Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-08-04

each other. Wonder why the whale in th'
corner is sitting on his spine. He must b,
painters Pegassus'-this is one of thos,
cubist things. He's got something that would
pass for a gray fish with his mouth open il
this, too. But L suppose it's not that at all
Maybe an x-ray picture OF an emotion Sc.
twisted scarf-green, yellow, pinkish red-anc
all tinged with gray. Wonder if that's an,
clue?
IAN American City'-now that's rather at
t~ractive. I've seen rows Of buildings like that
grimed with smoke and with the SKY just thal
1.-The queen Walks by the sea'-well. thil
wins the hand-carved pincushion. Jagged
streaks Of blue and brown-and orange. ano
turquoise and pale yellow; and two things that
might be leaves, II leaves were blue, on one
side. If there's a sea in that arrangement oil
paint, it's completely disguised. Come opS."
Thus the world that likes pretty pictures dis
misses the subjective art.
Sherwood Anderson's paintings are interest.
ing because whether he can paint or not. the
critics some time ago agreed that he can write
And when a man Analyses human nature as
expertly, and writes of it as wildly as Anderson
does, it Is certain that no vacant mind Is back
of the weird streaks and blobs of color.
Whether he has achieved real art, however,
is another matter. 1t is unlikely that the
painter himself is concerned with this momen-
tous question. He regards his pictures as "ad-
ventures in form and color" 1t has given him
| pleasure to produce them because spontaneous
self-expression is always a delight. When the
impulse to create comes he thinks it should be
gratihed. Even if the result is not art, there
is no reason why a man should not paint, dance,
or write poetry for the pleasure of expressing
himself.
The novelist has at least one convert to his
theory. His wife, a musician, had, we are told
always regarded the arts as formidable. But,
convinced by her husbands arguments ana by
his interest in his new form OF self-expression
Mrs. Anderson has taken up modelling as a
pastime. .
further explained in a note which accompanies
his exhibition: 49,.
mind. They cannot be expressed in words
except through the poet who occasionally raises
the power OF words beyond the real possibility
of words.
81 am not a musician, but it is not unlikely
that what I have tried to do in form and color
is related to the impulse of the musician.
Some months ago l was in the south and IN
a very colorful country. Before my house lay
a bay-an outlet from the Gulf of Mexico.
red soil was washed down into my little bay.
The bay became red. The morning and AFTER
noon light falling on it made a color madness
that got into my brain. Although had never
touched a brush I sent for brushes and paints.
THE adventures are my inner reactions from
the things seen about me. They are done In
the faith that an impulse needs to be strong
enough to break through technica! training. IN
fact, technical training might well destroy the
impulse.
ITO you they may be ugly, meaningless, or
beautiful. No doubt all of my inner thoughts
and impulses-like your own if they could be
be to some ugly, to others meaning
less, and to still others beautiful
Cleon ThrockmoI1on, an artist of this CITY,
has given us the artists viewpoint of the Ander-
son exhibit. He pointed out that an example
Of cubist art is not to be viewed In the same
manner as one would study a painting Dy
schools proceed on the premise that the function
Of art is to create beauty. The extreme modern
list sees no particular reason why art shouid pc
beautiful. Instead, he aims to visualize and
reproduce the spirit of the thing painted or
the emotion it arouses in him. He eliminates
all imitation of actual forms because he claims
these mprelV serve as dlStrdcIlOnS from IL
central thought Of the picture.
The Key to the Puzzle.
Therefore, anyone looking at a futurlstic COM
position is not supposed to regard 1t as a puZZie
picture in which a hidden object, described In
the title, is to be ferreted out: Instead, he puts
on an abstract frame of mind, and sits, and
looks at the thing before him. and tries to. feel.
But it's no use trying to explain a cubist PIC
ture, or even emotions on looking at one,
say in which class we fall. =.
1t would seem that this futuristic kind of
long apprenticeship necessary to achieve real
skill in academic painting. Any one endowed
with the vision Of a painter might as Mr.;
Anderson suggests, find that technique would
With this, MIR. Throckmorton does not agree.
Handling Of color: he says is not depenaeh nj
his mind the exact tints he wishes to reproduce,
but getting them out OF the palette is announcer
TO a lamp, could not reproduce that green
exactly on paper. Great painters have studied
day in and day out for years to gain mastery
of color. .-
After Studying the Anderson pictures, this
artist found the purely abstract, cubist pictures
the most praiseworthy. Where the novelist
merely painted a realistic tree or compromised
by painting objects in a MISUNDERSTANDING
manner, his lack of technique became glarlng.
Almost any amateur could do similar work.
Regarding the distractions. Mr.. Throckmor-
ton said: IF you admit the modernistlc
premise of creating the spiritual emotion by
dissociating art from any concrete form, In one
or two instances he has succeeded-in The
Queen Walks by the Sea and the PAINTERS
Pegasus for Example.
He added that the artistic novelist seemed
to have a talent for cubism. and probably
would rank rather hight he kept on working.