In the last decade each of the large department stores, Bon Marche, Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, and the Louvre, has in augurated a special department Offering all kinds of material conceived in the modern spirit, and has placed at the head of this department an individual of talent and reputation in this field. Each of these directors is furnished with a staff of de signers and personally designs or superintends the design in his own studio of much of the material offered by his department. This development has had an important commercial result, inas much as it has popularized the movement by bringing its produc tions within the reach of the ordinary purse, whereas the modern creations up to a few years ago were to a large extent objets de luxe available only to the wealthy.
Another organized body of considerable importance is that of the Societe des Artistes Decorateurs, who hold a salon embracing the field of the industrial arts each spring and autumn in the Grand Palais. For years this society has admitted to its exposi tions only works conceived in the modern spirit, and has refused place to all objects distinctly based upon the old styles. In the same direction is the important influence of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs and the Musee Galliera, which hold frequent tempo rary expositions.
Finally, as the culminating recognition of a national attitude, France organized and carried through the International Exhibi tion of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in 1925. Per haps the most important lesson to be derived from the exhibition was that which must be studied in all manifestations of modern ism if the movement is to survive as a salutary influence in con temporary life, viz., that the only expressions in this new mode which are significant and which will serve to carry forward the level of applied art are those which conform to the age-old requirements of good design and at the same time possess those qualities which are in sympathy with the needs and taste of their times. Novelty for novelty's sake, queerness and freak ishness of form that violate the demands of function and struc ture, are but the effort of mediocre designers to attract attention. These represent the incubus that holds back the movement, and that must be discounted to gauge its true meaning and possibilities. Much of the material shown at the exhibition was of this charac ter. In each division there was to be found the work of only a few individuals possessed of sufficient culture, talent and under standing to interpret the tendencies of their times in forms both old in quality and yet new in spirit. If the modern movement is
to be a real evolution it is obviously only the work of such men that is significant, and it is their creations that must be examined rightly to appraise its nature and its tendencies. That leadership of a high order was in evidence in the French section of the exhi bition is hardly to be disputed. Whether the rank and file of French producers will take their cue from these sources or con tinue to follow after mere novelty remains to be seen.
Germany since the war has been gradually resuming interest in modernism. The heavy and awkward character often to be seen in the earlier ventures has very largely disappeared and the productions of many establishments, particularly those of the Deutsche Werkstatte of Munich and Hellerau, are marked with fine sobriety, simplicity and good taste together with moderate cost. The German schools of industrial art play a very important part in the present day situation. Often directed by men of ex ceptional talent, they are almost as a unit emphasizing design in the new spirit and adding to this thorough and intensive con structive processes.
In England a number of individuals, whose initial devotion was to the arts and crafts, have continued their creative work into later times and have made valuable contributions to modern de sign. One establishment, Heal and Son, under the direction of Ambrose Heal, has served as a connecting link between the two periods and in its productions during the last 3o years has pre sented a continuous picture of the highest expression of English modernism. This firm has not only exhibited a fine sanity and purity of taste in its own furniture, but it has constantly presented and encouraged the best efforts of English manufacturers and craftsmen in many other branches of applied art. This is par ticularly true of ceramics, in which field the products of the great English potteries as well as those of individual craftsmen have been given prominent place.
After the scant display of modern furniture at the Paris exhibi tion of 1925, English manufacturers showed rather surprising ac tivity which in three years resulted in an exhibition of a dozen furnished rooms in London, some of which displayed a sound grasp of the true spirit of modernism and attained a high degree of artistic taste.