TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1922
Aubrey Beardsley, Psychological Artist
(By Melen G. Lynch) not stenographic representations of are personifications and his composi- criminated-by the methods of logic,
Was Aubrey Beardsley merely "a !appearances, we have called them tion is allegorical. I shall say to you that art is not your
decadent" with weak lungs and a tal- fantastic and unreal. I sometimes think of such a work province, you had better turn to syi-
-t for making fancy lineal consposi- I repeat that Beardsley's subject- as Driesler's "Hand of the Potter" in logisms and coefficients of correlation.
lion, or was he also a subtle psycho- matter was the elusive essence of conection with Beardsley's works. At this point I wish to quote a pas-
ogical artist? t am inclined to think character. He was not dealing with There are differences and likenesses. sage from Whistler's beautiful "Ten
that he was the latter. material things which may be ob- Beardsley's conception called for a O'clock Lecture," which tells of the
I have observed a number of persons served and reproduced, but with ex- tchnique which must be seductive and indefinableness of the elements of
respond to a collection of his works periences which have not contour or immaterial; Drieser's which is repre- Beauty.
4laany attribute their interest to the explicable clarity. It was with imag- sentative as well as interpretative, "And when the evening must cloth
perfection of his technique, while they ination that he gave them nervous met a frank and straight-forward the riverside with poetry, as with a
frankly proclaim that his subject-mat- vitality through the medium of his treatment; consequently the average veil, and the poor buildings lose them-
ee is gross, morbid, or repulsive. {sinuous figures and lineal melody, person dailies in Beardsley with only selves in the dim sky, and the tall
Othe/s admit that they canot account Withe the excellent, precision of his a vague discomfiture, while he recoils chimneys become campanili, and the
for the strange fascination in plc- technique are blended those strange reeling, from Drieser. Both of these warehouses are palaces in the night,
tures that are not "true to life." They and indefinable qualities which give men have found human character to and the whole city hangs in the ,heav-
say that his drawing of anatomy, with to art its inexhaustible possibility to be somewhat different from that lily- ens, and fairy-land is before us-then
its wan faces, high cheek bones, afford pleasure, and without which and-devotion creation of our friends, the wayfarer hastens home; the work-
large lips, half-closed eyes and elon- there can be no art. the amateur pragmatists whom we Ing man and the cultured one, the wise
gated and unsubstantial torsos, is de- Had I not his work before me, misname "sociologists." man and the one of pleasure, cease
fective and disturbing. They are puz- should be inclined to think that such Although human psychology enters to understand, as they have ceased
'zled by the strange little creatures I conception o'f human nature <s into Beardsley's works, they are not to see; and Nature, who, for once,
that are like no human beings they Beardsley's could hardly receive fine text-books on the subject. It is as has sung iii tune, sings her exquisite
have ever sen. -Fronm their'-lingering -artistic execution iii a medium so re- works of art that they are truly ialo- song to the artist alone, her son and
hesitation I conclude that my friends stricted as his own. Profundity of able. Psychology is transfigured into her master-her son in that he loves
are annoyed by the significance which imagination combined with fanciful Beauty. What do I mean? That is , her, her master in that he knows her."
they decline, or are unable, to admit. atmosphere, is not so difficult to ex- something you must get from contem- Beardsley also sings in tune, he too
Perhaps this distasteful attraction press when one uses colour with all plation of the works. Beauty cannot sings his exquisite song to the artist
comes from the vague feeling that in its subtle graduations; but to produce be analyzed because it is a complete alone. Only the dullard fails to ap-
spite of their repugnant nature, these works that are devoid of blemishes fusion in which the identity of its pred:ate the aesthetic-shall I say
figures are poignantly attune with solely with black lines and black and parts are lost. If you think that ore "Charm?"-Yes, if you believe with
somaething within the beholder. white masses is a high achievement' picture might be taken and reduced the Hindu Poet that Charm is the
We have read the story, by those in a most difficult realm. His figures to its parts, its parts defined and dis- Child of Beauty and Cruelty.
who knew Beardsley, of his complete
absorption in the study of human
Paces. For hours he used to sit with
eyes focused on a single man, and
those eyes would never drop until his
imagination had penetrated beyond the
features of the face. I am convinced
that what he produced in his Black
and Whites were faithful illustrations
of the characteristics he had discov-
red on his adventures under the sur-,
face, into the depths of his fellow-
men's hidden personalities. Beards-
)ey's drawings are imaginative reflec-
tionis :'of all those hatreds, hypocri-
eies, pretences, delusions, selfish-
Messes which he discovered to be the
asnce of man when he pierced athletic
Through the rosy veil of appearances.
I man's responsiveness troubled be-
jause he cannot admit that those con-
tealed things- thins that he has for Witer W ear
- alled unnameable and inhuman-
sally are elements in his nature?
11 those traits which his vanity, his
elf-denial, his volition have denied, i 
re discovered to be active in his life
y Beardsley in his exhaustive jour-!
eys into the subterranean regions
f the unconscious. The unconscious
i-with its ugly pre-natal reminiscen-
yes, its sadisms and masochisms, its
compnable anpulsassertions of 00 INGERIE is listed among the important items of a wardrobe-and now
Because Beardsley' drawings are adays lingerie takes its place as garments o style for designers are ever
INTERVIEWING SIR GILBERT busy fashioning underthings that will be comfortable and yet stylish in ap-
(Continued from Page one) pearance. The new Futurist underwear is at once comfortable and stylish.
viay,"he continued, "should have had
international censorship, not from U
Beiy moral standpoint, but because the 1 U URIST underwear is all wool and therefore sufficiently warm for the
)icture was a conscious effort to dis- entire winter. These undergarments are made-in the popular athletic,
tredit the French. No king of France
aver tore up a prayer book before a style with bodice tops. Hemstitching around the top and on the shoulder
. Ilshop.
"International censorship is neces- straps finishes these garments and a dainty ribbon run through the top is the
§ sary because it will do much to pre- o
'ent bad blood among the nations. only form of trimming.
essue Hayakawa is In danger of his
ife because of the parts he has play- IS type of underwear s-warm and yet is
d In motion pictures," he asserted.
His work has angered the Japanese." ' not bunglesome - your frock will look
1 agreed tpat I 'had seen many pie-k
°ures and plays that were obviously well over it - and you will be comfortable all
're ated for the purpose of stirring winter long- These garments launder easily and
thea nations. anwill give long, satisfactory service. They are
One of the strongest impressions
left in .my mind by my interview with priced $4.00.
i he Ihdj ras his easy courtesy and
;amiability. When I went out to Pro- (Main Floor)
4essor Hobbs' house to meet Parker,
was put instantly at ease in the

company of the writer. Some prom-
Finent men embarass one in making
'conversation-one is oppressed with
sense of their bigness. Others, like
JSir Robert Borden, are extremely
on-committal. But Sir Gilbert was
aamiable from the first, and as he
talked with me and answered nay
uestions, I could feel the force of the 4
reat reserve of ideas drawn from
smnivorous reading, long political
and social experience, and constant
iriting. His whole conversation was
nbellished and illuminated by it.