Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-11-16
|bOLSHEv|SM HAS
INVADED EVERY
PHASE OF Art
Cubist-Futurist Upheaval,
Which Omaha Has Never
Seen, Is Another Form Of
Same Idea.
BY LETA MOORE MEYER.

The Fine Arts exhibition, as it is
arranged, is in itself a composition.
Everything seems to focus upon
'The Setting Sum-" by Ralph A..
Blakelock, which hangs in the GEN.
ter of the west wall, a significant
location, and the picture itself is a
vista leading to the sun. There is
nothing in nature so fascinating and
enticing as vista, seeming to beck
on one on to things unseen and
ideal.
This picture is especially good in
texture, that is, each part shows
the texture which best defines its
| individual nature. The water looks
wet and liquid, level as water must
be, and one can almost guess its
depth. The leaves show that they
are made up of small parts and are
dependent upon something else for
support while the trunks are solid,
rough, stationary and independent.
The difference between the two
kinds OF trees is we'll worked out
and the ground is individual, espe-
clallyi in the distance, making one
feel the character of the surround
ing country. The picture is remark
able for its unity, that is, the sac
ritice of all else to one central point
or idea. Ones eye comprehends
one thing and rests there and is not
pulled elsewhere and interest con-
fused. Unity is the biggest principle
in art, SO much for the technical
aspects which appeal to the mind.
Intense Mysticism.
From the spiritual standpoint of
feeling there is the intense mys-
ticism and sensitiveness Characters
tic OF Blakelock, thine attempting
to delve into the great problems OF
philosophy, nature and science, the
effort to understand the unsolvable
which would drives anyone to in
sanity if he dwelt upon them con-
tinuously. The unfathomabIe sky is
especially fine in feeling.
Blakeloek, who died the past sum-
r1er at the age of u, was one OF
those unfortunate artists who never
enjoyed the prosperity he deserved.
1t is pity he cannot see one of his
best pictures hanging in Omaha at
valuation of $4,000 for he lost his
mind many years ago. He lived, as
a young man, in AFFECT poverty un-
able to sell his pictures and never
knew of their later appreciation by
the public.
He spent most of his life in an in
sane asylum. always planning to
paint great masterpiece. For
tunately few artists suffer so much
financially, contrary to the popular
idea, at least in these days when
Sargent gets $4,000 for a bare cam
vaj with promise to paint on it.
Bolshevism in Art. -,
Bolshevism has invaded every
form of art; literature, music, drama,
painting. The cubist-futurist up
heaval which ran riot in the east and
which Omaha has never seen, so far
as / know, is the bolshevist idea in
another form. Happily it is waning.
Normandy Church, Sunset" by
Henry Golden Dearth, is an ex-
ample of sane art in the midst of
chaos, the parallel of the well-bal-
anced element in our social fabric,
which indeed is an element of this
exhibition. Dearth has here held to
the traditions of the great art of
the past of the Barbizon school and
Of the great masters, to a good solid
foundation of drawing, technique
and composition.
The feeling is lively, tender and
loyal; it is balanced and conserv-
alive. He has even forced the COM
position somewhat by introducing
dark tones in the edges of the can
vas about the sky for the purpose Of
eentralizing the interest. The whole
atmosphere of it is typically French
and rustic. "The Evening Hour" by
Louis Paul Dessar is another ex-
ample of restrained art. 1t is strange
that, Dearth, in the last few years
before his death in 1918, leaned
somewhat toward the futurist style
His work has been much discussed
the last two or three years, really
amounting to a sensation. A memoir
ial exhibition of his work shown in