New-York tribune., 1921-05-29
Leading Characteristics
OF a Crowded Period

slcnists. Nay, there was time when
all the honors Of the auction room
went to a Meissonicr or Jules Breton.
The American artist. as such, was in
the main neglected. 1t is very differ
ent to-day.
Concider, to begin with, The scope he
has had in New York in the last six
months or so, in exhibitions on fair
ly large scale. The Society of Ameri-
can Painters, Sculptors and Engravers
opened the ball with the second annual
demonstration of strong secessionist
group. Two large organizations have
taken care of the water colorists. The
Academy held big show, affirming the
more conservative principles of the
school, and the Society of Independent
Artists gave everybody chance, even
the amateur. The Association of Wom-
en- Painters and Sculptors and the
Allied Artists of America have had
their fling. At the Museum the Archi-
tectural League made this season the
largest and finest exhibition in it's his
tory and the Museum itself brought
forward two important American
shows, one devoted to industrial art
and the other to the group of war por-
traits painted for Washington. The
season has been brought to a close by
the uncommonly interesting show or
ganized at the Fine Arts Building by
the new society of Junior Art Patrons
Of America. Never, that we can recall,
has the city had anything like such
mass of native work put before it. And
these miscellaneous exhibitions tell
only part of the story The individual,
In his turn, has been exploited with
unprecedented energy.
The list of small exhibitions leads
off with tributes 20 deceased artists
Frank Duvenec, John H. Twachtman,
j. Alden Weir, j. Francis Murphy and
Willard Straight. 1t continues with the
names of scores of men and women
who are active NOW. L.ILathrop,
Clark Voorhees,, Walter Gay, Emil Carl
sen, Felicie Waldo Howell, Robert w,
Vonnoh, George Luks, Clifford Beal,
John Sloan, Robert Henri, Paul Dough-
erty, c, H. Davis, Carl Melchers. Wal
ter Griffin, Cullen Yates, Daniel Gar
Der, Henry B. Smell, Vincent Tack, Bry-
son Burroughs, Gladys Thayer, Willard
Metcalf and Ellen Emmet Rand. The
exhibitions made by these artists, and
by others who might be cited, added to
those of the larger organizations, have
given the fullest possible account of
the prevailing currents in the American
school. Familiar painters have dis
closed the progress they have made,
and from time to time new men have
come into view. Three artists COM
paratively unknown here have won
cordial eceptions-Mr. Francis Nc
Comas, with his brilliant studies of the
desert; Mr.. Abram Poole, with decora-
tive portraits of an original and dis
tinguished character, and Mr.. Frederic
C. Bartlett, who brought back from
China impressions of that country ex-
ceptionally fresh and sincere. The print
shops, like the galleries devoted to paint
ings, have done their duty by capable
Americans, and we have been shown the
Autographs and aquatints of Arthur &
Davies, the etchings of Troy Kinney,
the Autographs of George Bellows,
and, in short, the works of a veritable
regiment of clever craftsmen. Some
notable mural decorations are to be
mentioned-the ceiling for the Cunard
Building by Ezra Winter, the maps
painted for the walls of the same hall
by Barry Faulkner, the big panels by
Willy Poganny in the Peoples House.
But the point we would emphasize is
the prodigious extent to which the
American artist with something to
show for brief period has been per-
mitted to show it. The old complaint
of neglect has gone down the wind
The American who bewails his sub
ordination to the foreigner to-day is
talking nonsense