Evening star., 1914-12-26

~
temporary American paintings at
the Corcoran Gallery Of Art in
IL creases as the days pass and de-
spite the many distractions of the
holiday season. No exhibition held by
the Corcoran Gallery has attracted
quite so much attention or been SO
widely discussed.
This may be partly accounted for by
the extremely varied character of the
display and by the fact that in it are
included works by some of the more
radical painters who do not walk in the
we'll worn paths of tradition. That
which is novel and timely is almost
sure to prove interesting for the mo-
ment, whether 1t Is admirable or not,
and anything which creates thoughtful
discussion is bound in the end to be
productive of good.
Viewed in the light of the Armory
show. held in New York a couple of
seasons ago, or as compared with some
more recent exhibits held in dealers
galleries in the same city, supposedly
the art center of this country, the Cor
coran Gallery's exhibition is exceeding
| ly temperate and conservative. Not
one of the artists exhibiting can be
classed among the "post-impression
| ists,'' "cubists,' "futurists' or the like.
| yet there is an obvious undercurrent
of unrest, tendency toward innovation,
if not exaggeration, which is unsettling
and not readily to be understood. To
an extent this movement is peculiarly
contemporaneous, rejecting the spirit
of the time.
The inclination is to throw off the re-
straints of law, to disregard the amen
tiles of beauty, to discount the value
of contemplative thought and to over
| emphasize the value of frank and direct
expression. The jewel must be shown
| without setting. the nut served un-
shelled, the thought naked and un-
adorned: there Is neither time nor taste
for dalliance. The curious and inter-
esting thing about all this. however, is
that 1t really is not new at all. Up to
the present time not one of the mod
ernists had out-A1aneted Manet. And
SO far as expressionism goes. the
Egyptians and the American aborigines
are in this particular field unexcelled.
1t is not unlikely, however, that the
art of today really stands in need of the
tquickening force of some revolutionary
tendencies. 1t is so easy to be COM
monplace, SO simple to follow in the
footsteps of others.
INNE thing which may well be re-
~ marked in connection with this
exhibition, which is Characteristic OF
all cotemporary exhibitions in this
country. is the small number of sub
| ject paintings shown. There are more
than 800 pictures in this collection, and
/ as few as TWO dozen paintings in all
can be considered in this category.
| 1t has been said that our genre paint
ers in America have all armed Illus
traitors, and to an extent this is true.
The enormous demand that the current
magazines have made for pictorial rep
resentations of cotemporary life has
not only caused many artists to give
| their chief time and attention to illus
| trating, but has in the form of multi
| tudinous illustrations satisfied the
(, public's desire for such representation.
| If in the future we wish to recall the
| social aspects of our own time. we
| shall have to turn to the drawings of
such illustrators as n. b. Frost,
| Charles Dana Gibson, Mary Wilcox
Smith and others, rather than to the
works of the painters of the present
time. Then. too. picture painting
| reached 4 pretty low cbb some years
ago and became extremely poor and
inartistic. Hence, it fell into disrepute
and. not knowing how to remedy the
ailment, it was left to languisn ana
die
The real trouble was that the sub
| iectS chosen were too trivial and not
| iufrequcntly might better have been
rendered in words than in pigment
Kenyon Cox, dealing with this subject
in one of his lectures, reminded his
hearers that the great masters of all
time had loved to tell stories in pic
lures. and none more SO than the great
est of them all. Rembrandt himself.
| But these great painters always con-
ceived the subject pictorially and rem
ldered 1t in the terms OF art. The COM
position was well considered, perfect
ly balanced, the color was harmonious
ly disposed. the whole theme was en-
jveloped in an exquisite tone, So wheth-
er one gave attention to the subject
or not, the appeal which art alone can
make was there. But beneath this
was the idea which in turn gave
permanency and stability to interest.
II is the absence of ideas which ma kes
so much of contemporary art uninter-
esting save as a demonstration of tech
meal achievement II is true that
Saint Gaudens has said that II is not
what one does but the way one does
lieve that behind every work which
this great sculptor created was a def
mite and concrete idea Furthermore,
all subjects are not equally pictorial
nor interesting-the accidental COM
binations of light, color and form vary
indefinitely and are meaningless or
lovely as chance or enlightened wisdom
may decree.
| The artist is, or should be, one who
is primarily fitted by instinct or train
ing instantly to recognize the pictorial
when found in nature or to produce
it artihcially when creative mind.
Tie world is teeming with pictorial
Il 4 1v-1 N,,xo