MODERN ART
ONE of the first results of The Dial's publication of a folio of facsimiles of living art—and I expect many—will be an immediate inquiry into the reason why no such institution as the German Ganymed Press which made these astonishing prints exists in this country; and since Americans are loth to deny themselves anything and are thought to have a particular genius for facsimiles themselves, the demand will straightway follow that we facsimile the Press that so admirably facsimiles works of art.
A difficulty in the way of our doing such work—and I state it not to be pessimistic, but merely in the effort to begin at the beginning—is that something quite foreign to the present state of mind in America seems to be required for it, an infinite degree of patience upon the part of the workman; two years, I'm told, having been required for the present folio. Then, as though patience in itself were not a great deal to expect of a workman, these Germans have had to understand the language of art and the special accents not of one, but in this instance of many artists, so to render all the vagaries of touch. I know nothing of the Ganymed processes, but I know enough of the camera and reproductions in general to know that science and machines cannot interpret, and where an artistic effect is repeated by machinery a human being who knew art guided the apparatus to its end. That has been the error that has stopped us hitherto in this country that those who have guided the machines have not known art.
To me, an American, the present accomplishment seems marvellous. I have had the privilege of comparing one or two of the originals with the facsimiles and, with a bit of luck, I guessed which was which, but I must confess it was only guessing. In particular, the reproduction of Picasso's painting in tempera, Le Bain des Chevaux, amazes me. I have not seen the original for some years, but had this reproduction been passed to me in an ordinary room and, say, under glass, I should have accepted it unsuspectingly. The few among my friends who have already seen the folio have each had their own amazements. One told me he was thrown absolutely into confusion by the two Signacs, not
