The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-08-06

Washington, d. c., Aug. s.
Paintings by a well known author
are being exhibited here The urge
to paint struck Sherwood Anderson,
the novelist, one intense day, ana
forthwith he sent for paints ana a
brush and went to work to preserve
some of his most colorful thoughts
on paper.
AS result he dashed off as In
triruipg a collection of paintings as
anyone could wish to moon over
We say intriguing guardediy. The
thoughtful observer hesitates TO
pronounce cubist, semi-cubist,i and
post-impressionist art beautiful,
funny. or hideous. 1t is even risky
to sneak of it in the pat language
of the critics as vigorous, sympa-
thetic, cold, or brilliant. But in
triguing, the ultra-modern art I'M
deniably is.
After half an hour in company
with Family Pride" "A Third
Sea-" Gods Flyswatter," and the
rest of the collection, a person may
feel mentally perturbed, but one
significant fact is clear enough
namely, that cubism did not die
as many people suppose-when the
nude descended the staircase and
passed on. Rather, art uncontrolled
is still persistently holding it's own
against a giggling world.
The Anderson collection, consist
ing of about 20 paintings, hangs
for the present in the Wayfarers'
Book Shop. TIL pictures are small,
about IS inches by u, and framed
simply in narrow wooden frames.
They are hung in small groups, at
q convenient level, so that a buyer
of books can sit on a bench and
bask in art while waiting for his
change. His impressions, if he is
uninitiated into the aims and emo
tons of cubism are apt to be some
thing like those of a couple bent
on getting some sense out of the
pictures:
a Tired Sea'-huh, it does look
sort of tired wit hthe waves done in
those dull blue and yellow streaks
and falling around on top of each
other. Wonder why the whale in
the corner is sitting on his spine
He must be tired, too.
Painters Pegasus IS one
of those cubist things. He's got
something that. would pass for
gray fish with his mouth open in
this, TOO. But 1 suppose it's not
that at all. Maybe an X-ray picture
of an emotion. See the way the
colors are put on in folds like a !
twisted scarf-green, yellow, pink F;
ish red-and all tinged with gray. !
Wonder if that's any clue?
An American City'-now that's !
rather attractive. I've seen rows :
Of buildings like that, grimed with |
smoke and with the sky just that /
smoky blue color.
The Queen Walks by the Sea- |
well. this wins the hand carved /
Jagged streaks of blue {
and brown-and orange, and tor
quoise and pale yellow; and two /
things that might be leaves, if |
leaves were blue, on one side. If (
there's a sea in that arrangement
Of paint. its 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
line 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
IF the weird Streaks and blobs of
color
Whether he has achieved real
art, however, is another matter. 1t
S unlikely that the painter himself
S concerned with this momentous
question. He regards his pictures
IS adventures in form and color"
t has given him pleasure to pro
luce them because spontaneous
is always a delight.
When the impulse to create comes, !
le thinks it should be gratified.
even if the result is not art, there !
S no reason why a man should
lot paint, dance, or write poetry
or the pleasure of expressing him !
elf.
The novelist has at least one con-
ert to his theory. His wife, a !
ausician, had, we are told, always s
egarded the arts as formidable. ! I
But, convinced by her husbands s
rguments and by his interest in
is new form of self-expression,i i
Irs. Anderson has taken up model {
ne as a paStime r