The Denver Jewish news., 1921-11-16
Ephriam Moses Liilen, a
Hebraic Artist
Continued from page ~

composition so tll;tI tucn inc Is
lyrical and each design symphonic.
But IT, like music, he departs from
Nature, he never leaves her utterly
behind Visual art cannot be as in
dependent of the representative Gle
ment rs auditory. Its essential ex-
istence is in Space, not in Time, and
IL cannot escape its category. by the
r'uturists-who are perhaps already
passes-we are confronted with AN art
which seems almost like II return to
the Second Commandment. with its
prohibition against making "A likeness
to anything that is on the earth be
low or the heavens above or the wat
ors under the earth. The argument put
forward by these eccentrics that their
art is not representative but dynami.
that it paints not the external world
hut the inner world of their emotions.
These artists can hardly ever paint but
they can never reason. They forget
that the right artistic medium for the
expression of emotion is the ART form
free from objective representation. to
wit. music. and that ii obey are un-
able to express themselves in it. they
must remain rs dumb as Nature ha.s
made them. Painting is the idiom of
the eye. The reason why human faces
cannot he represented by cubes or 9TH
cr monstrous adumbrations of really
is that the fnintest effort towards Il
.nv,-evcil n baliy'> attempt mt n cir
cic with dots-rec;llls Il real face, ana
the discor'lnnce between II real face
and face made out of cubes pro-
dlices II horrible jar. IL Il only when
the visual design is limited to imagin-
AIRY conformatiors that the iarring
reality * not recalled, and in such de-
signs we merely get back tu the arches
cues by which Islam evaded the Sec
ord Commandment. But arabcsques,
too. cannot escape the obligation to
la hcnutiful, whereas the bulk of the
FuturistS. even when they refrain
from reminding us of reality. create.
whether by wilfulncss or Importance.
designs which dcprcss and confound
instead of stimulating. They tell Us
THAI we must apply ourselves to learn
the language in which they express
themselves. II is n forbidding task
when one is not sure that what they
have to say in their argot is worth
dccipherIng: and when the classical
languages Of art already contain so
much 20 engross our attention, OF
many modern works it may he said. in
short that if they recall Nature they
shock us by their unlikeness to her,
and if they DO not recall her they re
pei rs by their .ugliness.
In the work of I.ilien on the other
hand we have the arabcsque i'll all its
flowing bcauty, combined with the rep
resentativc element in all the beauty
of efficient reproduction. As when
Puclman strikes black or white key.
the piano sings, so does the paper sing
when the pencil of Lilicn passes owe"
it, Being able to draw, he is moi
driven to new art-thcoricS 20 cover
over Incompetence. He has not to-
babblc and scrbblc-to draw sutiiccs.
IF Art could be talked says Il char
actcr in my art-novcl The Masters"
lit would not need to he painted Con
vcrsely. if Art is painted, il does not
need TO he talked.
1t is not that LiIicn mas less imas-
nation than these loquacious free
lanccs of the brush. In the realm OF
the fantastic and the grotcsque he
moves as aSsurcdly rs in ,hc simply
poetic But he can he grotcsaue
without being absurd. and fantastic
without being ridiculous. And even
when he has something profound to-
say. he can be rs decorative as these
moderHists at their shalowcSt and
most immoral You may ranSack che
worlds art in vain to find lovclicr
design than his "lsaiul' or the Zion
list postcard which introduced me to
him Perhaps in his Illustrations to
tie Bible this Slamorous or fairytn'c
quality is a little Our of place. Yet
here too. there Is strength amid the
beauty. rs in his figures Of Moses. OF
of Jacob struggling with the angel
Thus, whether we ask for iniagc or
emotion. for strength or d,iicacy. for
thought or BEAUTY. TOR srotcsquerie Or