Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-08-04
Pictures by a Writer
BY Frederic J. Haakin

/ Washington, Aug. 4s--PaintiDga by
| n weil-known author nre being ex-
hibited here. The urge to paint
struck Sherwood Anderson. the novel
/ list, one intense day. and forthwith he
sent for paints and n brush and went
to work to preserve some Of his most
colorful thoughts on paper.
| As a result he dashed off as In
| triguing collection Of paintings as
anyone could wish TO moon over. We
say Intriguing guardedly. The thought
ful observer hesitatcs to pronounce
Icubisf, reni-cubist and post-impres-
aionst art beautiful, funny or hideous
| IT is even risky to speak Of II In the
pat language Of the critics AZ yigOr-
Gus. sympathetic, cold or brilliant
But intriguing, the ultra-mocern art
undeniably is.
After half an hour in company with
Family Pride, "a Tired Sea"
Gods F1yswatter and the rest Of
the collection, u person may feel men
tally perturbed, but one sisnificanf
fnct is clear cnouEh--narneiy. that
cubism did not die--as many people
! suppose--when the nude descended the
staircase and PASSED on. Rather, art
uncontrolled il still persistentiy hold
ing itr own against a giggiing world.
The Anderson collection, consisting
OF about 20 paintings. hangs for the
present in the Wayfarers' Book
Shop. The pictures are small, about
lS Inches by IL, and framed simply
in narrow wooden frames. They are
hung In small groups. at convenient
level, so that a buyer Of books can
sit on a bench and bask in art while
waiting for his change. His impress
sionss IL he is uninitiated into the
aims and emotions of cubism are apt
to be something like those of couple
bent on getting some sense out of the
pictures
"A Tired Sea'---fuh. 1t does look
sort Of tired with the waves done In
those dun blue and yellow streaks
and falling around on top OF each /
other. Wonder why the whale in |
the corner is sitting on his spine I
He must be tired too.
Painters Pegassus'- is one OF 1
those cubist things. Hes got some /
thing that would pass for a gray fish I
with his mouth open in this too. But |
/ suppose it's not that at all. Maybe |
an x-ray picture Of an emotion. See /
the way the coiors are put on in |
folds like a twisted scarf--green, yell |
low, pinlyish red--and all tinged with |
gray. Wonder If that's any clew2
An American city'-now. that's
rather attractive. I've seen rows Of
buildings like that. grined with smoke
and with the sky just thai smoky
blue color
The Queen Walks by the Sea-
well. this wins the hand-carved pin
cushion Jagged streaks OF blJe and
brown--and orange and fi:-quoise
and pale yellow; and two things that
might be leaves, IL leaves were blue.
on one side. II there's sea in that
arrangement OF paint. it's completely
disguised. Come on"
Thus the world that likes pretty
pictures dismisses the subjective art.
An Adept With Words.
Sherwood Anderson's paintings are
interesting because whether he can
paint or not. the Critics some time ago
agreed that he can write. And when
la man analyses human nature as
expertiy, and writes of IL as vividly
as Anderson does. ii is certain that
no vacant mind is back Of the weird
streaks and blobs OF color
however, is another matter Il is un-
likely that the painter himself is con-
lcerned with this mornentous question.
He regards his pictures as adventures
in form and color" It has given him
pleasure 10 produce them because
spontaneous self-expression is always
/ a delight. When the impulse to
create comes. he thinks it should Ea
5esT fo
art, there is no reason why man
should not paint. dance or write
poetry for the pleasure OF expressing
himself
The novelist has at least one con-
vert 10 his theory. His wife, a
musician, mad. we are told. always
regarded the arts as formidable. But,
convinced by her husbands argu-
ments and by his interest in his new
form of seif-expression, Mrs. Ander-
pastime.
Sherwood Anderson's attitude to-
ward art is further explained in a
note which accompanies his exbiisi-
ton.
There are certain things that
haunt the mind. They cannot be
expressed in words except through
the poet who occasionally raises tho
power of words beyond the real pos
sibility of words.
I am not musician. but 1t ia
not unlikely that what ! have tried
to do in form and color is related IN
the impulse of the musician.
Some months ago was in the
South and in very colorful country.
Before my house lay a bay-an out
let from the Gulf of Mexico. There
had been heavy rains up country and
the red soil was washed down into
my little hay. The bay became red.
The morning and afternoon light fall
ing on il made a color madness that
got into my brain. Although | had
never touched brusA sent for
brushes and paints.
The adventures are my inner re-
actions from the things seen about me.
They are done in the faith that an
impulse needs to be strong enough
10 break through technical training.
In fact technical training might well
destroy the impulse. -.
ITO you they may be ugly, mean
ingless, or beautiful. No doubt all of
my inner thoughts and impulses like
your own if they could be seen I
would be to some ugly. to others
and to still others beau
tifuI