The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-23
BOHEMIA IN THE CORN BELT
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN

I The lion and great man of the Dill
| Pickles club is S. Szukalski, sculptor,
| painter. poet and unconscientious OBJ
jector;. His, studio is just across the
| years old. In person he is 1.-the,
straight and muscular. He wears his
hair down to his shoulders, a broad
leather belt, and no hat or coat. With
his high cheek bones and aquilna fea-
lures he looks at little distance sur
prisingly like Navajo Indian.
Mere Eccentric.
His appearance might lead you to
classify Szukalski as a mere eccentric,
but you would be making a mistake.
His work is of high and acknowledged
merit. He has been discovered by crit
les and proclaimed genius in the
newspapers. His work has even been
reproduced In popular magazines. He
is witty, epigrammatic and as sharp
and logical as a corporation lawyer,
Szukalski has smashed all the rules
of art that have obtained for 5000
years. He never works from models,
but draws and sculpts the images and
ideas, in his own mind. He says that
models kill originality. He has several
pupils whom he teaches by his method.
and some of them do'good work safter
a few lessons. All of his own works
are ideas in paint or clay. For exam
pie, his masterpieces of sculpture is
called Frozen Youth" 1t shows a fe-
MAZE inquire III tHe grip OF nuge' ana
terrible monster. Both of the figures
are highly fantastic, yet every muscle
and bone and ligament is drawn with
a finished and hideous realism, and the
attitudes are eloquent of emotion. The
thing sticks in the mind like a night
mare.
Despite his success, Szukalski is poor
as ditch. digger. The people who
discovered him did not patronize him.
A certain collector and connoisseur of
art who has written books about 1t,
who is a millionaire and has paid $10,-
600 for single work, came to Szukal-
skis studio and admired his work. He
wrote a piece in the paper, saying that
the young Pole was a genius and claim
ing the credit for having brought his
work to the attention of the world.
What he did not put in the paper was
his masterpiece and IS for a plaster
cast of it. Szukalski told him he was
holding the work at $4,000. His con-
tempt for this collector who loved a
bargain better than he loved art is
something enormous.
Played Unique Part.
Szukalski played a unique part in the
great war. He was drafted and taken
to Camp Upton. New York. He refused
to drill, night or. do anything else. His
major, an intelligent man, asked him
If he objected to fighting on religious
grounds, He. said he did not object
either to fighting or to killing on any
grounds. but that when he did any kill
ing he was going to choose his own VIC
tim and do 1t of his own free will.
Therefore, he said, he could not fight in
a war which would compel him to kill
men he had nothing against personally.
Under this statement he was not a
conscientious objector. The major
couldn't find anything in the laws to
cover such case. Szukalski told him
he ought to be proud to have a man
in his company who objected to war
on such high philosophical grounds, in
stead of Directing because of mere re-
ligious superstition. The major couldn't |
see that either, but he could see that |
Szukalski would not make a soldier |
and he could not see any use in tor
turing the man.. After about two |
months, the artist was sent back to |
his studio. He says that he was not |
mistreated in any way, that he had a |
good time at Camp Upton doing as he |
pleased, and made a number of friends |
among the officers and men. He was |
unchanged by his military experience, |
except. that he fattened UP a little on
camp food.
Szukalski did not fight IN the war,
but he has made hard fight for his |
art. He refuses to do any sort of work |
so little to eat that he tainted on the |
streets from weakness. He is humor-
GUS and undaunted, bpt there Is a touch |
of bitterness in his humor. He feels |
that the world has acknowledged his |
ability but refused him a living. His |
strange garb and long hair are his
method OF wigwagging to the world his
as to where 1t may go.
aTtps o,,1,,