The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-03
Brooklyn Bridge" by Knoll.


stranger than the men named.
We accept Wagner as a genius, but
Strauss-oh. no. he is too strange. But
there are stranger composers than
Strauss already at work. and we must
travel fast To keep up with the pro-
cession.
BE very sure the Cubists. the Fu-
turists and all the other queer lists
would not make the impression they
are making If there were not a good
reason for 1t. il the times were not ripe
for a change.
one of the early buyers Of Impress
sionist pictures was distinguished
Chicago woman. and her collection to-
day contains some of the finest Monets,
Renoirs and Degases in existence.
When her friends heard she had bought
some forty or fifty Moncts they shook
their heads in d!smay at such folly.
This was not many years ago, less
than thirty. and now the pictures are
in demand the world over and worth
ten. fifteen. twenty times what they
cost.
The same ladies and gentlemen who
shook their heads at the Monets in 1870
shook their heads at the Cuhsts in
1913. II they live another quarter W
century they will once more shake
their heads at the new art of that da ::
for such is life.
Neo-Impressonism was the logical
outcome of Impressionism. Ii was SIM
ply the attempt to paint light in stl!l
more scientific fashion by the use of
the primary colors laid on in fine points
in such manner that at the proper
distance the points fuse and produce
the tone desired.
The use of small dabs or points of
color instead Of brush strokes gained
for the movement the name "Pointil-
ism"
Neo-Impressionism was not reac-
ton from Impressionlsm but an at
tempt to advance still further the paint
ing OF light effects.
Passing one morning among a num-
Der Of first year students drawing from
casts in the Chicago Art Institute
was struck by the large number who
were making what would pass for Gu
| bist sketches: yet not one of these
| young students had seen a Cubist pic
| ture. All were simply following
| the regular course OF instruction ant
drawing In planes.
l remember one drawing Of statue
by Michael Angelo. There was not O
straight line in the statue; there was
| not a curved line in the drawing; tn,
| drawing was blocked out far more sol
| idly and geometrically than. for in
stance. either the original design fol
THE Man on the Balcony" or the nm
ished painting.
| In another room I ran across q
teacher who was indicating by few
geometrical lines drawn from points
the essential features OF statue thu
pupil was about to begin blocking In
The lines looked exactly like the geo
metrical lines in drawing by Picasso
| There Is therefore nothing funda
mentally new or strange in the technt
OF the Cubists; 1t is simply return
| to the use OF the elemental in drawing
| of the very a, u, c OF design. The new
and the strange lie in the fact that thu
Cubsts stop with planes and lines
they do not attempt to model the sur
faces of the things they paint
Not that the use OF planes Is all there
is to the theory Of Cubism, for thu
theory extends far beyond the paintinf
of surfaces 1t embraces the prcsenta
ton Of the very substance and nature
Of persons and objects by means OF {
technic in which planes are the vita
| feature.
| Albert Durer wrote book on INT
proportions of the human hgure; !
was published in 1928 and TRANSLATED
into many languages.
So far as the use of planes AM
angles is concerned, these diagrams ID!
Durer should serve to disarm criticism
That the human figure can he decom
posed into straight lines and angles vii
10. .... 30. NJ
laughed at the Cubist paintings AM
only the authority of great nam
would convince that any good coul'
result from such an analysis.
Suppose any one of the Durcr dia
grams had been framed and hung il
the Cubist section; would II not hav
been treated with ridicule?
The men who arranged the cXhibi
ton could have played with critics AM
artists-thc men who claim to know
by including many things of recognize
position in academic art and teaching
which would have seemed as ahsur
as the newest % the new pictures.
The very high aesthetic value q
drawing and painting in planes, an
with small regard to the so-called law
OF irrespective, Is Illustrated in the rar
beauty OF Chinese and Japanese paint
ings. From the point Of view of thci
greatest painters, we carry pcrspcctlv
and imitation to extremes that destro
art.
. One value of the Cublst movement
/ lies in arousing a sense of the strengt
possessed by the simple ana elemental
T In Oriental art, In archaic arr, !
!, primitive Italian art, In not llttl
? modern decorative work, we have lon