Part 2 (2/2)

The department of sculpture was placed under the direction of one of the uished sculptors in the country Karl Bitter, of New York, whose death from an automobile accident took place a feeeks after the Exposition opened He gathered around hi many of theCalder as the acting chief, the h he did not contribute any work of his own, he was active in developing the work as a whole, taking special pains to keep it in character and to see that, even in it its diversity, it gave the impression, of har scale and to carry out big ideas With Bitter he visited San Francisco in August, 1912, for a consultation with the architectural commission Minutely they went over the site and examined the architectural plans Then they picked the sculptors that they wished to secure as co-operators

In December, 1912, Bitter and Calderwith the architectural co sketches and scale models Bitter explained his plans in detail and asked for an appropriation He was told that he should be granted six hundred thousand dollars The aradually reduced till it finally reached three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars

It was at this period that Calder subress He had worked it out in New York and had the scale models made by MacNeil and Konti It won the approval of McKim, Mead & White, who declared that it made an ideal feature of the approach from the bay side to their Court of the Universe, then called the Court of the Sun and Stars

The next fewthe sculptors together and working out the designs The firstof the sculptors took place in January, 1913, in Bitter's studio, with a re D C French, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, James E Fraser, H A MacNeil, A A

Weinhs and several others In detail Bitter explained the situation in San Francisco and outlined his ideas of what ought to be done Already Henry Bacon had sent in his design for his Court of the Four Seasons and sculptors were set to work on its ornaers, Furio Piccirilli, Miss Evelyn Beatrice Longthe Sculpture

In June, 1913, Calder returned to San Francisco to stay till the Exposition ell started On the grounds he established a huge workshop Then he began the practical developing of the designs, a great mass, which had already been carefully sifted Hitherto, in American expositions the work had been done, for the ht, a method costly in itself and all the e San Francisco, by being so far from New York, would have been a particularly expensive destination From every point of view it seemed imperative that the work should be done here

In a feeeks that shop was a hive of industry, with sculptors, students of sculpture front the art schools, pointers, and aall their energies toward the completion on time of their colossal task A few of the sculptors and artisans Calder had brought from New York But most of the workers he secured in San Francisco, chiefly fron population, solish

Theof the replicas of well-known art works were, alinal as directly hout the Exposition For the enlarging of single pieces and groups the pointing machine of Robert Paine was chosen by Calder It was interesting to see it at work, under the guidance of careful and patient operators, tracing nified scale For the finishi+ng of the friezes the skill of the artist was needed, and there Calder found able assistants in the two young sculptors, Roth and Lentelli, orked devotedly theroups of students

In all the sculpture Calder strove to keep in nificance of the Exposition and the spirit of the people ere celebrating With him styles of architecture and schools were a minor consideration, to be left to the academicians and the critics He believed that sculpture, like all other art-for as huures

Less successful on the whole than the blending of sculpture and architecture were the individual figures designed to be placed against the walls Some of them were extremely well done Others were obvious disappointht have objected to the alratuitous use of nudity For a popular exhibition, even the widely-traveled and broad-ht have been persuaded that a concession to prejudice could have been nificent entrance to the grounds it was dee of the Exposition should be symbolized by an elaborate fountain So in the heart of the South Gardens there was placed the Fountain of Energy, the design of A Stirling Calder, the athletic figure of a youth, lobe, which served for pedestal, the sy on either side The work, as a whole suggested the triu the difficulties in the way, of uniting the two oceans Itof all the reat basin, soures on their backs, contributing to an effect peculiarly French

The Coluested by Calder and planned in outline by Sy beautiful symbol and remarkably successful in outline, was perhaps the inal of all the achieve new in being the first great coluinative and idealistic conception Most coluure or historic feat, usually related to war But this column stood for those sturdy virtues that were developed, not through the hazards and the exciteh the persistent and hoh the cultivation of those qualities that laid the foundations of civilized living Isidore Konti designed the frieze typifying the swar millions ofthe circular frieze of toilers, sustaining the group at the top, three strong figures, the doht alit to its er to follow in the path of advance

The Aim of the Sculptors