New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-28
A Triumph of Talent and Taste
Over Fantas tic atty.

There is something that excites dis
trust about the artist who cannot make
an exhibition without writing pref
ace for the catalogue. You at once
suspect that there are things in his
work which require to be explained
away. In this matter we are not a. to-
gether disappointed by Mr.. Stephen
Haweis, who prefixes very ingenious
little essay to the list OF his South Sea
and Caribbean pictures at the gallery
of the Berlin Photographic Company.
He has been attracted by some OF the
so-called new" ideas and accordingly
ne has the usual disparaging comments
TO make on the old ones. 81 have lain
on the deck of tiny sailboat fifty miles
from anywhere while the moon leaped
IN and down till it seemed like a zig
gag stripe across the purple sky. Shall
enc not try to record, however feebly,
the ioy of such moments beneath the
CANOPY of those incredible nights? The
solitary blot of silver permitted by the
academician is the last thing with
which to do So" We love that naive
little slap at the poor academician. II
is consummately in the manner of all
the self-elected "revolutionaries" of our
time. II you can't play the game &C
cording to Hoyle, or, so playing It,
can't accomplish anything, follow your
own sweet willard patronize or abuse
Hoyle. Mr.. Haweis, who has received
the conventional training and has
painted as a disciple Of Whistler, Con-
der and others, now wants TO paint in
a fantastic way Of his own. To JUS
tify himself he must drag in the acad-
emician and pirate about the latter's
SOLITARY blot of silver" 1t doesn't
really follow that the academiclan
would use such blot in. the depletion
OF a zigzagging moon. but we must take
il for granted that he would do just
that thing. He must be wrong. How,
otherwise, are We to prove that Mr..
uaweis is right?
Well. as it seems TO US, Mr.. Haweis
is wrong. The notions he sets forth in
his preface fail to convince US when
we look them up in his paintings and
-water colors. The latter do not in the
least impress us, as pictures. But then
we are confronted by one of the oldest
phenomena we have encountered in a
long time. Mr.. Haweis does in another
way impress us good deal; he gives us
almost unalloyed pleasure. He has
taste. He has talent. With these gifts
he pretty nearly smothers his own alb
surd Enthusiastically. 81 received vivid
impressions Of color, form, sunlight,
fragrance, Joy and tranquility" he
saws. "Here is my thanksgiving. We
accent il in the shape of paintings which
are not paintings, pictures which are not
pictures, but colored quaintnesses that
are inefrably amusing. He,watches the
strange fishes drifting about in what he
aptly calls the sea gardens of the
Bahamas and records his impressions
In curious patterns OF line and color.
These patterns make enc think of vari-
Gus things-of stained glass windows,
of Japanese prints. of the Nominations
in some bit of agate. They are hope
lesslv arbitrary in arrangement. There
is no composition in the accepted sense
~ the term. The treatment of form is
naturalistic enough. but it has cubs
tic accent. IL is in world turned upside
dawn that the maker of these designs
NAV be said to dwell. But in some
vague way he exerts a decorative spell,
"a mia color now sparkles like jewel
and now CLOVIS softly with the moonlit
mystery of romance. At the bottom OF
his theorizing lie the virtues OF the
artist who can draw. who can really use
his instruments. II is grotesquely
self.assertive kind OF art, on the wrong
tracy subversive Of principles that VIII
ius,ifv the hapless academician, with
His SOLITARY blot" long after the pass
10 charm OF these kaleidoscope i'm
nrovisations has faded. But while the
ksIeidoscope is working il undeniably
witches the eye