Meanwhile, the war was upsetting the plans for the exhibits, notably the
exhibit of painting and sculpture.
When John E. D. Trask, for many years director of the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts, was appointed Director of the Fine Arts Department
at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, he had made a careful
survey of the field he had to cover. It virtually consisted of the whole
civilized world. After arranging for the formulation of committees in
the leading cities of the East and the Middle West to secure American
work, he made a trip to Europe, visiting England, France, Holland,
Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Austria and Italy. With the exception of
England and Germany, the governments were sympathetic. The indifference
of those two countries was at the time was not quite comprehensible.
There might have been several explanations, including the threat of war.
There were also those who said that England and Germany had entered into
a secret alliance against this country for the purpose of minimizing the
American influence in commerce, soon to be strengthened by the opening
of the Panama Canal. Wherever the truth lay, the fact remained that both
countries maintained their attitude of indifference. Individual English
and German artists and organizations of artists, however, showed a
willingness to co-operate.
Through emissaries, mainly unofficial, Americans of influence, Trask
drew on the resources of all Europe. He also entered into negotiations
with China and Japan, both of which countries, with their devotion to
art, as might have been expected, co-operated with enthusiasm. The
display at the Fine Arts Palace promised to make one of the greatest
international exhibits in history, if not the greatest.
At the outbreak of the war it looked as if the whole of Europe might
become involved and it might be impossible to secure anything that could
properly be called a European art exhibit. Meanwhile, the space reserved
for the European exhibitors must he filled. It happened that, at the
time, Trask was in the East. He quickly put himself into personal
communication with the New York artists, who had been invited to send
three or four works, and he asked them to increase the number. He also
arranged with his committee for the securing of a much larger number of
American pictures. Under the circumstances he was bound to rely on the
discretion of his juries. The result was that he had to take what came.
It included a large number of excellent works and others of doubtful
merit.