THREE years have elapsed since the Armistice announced the cessation of hostilities, and the countries involved are still in the throes of the aftermath of war. The bubble of false prosperity has been burst, and men have been made to face want and starvation instead of their former hardships and perils of sudden death. There have been murmurs of discontent and threats of revolution. It is as though one walks on the edge of a volcano and hears a subterranean rumble or sees an occasional rising of smoke.
Not only in the sphere of material things but also in the spheres of thought and aesthetic expression has the difference been made evident. As men enduring the stark realities of war have experienced strong emotions and become aware of their greater value as individuals, so has the war had a decided effect on individual expression in art. There has been in the different forms of art a decided strain of discontent with present and accepted limits, and a striving after a more comprehensive reach and a stronger grasp. “Jazz” music which changes rhythm and delights in discords, has taken hold of the popular fancy. Young poets have discarded the conventions binding them to metre and rhyme, and have plunged into the wild dissipation of “vers libre”. And the graphic and plastic arts have undergone violent upheavals, which have created amazement and sometimes dismay.
All this cannot be traced directly to the great struggle, but the war has undoubtedly accentuated these elements and given rise to the extreme forms of expression which have caused a part of the public to dismiss such art as hysterical or another section to applaud it as divine. Neither view will stand the test of critical survey, and the sensational features made prominent are not altogether representative. Art has been through the threshing machine, and while much chaff has been turned out, there still remains the precious grain. There is the quality of a more earnest endeavour after the individual perception of tru th; a more daring conception and vigour of expression; a greater sincerity in the use of the chosen medium and independence of ulterior motive. In graphic art, the tendency has been checked to depend on poetic or mythological theme and lull the senses of the public with a soothing and easily comprehended literary interpretation. Art has claimed its right to be appreciated for its own values, and this has led to the emphasis on arrangement of line and form, relative values of tone, and harmony and contrast of colour.
Naturally these elements have considerable prominence in the products of the younger artists, and Glasgow, as elsewhere, has felt the influence of the reviving waves. The works reproduced in this, the second number of this Annual, are representative of the members of the younger art community connected with the Glasgow School of Art. They have been selected and arranged with a view to forming a complete art production indicating the existence and expression of certain ideals. It is a platitude that art is a reflection of the minds and spirit of men. This magazine is intended, within the limits imposed by such a publication, to be a reflection of the aims of the community represented and to diffuse more widely the expression of those aims. The first number of “The Palette” achieved considerable success, and we present the second number to the public as a production with a definite aim and aesthetic quality, in the hope that it may prove of interest, and perhaps indicate an art not without a certain freshness and vigour.
In addition to this, we are fortunate in being able to print, with illustrations, an article by Mr. E. McKnight Kauffer, whose theme is worthy of careful study, and who is entitled to speak as one having authority. We also reproduce the design by Mr. R. Anning Bell of the memorial window to the late Professor Eugene Bourdon.
