Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-14
NOTABLE PICTURES
ARE ON EXHIBITION
Corcoran Art Gallery to Hold
Private View and Re-
ception Tonight.
UNUSUAL VARIETY SEEN
IN WORKS OF PAINTERS
Productions of Ultra-Conservative
and Advanced Modernist Have
Places on the Walls.

There are some very notable pictures
in the fifth Biennial exhibition of CO.
temporary American paintings held by
the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which
opens with a private view and recep-
ton this evening.
Three hundred and thirty paintings
by living American artists constitute
the exhibit. and occupy all the gall
leries as well as the atrium on the
second floor of the Corcoran Gallery.
This means that the majority of the
foremost artists in the United States
are represented, and that the exhibit
ton as whole will be found compre-
hensive. 1t is, however, more than
this. 1t is exceedingly varied. The
intention of those responsible for this
exhibition was that it should frankly
and fully reflect the tendencies of the
present time and represent those di-
vergent elements which in the aggregate
stand for the sum total of current pro-
duction. This it does. and at what
ever conclusions one may arrive after
viewing the exhibition, all will admit
that it has for this very reason excep-
tional interest and value.
In some exhibitions the average of
merit is SO even as to become monot-
onous. This is not the case here. There
are mountain peaks and pretty low
valleys-works of extra ordinary merit
and works with no merit at all save
perhaps that of technical skill in pro-
duction. There are paintings by art
lists who today are listed among the
ultra-conservative and there are paint
ings by those who are to be classad
among the so-called advanced mod
ernists. Indeed. so varied is the view
point that at times there is danger of
confusion, and the visitor will find it
necessary to pause and ask himself
what. after all. the object of art is,
and what does or does not constitute
merit in painting.
Opens the Eyes.
James NJ. Barrie has said that the
chief end and aim of all art is to open
the eyes of those who will look to
beautiful thoughts and beautiful
things. Kenyon Cox has told us that
the primary business of painting is to
create a beautiful surface, beautifully
divided into interesting shapes, en-
livened with noble lines, varied with
lovely and harmonious colors-its sec
ondary business to remind the spec
tator of things he has seen and adj
mired in nature. and to create the illu-
sion of truth Millet, the great French
peasant painter, once remarked that
art Is language, and all language is
intended for the expression of ideas,
adding ito have painted things that
mean nothing is to have borne no
fruit" With such suggestive defini-
tons as these in mind an exhibition
! IKE TINS, opening lOilSnt III tue Cor
coran Gallery. becomes doubly inter-
esting and significant
| The place of honor In the gallery
opposite the main staircase, where one
| year hung Sarsent's imposing painting
| of the group of eminent physicians
connected with the Johns Hopkins Uni
versity Hospital. is occupied this year
| by a painting of Concert Singer"
| by Thomas Eakins of Philadelphia
picture painted more than few years
| ago. 1t Is Il large and interesting can
vas picturing the young woman stand
| ing upon the concert stage in the act
| of singing. She wears u pink satin
| brocade gown. at her feet are pink
roses, tributes to her popularity and
success: to the left. at the bottom Of
the canvas, appears the hand OF the
| leader of the orchestra holding his
| baton. The lady is by no means beau
| tiful, and the open mouth from which
| no sound comes is to an extent dis
| tresSing, as is any fixed representation
| of suspended action. The appraised
| hand OF the leader also suggests ar
| rested motion and further forces the
| conviction that the picture as present
| ed is not complete i'll itself but merely