has been offered to them, pictures without a heart or soul interest, spectacular nothings, futuristic monstrosities as boring and unentertaining as is the gilded cage to a bird who has had the freedom of the skies. The introduction of the reproduction of masterpieces in the Triart series is the birth of a lusty, virile, pulsating idea. It is the artistic expression which the screen has been endeavoring to conceive, the link which belongs to the ultra and which has been so falsely expressed in fantastic and bizarre costumes, titanic sets, mobs, lavishness of furnishing without the poise and elegance of refinement How often have we gazed upon a painting and wondered what the artist was striving to express, finally accepting the general interpretation. Take for example the Mona Lisa, which is to be one of the Triart pictures. Some have said of the Mona Lisa, “What a cruel smile she has, the sneer of a vampire.” Others have found her eyes sly, malicious. Still others, gazing upon that broad expanse of brow, have found the face of a Madonna. The cruel smile has been interpreted as the tolerant smile of one who has suffered and learned much from Life. With the screen interpretation we shall perhaps solve the mystery of this Sphynx of Portraiture, this riddle-woman, for judging by the first Digitized by Gor gle Is This the Screen Demand FRCFPAR Dspet W de Forest Louris a4 Tiffany. Francis C. Jones production of the Triart Series, “The Beggar Maid,” we can look forward to much detail and intimate facts, unknown to the general or even the interested lover of paintings On the American continent our Art Galleries are still in the growing, notwithstanding that there has been and is much buying up of the art treasures of the old world, but the old world is becoming jealous of its works of art and restricting their sale. The masses have been unable, through lack of opportunity, to become familiarized with the paintings of the masters. The Triart series will be in a position to become as an Art Gallery to the masses and perhaps do the work more potently than the Art Gallery itself. Consider the added educational value of seeing these paintings in Original from NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY their very studios, in! the breathing camyas. Personal appearances ® roborate this statemell idols of the masses, are ing of lips” with such®™ ever repeated and thei art Series will depict! pieces of Art, of the! models. The masses 7 ber most vividly a pf material. The masses haye bt a sermon, the classes exempted, but give th