The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-03-06

certain class OF UNPLEASANT SUBJECTS Jun
pleasant 90 thoss who arc ever In search
% such unplsasAnsness). II nevertheless
stFiving for that naturalization Of line
which was tho art Of the Chinese and
japanese centuries aRo. Not by barking
back 20 Hsllenic iisals (rathsr. what We
suppose were such) will new paths be en-
frAnchissd. IL would be bootleas here to
ank WHISTLER Msndelasohn or Strauss real
ised the spirit Of Greek tragedy. Ger
tainly Mendelssohn kept his happy tai
ont well within the grooves Of arecian
tragedy m it was imagined by German
professors In the middle Of the ninsteenth
century. What havoc resulted through
clinGinG TO tho shell and the missing II
the spirit Of tho Greeks We may note in
the ifelass marbles Of CRnova, Thor
waIdsen and also the entire body Of Ger
man sculpture. Niet1sche has shown M
10 Greek tragedy and art.
Liberalism, reAlism, symbOlism-the last
in the sense Of sectional manifesto
tions-hAve had their run during tho last
fifty yearS in Paris: Paris. which h the
proving out city Of the world for theories
% art. literature and sociology. IL Il not
merely a case Of a new fashion to dazzle
the groundlin9s, but a persistent striving
toward more vital methods. toward new
horizons. The technical expression of
art 10 always symbolic. but when a symbol
- worn from usage a Trcsher symbol 10
invented. or rediscovered by a man
Of genius. The West N rediscovering the
East. We SO the begihninEs of this in
Whistler: but Whistler concerned himself
little with things Of the soul; decoration
was the IeifmOtiV Of his art. Naturally.
after the strained symbolism and the
exaggerated literalism OF the pre- Raphael
itic movement the reaction of Whistler
was 81 great import: hut art vas not
arrested by Whistler. There IN no Canute
in its regions who can bid retire the waves
Of progress. When We aay -progreus"
We mean change; a. there In nothing new
under tho moon. progress n q word that
bait fattsrs our vanity. so this change
10 not only coming. but you may So it
in the work Of the advanced men in every
art country. velasqusx. Manet. Whistler
are no longer the trinity % paint gods.
for C6zanne has temporarily dethroned
them-that h in the eyes of the younger
chaps. CezAnne. who never entered tho
promised land. yet foresaw IL; Cezanne.
whose talent was once considered nil. t
10 whose shadow hovers over the prOduc-
ton Of the new spirits. Here IL a sta gger-
ing paradox IL you think IL over.
Decoration IL the chisf preoccupatiOn
Of the advanced painters, and Cezanne
was decorative II anything: decorative
in the Eastern way. a way that admits
vivid realism into its schetne. Arthur
d. Davies loves Cezanns a. he loves
Rodin--in his sketches perhaps more
than in stone and Odilon Rsdou. This
latter master IL little known to American
artists. although 60 him was allotted
an sntirs sale at one Of the earlier autumn
salons usOD. HIS conceptions are too
BaudelAriAn for our taste nowadayl The
illustrates -t,e- F1eurs du Mali, but his
drauRhtsmanship and color are IN the
key Of the neo symbolic movement.
There - a striking bit that Davies owns.
a head that u at once a. artless and -
subtle an the pattern Of Persian rug.
Augustus John. whom Mr.. John Quinn.
a we'll known amateur OF ART and litsra-
ture in this city. Introduced Ia Us. ~ an
other favorite % Davies. Naive also
are the sketches OI this Welsh English
painter. One cf them might be called The
HAppy Family a Frois.- IL shows a
mother and child and a young woman.
the frisnd Of the household. Il n a por-
trait Of the John family. He u painter
who would have filed George Borrow
With joy, for he consoTts with gypsies,
a udie~ then. paints them. His line n
rich and alive. The new men are deter
mined to leave out the immense supcr-
fluitia- Of the schools What they say
they say concissly: hut few of them pos
- the exalted mystic temperament of
Dayie. or q. W. Russell. the Irish painter
most Bernard Berensen has complained
OF the materlAlizm in Western art Csse
his SAs~otta study. and other critics are
Abstting him IN the attack against en-
tr~nched authority. which. like Fafner.
po-~..-.-. in s.slf .satiaiied sloth the key
to the treasure house Of art and life.
Among Shose whose work stands for
.piTituaI revolt - Arthur, y. Davies. He
10 a creative artist. He knOws how to
,l-e his tools and he has Imagination.
The week has not been devoid 81 incl
dent. several exhibitions opened toU late
20 make mention here. such a. those 81
Cecilia BeauX and Charles n Davis at Mac
beth's and Louis Marks ~ the National
Art Galleries: but there are III" Horatio
Walker pictures az the NOntross Galleries.
$50 FIFTH avenue. "a delight the eye Of the
lover of ArcadiAn landscapes. sci forth in
planRent paint. IL might he called a net
ro~p~ctivs exhibit, for among tho twenty
pictures shown ,only nineteen an the cs,tA-
loRlle, with an extra picture drafted
from the Montross paint dungeonSI there
are some that 20 back to lsaa. IsaS. 1895 The
large canvas starred AZ the end u the
room 10 the famous -Pioughing The First
Clean u9OI. n composition that II
sheer merit h considered ought to fetch
as much a. a sometime overrated Rar-
hizOn There are water colorS handled
with sense ~ delicate values. and
producing effects % liquidity. blsndDes-
and vernAl evocations. Walker IL not
too much 81 a poet 10 miss the tiniest
notations of nature u ~ a visible world
his. and a normal Painting. ~ he does.
amid French Canadians q fairly pros
porous folk. he ~ not compelled. as were
MilIet and PiaAarro. 10 r~gizt"T the infinite
. - .aaL