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The Useful Arts
Frieze Over South Portals

The Useful Arts

Another artist who appreciates the spirit and enterprise of our own day and finds inspiration in its humble labors is Mahonri Young. This feeling appears in much of his work and is notable in the panel of "Useful Arts," as also in the niche figures that flank it and are really part of the conception. These appear over the handsome portal arch of the Liberal Arts Palace. The beautiful grouping of the many figures in the panel is a delight; the planes of perspective are skillfully handled, without in the least marring the flat surface requisite in a mural panel. This panel of "Useful Arts" does honor to skilled labor. Men and women are shown busy with the spinning-wheel, the anvil, the forge and other implements of skilled craft. Satisfying figures in the niches, the Woman with the Distaff and the Man with the Sledge-Hammer, continue the same idea. Mr. Young's place in art is unique in that he has won distinguished consideration in three branches - painting, etching and sculpture. In the Palace of Fine Arts he exhibits twelve etchings and nine works of sculpture, several of each devoted to the phases of life expressed in this panel.

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