New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-17
Posters for the Commence
ration at Newark
Next Year.
PAINTERS IN NEED
OF DISCIPLINE
Exhibitions of Chinese Pictures
and Dutch Prints-Childe
Hassam's New Venture.
Bv ROYAL CORTISSOZ.

edness il has already Instituted
competition and selected the best de-
sign. This, with nearly hundred
others. may be seen throughout the
week at the Anderson Galleries. The
Committee Of One hundred was well
advised to give the first prize OF Sl'OVo
to Mr. Adolph Triedler. His figure Of
Robert Treat directing the landing OF
the founders in 1866. reminiscent OF
Saint-Gaudenss Puritan" is pet
uresuuely. If somewhat hlst1onlc"lly
posed. and properly dominates the
scene The color scheme Is simple ana
bold. In fact, Mr.. Triedler has the true
idea of a poster. which is to arrest the
eve instantly and in an amusing, artis-
tic manner. to give il complete salts
faction without inviting attention 70
details. Furthermore, he does nothing
to startle the beholder. Some gooG
posters have been based on rather SEN
sational conceptions, but these are not
the best. Good taste is as important
in this art as in any other. The sue
cessful designer in the present compe-
tition has not had precisely walk
over. There are several excellent
pieces in the collection and If one we're
to look merely to the manual facility
shown in the drawings one would say
that there was q lot Of miscellaneous
talent wreaking itself on work in this
field. But it is talent in need Of dis
cipline. Especially do the poster peo-
pie require to be instructed in the
delicate and very important art of let
tering. There is scarce a poster on
the walls in which the lettering has
any character at all. Mr.. Triedler's
legend is fairly we'll handled, but even
that ought to be bettered before his
poster is put in its final form.
The humorist VINO rose from long
session with literary precloslty, went
out into the landscape and there Joy
ously discovered that the tendency
grass was toward movement rather
than toward green would md much
to reward his satirical bent in our cur
rent exhibitions. They so frequently
affirm the delectable hypothesis that
the tendency of painting is toward self
assertion rather than toward art. Why
is it that the painter must nowadays
be such a stentorian individual? There
is an old phrase, invented in the stu
dos Of Paris, about making a hole IN
the wall. That process was under
standable. anyway, in Paris, where TO
be noticed in the Salon-if you had no
great gifts-you had to do something
well. noticeable. Surely it is not es-
sential in the little gallery whicl an
artist has all TO himself. There. If he
has anything to say, he ought to be
willing to say it in moderately re-
strained tones. But how he shoats!
Witness Mr.. Randall Davey, al the
Macbeth Gallery. lie is an adroit
brushman, with lively sense of color.
There is something not by any means
unpleasing about his crisp, energetic
way of painting when he keeps 1t IN
hand. But he must paint, on this oc-
casion at all events, with a mighty
sledge hammer force and the result
is mere roughness. He must give his
bright tints their fullest possible value
and therefore he leaves them hot and
crude. Dimmering up through the
clamor. as in the "Old Portuguese,
there are the merits Of sincere re J.
ist endowed with Il certain technique:
1t seems a pity that Mr.. Davey should
be. seemingly, in the mood TO sacliice
those merits to a so-called powerful"
effect.
Mr.. Hayley Lever, who also has some
space of his own at the Macbeth gallery
Just now, is not in quite such fury OF
emphasis as Mr.. Davey, but he, too. IS
being tempted away from the subtier
refnements Of painting by what we
must regard as mistaken belief IN the
efficacy of raw color. He knows the
better way. That one OF MS harbor
scenes which occupies the place OF
honor in his exhibition. has something
like an enUellope. something like at
mosphere and quality. Elsewhere he
pursues a curious sort Of directness,
curious because while II answers the
purpose Of giving US clear statement
Of natural facts il carries little or
nothing of the charm of open air truth.
His scenes are cold and hard. They
NAV be accurately reported, but any
artistic interest that they might have
is squeezed out of them, He IS too
urgent, too loud. Only a year or two
ago pictures of his were appealing to
us through their luminosity and
through the charming notes of color
in them. All that threatens to disap-
pear in a burst of purely muscular en-
ergy.
The oils, watercolors and etchings by
Miss Anne Goldthwaite which may be
seen at the galleries of the Berlin
Photographic Company develop kim
dred train of thought. She is not dis
posed 10 be raucous, we hasten 70 add,
but the influence Of Cezanne has I'M
mistakably diverted her from the ideals
of design and charm which, with her
resources, ought TO be at her finger
tips. She is all for the immediate i'm
preston and the world well lost That
will do beautifully if the artist has the
selective genius and the technical
equipment 20 assure a perfect balance
10 his swiftly working magic. But
Miss Gold,hwaite leaves her portraits,
her landscapes, her flower studies, clev-
or fragments rather than permanently
interesting works Of art. There is so
much gusto in her work, she sketches
the portrait Of a place with such a
sympathetic touch, G has so rich a
body of truth and vitality in all that
she does. that we wish she would re-
fine the mass of IL. clarity IL, give it
a more pictorial standing. To suggest
that she bring her art little nearer
10 tradition is, we suppose. TO suggest
the utterly impossible. The disciples
of Cezanne are no doubt too far in the
van 10 turn back to such mouldy mat
ters. Nevertheless we reflect little
wistfully on what slight infusion of
academic ideas might do TO strengthen
the powers of this individually serious
and effective painter.
Apropos Of tradition, all these
Younger, adventurous spirits might
profitably go and muse before the old
Chinese paintings at the Montross
Lien thn nninfinpS which with "a