NTEMPORARY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 5 SWEDISH CONTEMPORARY DECORATIVE ARTS An Address given at the luncheon of the Advisory Committee on American Industrial Art, February 2, 1927 BY GREGOR Pautsson, Pu. D. President of the Swedish Association of Arts and Crafts, Commissioner-General of the Exhibition of Swedish Contemporary Decorative Arts I AM very glad to have the opportunity to speak to a gathering of American experts in modern industrial arts, several of whom represent firms whose names are well known all over the world. Mr. Kent has asked me to tell you about the experiences which I have had in the work done in my country during recent years in order to bring the arts and crafts to a higher level. Now I must confess that I find it very difficult to point out the prin- cipal features in the development of our arts and crafts; we are in the midst of our work and therefore I cannot see it in the right perspective. Out of the occurrences of these years I can only grasp some facts which seem to me to be of special importance. First, I shall take the liberty of indicating some facts which are vot the causes of our success. I do this because of some misunderstandings apparent in an otherwise very excellent newspaper article written by a distin- guished critic. He says, “Sweden has an advantage over [3] SWEDISH CONTEMPORARY America in the lower wages that prevail there.” This is not true. Sweden pays, as far as I know, the highest wages in Europe. There are workmen in the factories of industrial art to whom higher wages are paid than to the bricklayers, and the Swedish bricklayers have as high wages as their American brothers, if you make allowance for the purchasing value of our money. Sweden is no enemy of the American idea of high wages, at least in all trades where we have not the competition of other coun- tries in the export market, and such competition does not exist in the industrial arts. The second misunderstanding is that the products of certain Swedish associations, especially those figuring as exhibitors of textiles, are assumed to have had a govern- ment subvention or to have been aided by private funds. This also is not true. The Swedish textile crafts are thoroughly self-supporting as far as concerns their pro- duction. They receive support from the government or from private individuals only for their educational work; this has no relation to their manufacturing for the market. Now it is, of course, true that the wages paid in this branch are quite low, because, to a great extent, the products are made by peasants as by-work. But these low wages are not a sweating system; the peasants’ cost of living is low, and through this by-work small farming becomes more profitable. Indeed this by-work is an im- ortant economic factor, and one of the keys to the problem of farm-relief. In analyzing the Swedish industrial arts, I think it will make things clearer to divide the production into two parts, the textile arts, which are handicrafts, and the other industrial arts, which are to a great extent organized on a quantity production basis. [2] DECORATIVE ARTS The Swedish textile arts are a revival of handicrafts along the lines pointed out by Ruskin, in fact, the only example of an industry the revival of which has suc- ceeded along these lines. Its success has depended on the continuance of original Swedish traditions, artistic and social. The interest in past times is great’ among all classes. The Swede certainly wants all modern comfort in his home, but when it comes to furnishing he pre- serves the spirit of past days. Each province has its own customs and traditions; modern life cannot destroy them. The critical period, that of the temptations of young industrialism, has passed. I believe, therefore, that the problem of the revival of the textile arts and crafts is a purely national one, and I shall pass to that of the other industrial arts, which has an international range. Now it is my opinion that you cannot get an industrial art of high quality unless you have the right social and economic conditions. The industrial arts cannot succeed solely by depen- dence either upon a very rich class or upon classes of low culture. Rich people frequently fail to distinguish be- tween the precious and the beautiful, unless they belong to the limited group of amateurs, whose main interest, again, is not modern objects but antiquities. The classes who have no culture, on the other hand, who try to follow the rich by buying imitations, or who use their first spare money for pleasure, are not our customers. We founded our efforts upon the interest of the middle class and the cultivated labor class, whose desire it 1s to get beautiful surroundings before they buy a motor-car. Sweden is happy in having such a middle class—a very large class indeed. Without them, we could not have produced the objects exhibited in the Metropolitan Le Skt SWEDISH CONTEMPORARY Museum." These people in Sweden say: “You shall eat below your earnings, dress according to them, and establish your home above them.” I think that this constitution of the middle class is not peculiar to Sweden; the same class lives under the same conditions in most countries. We have only to arouse their interest. We did that in Sweden through the press and through exhibitions, which we arranged along the lines of an educational program. The first of these ex- hibitions was arranged in 1917. My society exhibited furniture and other household things, designed by artists chosen by us and manufactured by a small group. This furniture was designed for the small homes, for workmen’s homes, etc. Now, the workmen became suspicious and sniffed charity in our work, which of course we did not mean at all. But the middle class be- came interested and supported us. So we continued to hold other exhibitions consisting of furniture for them. And then we got a slogan, which unfortunately cannot be literally translated without losing most of its force, but which means something like: “Better things for everyday life.” This slogan has been a very important instrument in our movement to place the industrial arts on a broad basis. It originated as the title of a pamphlet, which I wrote and which was distributed at the Swedish Fair in Gothenburg in 1919. The slogan was a good headline for the newspapers, firms adopted it, it was on everybody’s lips. People became conscious that they must make their homes more dignified. The homes which were set up by the young people were to a quite astonishing degree built with that slogan in mind. Of course, there must be something behind a slogan. 1 January 17—March 20, 1927. [4] DECORATIVE ARTS The manufacturers must produce those better things, and the dealers must sell them. Now a pretense exists among most manufacturers and dealers that the con- sumers’ taste cannot be improved. But this is not true. People buy what you tell them to buy. The dealer told them to buy his common stock; we told them not to buy it. And the dealer had to get other stock. This is very simple; in fact, it is too simple. Dealers still carry the old stock, but you can buy the new glass and pottery in most stores in Sweden. And, the policy of the best manu- facturers being directed towards better design and qual- ity in all their new products, the time will undoubtedly come when the majority of Swedish products will be on the same level as that which appears in the exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So much for the relation between producer and con- sumer. I repeat that the establishing of this relation is an educational work. It is of course easier to carry it out in a small country like mine, but there is no essential difference between a great country and a small one in this respect. You must, however, have people who de- vote themselves exclusively to it. It is not a side-line. Now I come to the codperation between producer and artist. In order to get the manufacturers to understand the importance of artistic quality in their products, we had to consider the economic basis of production; we had to consider the relation of the quality of the product to its selling capacity. We insisted that the competition by means of low price and low quality should be re- garded as an infantile stage of industrialism, and I think this is true. If you look at the motor-car business, for instance, you will find that there is more interest today in good cars than in the inexpensive but short-lived [e34 SWEDISH CONTEMPORARY ones. Sweden cannot compete with other European countries in low prices, but we can compete in quality, and in the establishing of quality the artist plays an important part. So our industrial art is founded upon a solid economic basis. But however correct this principle may be, the establishing of codperation between manu- facturers and artists is a very difficult thing, and we had hard days before we obtained sufficient experience. It is not enough to bring artist and manufacturer together; both parties must accommodate themselves to new con- ditions. The manufacturer must depart from his usual routine work; he must give the artist a place in the schedule of his production. It is not enough to buy pat- terns; they are of no use by themselves, rather they do harm. The artist must be in the factory, and not as a workingman but as a staff-oficer. He must have re- sponsibility, and he must have freedom. He cannot make designs three hundred and sixty-five days a year, he must have leisure time to get inspiration for his work. Therefore, most of our factories require the artists to work only half the time. In the second place, the manufacturer must have patience. The first year’s work is never good; the designs on paper may be so, but not the products. It 1s only when the artist has become accustomed to the technique, the materials, and other conditions that the products are good. In the third place, you must get the right artist. Here I shall try to indicate the most important points of our policy. As a rule we do not use the students of the arts and crafts schools as leading artists in factories. We have found that in only a few cases have they sufficient capacity. The place of the great mass of the students in [6 ] DECORATIVE ARTS arts and crafts schools is as assistant-designers to the artists, as factory foremen, or as skilled artisans for special work. The creation of new models is so important that only the very best men should be permitted to make them. So instead of using the average designer to do this work, we try for the best artists that we can get: painters, sculptors, and architects. Now it is, of course, not an easy task to find an artist of high genius who 1s willing to change his work. Most artists are people who have studios and starve. But they have freedom and they believe they are geniuses. To go into manufacturing is a humiliation. Therefore, you must get the few intelli- gent artists who are still young, who have a progressive spirit, and whose minds are not sophisticated. I always feel that the greatest responsibility of my society 1s to get the right artists in touch with the manufacturers. When a manufacturer comes to us asking for an artist, we always take plenty of time, examine his factory, its organization, aims, and staff. We analyze the conditions of production in that factory, we make a program, not only for a season but for a series of years. Then we proceed in the same way with the artist and, after all these preliminaries, the two men are brought together. It may seem to you that this is a very elabo- rate process. But, as I said, I look upon the artist as a sort of executive officer, and, therefore, you must find two men who can codperate and you must find the basis for that codperation. One mistake spoils two successes. Manufacturing in recent years was a matter of rou- tine. To be frank, it required but little knowledge on the part of either manufacturer or artist. The new industrial art will rest on a more dignified basis. It will be founded upon the requirements of a cultivated consumer. It will, fgirs SWEDISH CONTEMPORARY therefore, require a cultivated producer and an intelli- gent artist, and it will strive to put the life of the com- munity on a higher level than that which characterizes the primitive age of a young productive system. [eed ty »j # NOGRAPHS | Agewes NDUSTRIES: A. THE OILLISS PRESS