The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-10-09

symptoms, is inclined TO lay emphas-
upon what he calls the "humbug'' of h,
carefully prepared treatise which he WIRE
after visiting and studying all the pictures
in the exhibit and after secondary study
OF six or eight Of the more unusual ex-
amples by means of photographs.
Picassos Woman at a Table," is one OF
through an open window. The sun is rep
resented by a ball of yarn dangling from
stick. Another is entitled IAN Artistic
Figure" and resembles a billboard after
heavy rain. A pink and green thing with
. rudimentary human shape is sprawled
over q varicolored brick wall.
"As a member of the public, one of the
mass, an ordinary citizen. by profession a
student Of the mind diseases, | meet many
difficulties in trying to answer the ques-
ton: Are the modern tendencies in art,
and especially I'm painting. good or evilT"
says DIR. Burr. Are they portents Of de-
generation or evidence Of a great awaken
ing? One finds, en- inquiring, that by ten
denotes in modern art the speaker. or
writer always is referring to the influence
OF q small group Of men who are doing
work. painting pictures that attract a
great deal Of attention from that great
educator OF the people, the newspaper
press.
''The psychiatrist is sorry-and here he
speaks with authority-to say he sees quite
little which Is degenerate, 1. e., which Gre
ates or Is intended to create unhealthy feel
healthy-souled artist would not have paint
ed. Also he finds some false pretense and
fraud, some artists who. not knowing real
art, lacking the soul, the spirit and the
handicratt, havs become quacks"
DR.. Francis X. Dercum, who was one of
q group OF four scientists who fayed the
exhibitin when II was in Philadelphia last
Spring, says he finds no reason to change
the opinions expressed at that time He
spoke then before the Art Alliance of Phil
a dolphin.
1.-THE pictures OF the cubist and futurist
style / saw at the exhibition last Spring
at the Academy Of Fine Arts" says DR..
DCTCuHtp uOpdItOu normal
standards in colcr and form and in the con-
ception of orientation. The colors en-
ployed in the alleged paintings were in no
sense those seen In nature, nor could their
use be construed as suggesting or evoking
sense Of the beautiful.
"All shapes and normal proportions
seemed to be disregarded. found no dis
tinction between foreground and back
ground and no indications OF the relative
positions OF objects. One picture I re-
member was that of a man standing be-
side house. The mans head was twice
as large as his body. An elephant was
standing beside him and the man was
larger than the elephant and the elephant
was larger than the house, so now you
can imagine the Kind of picture that was.
1t Is difficult to see how the absence
OF appearance of form and color in the
futurist and cubist art can be construed
as In keeping with normal art, and how,
by any stretch OF imagination, Il can be
called within the bounds of normal. It is
Impossible for the ordinary mind to in.
terpret many OF the pictures of futurists
and cubists.
have seen the work Of insane persons
confined In asylums who lean toward art,
and Will say that the drawings of these
insane artists arc far superior to the al.
legged works OF art | saw at the exhibition
a futurist or cubist takes a canvas and
throws on some green paint, then daub
OF yellow and then OF slush. Next he
makes a few circles, smears all the colors
.osetner. ADDS few straight lines and
labels the whole Broad and Chestnut
Streets On Sunday Afternoon These so.
called artists are beyond me-"
so the alienists are agreed that not only
Is there something wrong physically
color blindness--with the perpetrators OF
the list" pictures, but that there is also
tendency to something wrong upstairs"