Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/810

 794 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

was one of the direct results of the exaltation of the fine arts in Chicago and the Middle West by the World's Columbian Expo- sition. They grew out of the general increase in attention to the so-called fine arts the expressions of beauty in the graphic and plastic media which was given a much greater impetus by the Exposition than was activity in other forms of express- ing the aesthetic interest. This attention was not ended with the passing of the rich collection of paintings, drawings, and sculp- ture in the Art Building of staff at the Fair grounds. There was a permanent result more influential locally, and from which art magazines emanated more directly. The impressive and beauti- ful structure of the Art Institute of Chicago, standing on the Lake Front border of the city's business maelstrom, was erected in 1892. The World's Fair commissioners and the Art Institute trustees built it and gave it to> the municipality. It was tempo- rarily used for Columbian Exposition congresses. But the monu- mental structure of blue-gray stone, its architecture of the Italian Renaissance style, with details in classic Ionic and Corinthian, was erected on such a scale as would fit it to stand as a permanent shrine, where worshipers of the fine arts might gather in its museums and grow in appreciation of beauty, and where those with creative ability might assemble in its studios and learn technique. The art magazines which accompanied the general interest in fine arts awakened by the exposition, and the perma- nent establishment of this institution of art, did not depend pri- marily on literary form for their appeal to the aesthetic interest. But since the art of letters is furthered by the parallel increase of interest in painting and sculpture, the growth in this phase of the aesthetic interest, and the magazines which went with it, are to be considered in giving an account of the literary interests of Chicago.

Brush and Pencil is the name which two artistic magazines started at the Art Institute have borne, one of them, a general art magazine which has broken the local bounds, being still pub- lished regularly. In October, 1892, the first magazine of that name was attempted at the Institute. It lived but a short time, and was soon absorbed by Arts for America.