New-York tribune., 1919-10-26
On the Attitude of the Public
In These Matters

III IlcSe waters
1t does so look, we believe. warmly
sympathizing with company of men
apparently facing in the right direc-
ton. The public has also, however,
purely selfish relation TO the subject
which we hope the new society will
keep in mind. What the public wants
and is entitled to have as we have re-
peatedly pointed out in this place, is
good exhibitions. Abstract benevolence
apart, it does not care two straws about
the jury system in vogue at the Acad-
emy or about the absence of any jurv
system at all from the proceedings of
the Painters, Sculptors and Gravers.
1t is, and it ought to be, stonily indif-
ferent to the pathos of the individual
In the presence of the private quarrels
and woes of artists its withers are un-
wrung. 1t only demands that it shall
not be affronted by work that Is gross
ly bad, that it shall not be bored by
work that is flatly dull. The manifesto
quoted above has all the earmarks of
an inspiring good faith, but the artists
behind 1T are, after all, human beings,
and the disinterested observer must be
permitted to read it with one or two
smiling reservations.
Thus it is good to be told that "if
uhAo SOSlSby SOIHDalS any tnlnE AT all,
IL combats the idea of the preeminence
of any school of art over another" 1t
ls neither radical nor conservative
But when we read that "the message
OF work of art is more important
than the language in which it is
couched,' we find ourselves breathing
a fervent prayer that the society won't
use this glittering generality as a cover
for the kind Of "art" which discloses
K 1aIOo Cf 1op -La4
Beware Of the Russian" says Kipling,
when he tucks in his shirt" Beware
OF the artist, we would beg the society
to remember, when he gets so COM
placent about his message" that he is
indifferent to the language in which
it is couched. Independence" is
fine, mouth-filling, Mesopotamian word.
But we have seen too much of the rub
bish painted in its name to attribute
ANYTHING talismanic to it.
There is rather disturbing note
struck, too, in the assertion of the
society's belief that it will present in
its exhibition "a perhaps more diversi-
fed resume of the range of American
art than has heretofore been given"
That is saying good deal for the
potentialities of forty-sx men. Of
course, there is sense in which this
manifesto means nothing. The exhibi-
ton will tell the story. 1t is the exhi-
bltion which will determine with the
public whether the society was worth
founding or not. In the mean time q
certain touch of eXuberance in any
affirmation of principles is to be ex-
pected. If we traverse the manifesto
at all it is not for the purpose of un-
sympathetically splitting hairs over the
expression given to this sentiment or
that, but because it seey~s desirable to
appeal for clear thinking on venture
Of this kind. We have, too, a possibly
obvious enough weakness for the inter
ests of the public in art exhibitions. We
think they ought to be considered more
than they sometimes are. 1t is, no
doubt, thrilling to look forward to the
circumstance that a picture rejected by
the Academy may now be hung in the
forthcoming show, regardless of every
thing save the fact that the artist con-
sders it his best work. But his "best'
may be pretty poor stuff. Such things
have happened. Forty-sx painters,
scuptors and gravers aren't necessarily
forty-six seraphim That 5 why we hope
that, in spite of their distaste for red
tape, juries and all that abhorred
machinery, the leading spirits in the
new society (Which must have some
leading spirits, even if it hasn't any
officers or constitution will find a
comfortable way of hamstrnging the
colleague who threatens to tip over
their show. Let them go apart and rea
son with him, flatter him into uncon
sciousness, do anything that will keep
a bad picture out. 1t isn't for his bene
fit, particularly, that we advocate this
Machiavellian course, or for the benefit
Of the society. We are thinking of the
public, which has been asked in recent
years to consider tons of messages
couched in all sorts of languages, includ-
ing the Scandinavian, and Volapuk to
boot, and ought not to have its patience