H Lyman Sayen
Scientist and artist 1875 - 1918
True to the hyper-inventive atmosphere of his time, H. Lyman Sayen was interested in scientific experiments which led him to a new design of a large induction coil by the time he was eighteen. Later he designed and patented a self-regulating X-ray tube. Sayen fought in the Spanish-American War and was sent to Fort McPherson, Georgia, where he was commissioned to construct and operate the country's first military X-ray laboratory.
In 1899 he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to pursue his interests in art. In 1902 he applied for a patent for an electric recording perimetert for the extraction of foreign bodies form the human eye by means of roentgenography. The patent was granted in 1905. Soon after, Sayen won a national competition for the design of four lunettes to be placed in the room assigned to the Committee on Insular Affairs at the United Sates Capitol in Washington.
In 1906 Sayen had been living in Paris with his new wife and met Leo and Gertrude Stein. He then was thrust upon the world of Fauvism and Cubism. Eventually Sayen was able to take a class with Matisse and in 1912 was invited to become a member of the Salon d'Automne - the same time a young Fernand Leger was invited.
During 1911 and 1912 he worked to patent his design of a more easily manufactured steel billiard ball.
By the fall of 1912, the Sayens apartment proved to have too many steps to incorporate the birth of their new baby. Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas were the first to visit their only child Ann. By the outbreak of WWI the Sayens moved back to Philadelphia for safety. In his first exhibition in the US generated the following review:
When the work of the futurists first burst on our ken via the international show given in the N.Y. Armory, we were told that the painters were not representing objects, but depicting sensations produced by viewing their chosen subjects. The result was somewhat incomprehnsible to many of us, but the idea at least seemed logical. Mr. Sayen, on the contrary, is very evidently depicting objects, which are usually quite recognizable, but he introduces strange color combinations and obscure forms which do not explain themselves and are disquieting to the understanding.
Clearly these early American reviewers were struggling to categorize the new art from Europe. While we would have a better time today describing Mr. Sayen's work as Fauvist because of his use of color and theories of emotions paired with color, the ideas going through the minds of artists often run very closely together. Sometimes it is difficult to label a Futurist from a Cubist for example. Cataloging can become even more difficult when you consider many artists considered themselves in different camps from one painting to the next.
Consider Sayen's painting The Thundershower, 1917-1918. There are elements of Bruitism, Simulteneity, Dynamism - all which would suggest the force of Futurism - but then then he also evokes the collage (Dada or Merz) and even the overall two-dimensional rpesentation that might have come from Cezanne or even Mondrian.
Don't forget that Sayen was also a scientist and inventor - a proponant of the triumph of technology and science. He also had views for the progress of art and its meaning. Look what he had to say at the Sketch Club in Philadelphia in 1914:
Modern art... is all spontaneity and requires an equally spontaneous apprehension. To feel it requires a quickening of the spirit. It has revealed to us men of great power. Picasso and Matisse will I believe exrt a powerful influence for a long time on painting and sculpture....
To paint today is to make a beautiful object. just as this chair is an object. It is the making of reality, not the representation of it. Popular sense has supposed the new type of art as representing peculiar emotions. It is more than that, it IS the emotions themselves. In fact emotion is no longer the name for the act, neither of its creation nor its apprehension. Perception touches nearer the mark. Its rhythm is that of the pulse, its beauty the law of God. This is the art that today confronts that atrophied half of the mentality of the United States.... It is the modern spirit, the spirit of an emancipated democracy and it has not only come at a time when the external man is saturated with the infiltration of the new sprit, but at a period when the mind of the individual presents a scene of moral confusion and the need today is for a new and more liberal brand of order for the old one has grown stale.
True to the hyper-inventive atmosphere of his time, H. Lyman Sayen was interested in scientific experiments which led him to a new design of a large induction coil by the time he was eighteen. Later he designed and patented a self-regulating X-ray tube. Sayen fought in the Spanish-American War and was sent to Fort McPherson, Georgia, where he was commissioned to construct and operate the country's first military X-ray laboratory.
In 1899 he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to pursue his interests in art. In 1902 he applied for a patent for an electric recording perimetert for the extraction of foreign bodies form the human eye by means of roentgenography. The patent was granted in 1905. Soon after, Sayen won a national competition for the design of four lunettes to be placed in the room assigned to the Committee on Insular Affairs at the United Sates Capitol in Washington.
In 1906 Sayen had been living in Paris with his new wife and met Leo and Gertrude Stein. He then was thrust upon the world of Fauvism and Cubism. Eventually Sayen was able to take a class with Matisse and in 1912 was invited to become a member of the Salon d'Automne - the same time a young Fernand Leger was invited.
During 1911 and 1912 he worked to patent his design of a more easily manufactured steel billiard ball.
By the fall of 1912, the Sayens apartment proved to have too many steps to incorporate the birth of their new baby. Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas were the first to visit their only child Ann. By the outbreak of WWI the Sayens moved back to Philadelphia for safety. In his first exhibition in the US generated the following review:
When the work of the futurists first burst on our ken via the international show given in the N.Y. Armory, we were told that the painters were not representing objects, but depicting sensations produced by viewing their chosen subjects. The result was somewhat incomprehnsible to many of us, but the idea at least seemed logical. Mr. Sayen, on the contrary, is very evidently depicting objects, which are usually quite recognizable, but he introduces strange color combinations and obscure forms which do not explain themselves and are disquieting to the understanding.
Clearly these early American reviewers were struggling to categorize the new art from Europe. While we would have a better time today describing Mr. Sayen's work as Fauvist because of his use of color and theories of emotions paired with color, the ideas going through the minds of artists often run very closely together. Sometimes it is difficult to label a Futurist from a Cubist for example. Cataloging can become even more difficult when you consider many artists considered themselves in different camps from one painting to the next.
Consider Sayen's painting The Thundershower, 1917-1918. There are elements of Bruitism, Simulteneity, Dynamism - all which would suggest the force of Futurism - but then then he also evokes the collage (Dada or Merz) and even the overall two-dimensional rpesentation that might have come from Cezanne or even Mondrian.
Don't forget that Sayen was also a scientist and inventor - a proponant of the triumph of technology and science. He also had views for the progress of art and its meaning. Look what he had to say at the Sketch Club in Philadelphia in 1914:
Modern art... is all spontaneity and requires an equally spontaneous apprehension. To feel it requires a quickening of the spirit. It has revealed to us men of great power. Picasso and Matisse will I believe exrt a powerful influence for a long time on painting and sculpture....
To paint today is to make a beautiful object. just as this chair is an object. It is the making of reality, not the representation of it. Popular sense has supposed the new type of art as representing peculiar emotions. It is more than that, it IS the emotions themselves. In fact emotion is no longer the name for the act, neither of its creation nor its apprehension. Perception touches nearer the mark. Its rhythm is that of the pulse, its beauty the law of God. This is the art that today confronts that atrophied half of the mentality of the United States.... It is the modern spirit, the spirit of an emancipated democracy and it has not only come at a time when the external man is saturated with the infiltration of the new sprit, but at a period when the mind of the individual presents a scene of moral confusion and the need today is for a new and more liberal brand of order for the old one has grown stale.
Labels: bruitism, Cezanne, dolf, fauvism, futurism, futurist, h lyman sayen, matisse, simulteneity, thundershower
posted by dolf at 17:16
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home