Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-02-09
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Occasionally Lovers Of Art Long for
Something Else, ss Some Fieetina
Observations Of Galleries and
stunt Night Demonstrate
By SARAH ID, LOWRIE


i comes to passing on some thousands Of
paintings in a few days and choosing from
the lot the few hundreds that the present
Academy of the Fine Arts will hold.
The physical fatigue quite apart from the
mental blankness that must overtake even
the sturdest of the artist judges after the
first thousand must be almost decapitat-
ing" One realizes that the freaks that get
past the Jury into the show come along
when most OF the poor things are wall
eyed and nauseated and can only wave
feeble hands Of faint protest
L heard OF jury not long ago that got
go worn out that they. sent out word to the
picture shifters TO only tote in every other
But one has only to go to a picture exhibi.
tion where there has been no Jury to realize
what lot the public Is saved by having
even tiredou one.
TN LONDON went to one in the Albert
that felt they had been Disseminated against
and who got up show Of their own. Any
one could exhibit who paid FL 1t was
nightmare Of medocrity. Imagine all
the pictures out of oil the hotel bedrooms
you have ever slept in or any one hos ever
slept in framed in heavy gilt and hung in
compartments covered with red baize that di-
vided Albert Hall into hundreds of little
rooms.
Imagine hundreds of pictures of sheep,
of flowers, Of ladies, dressed and undressed,
OF stony eyed men and gutta percha chill
dren, of still life, Of beaches and mountains
and croquet games and hay ricks. All
hung on red bafze in and out Of little COM
You longed for a cubist or O fourth di-
mensionist TO cut the awful sameness of
the sentiment You would have bought
''prismatist' right off the walls for the re-
lief Of one clear clash of color. But the
Bolshevsts were holding another secession
list show somewhere else for less than a
pound each, so one sighed and moaned
through acres OF English sentimentality.
until something gave way in the mind and
one made bolt for the exit.
DOOR as is the taste of an art jury, it is
1 100 per cent better than none ut ali.
SO do not let us curse the poor tired things
as we walk about the present Academy
show. Let us be kinder to them than the
students are, for instance. Let US remem-
Der what they have spared us, that the art
students would have admired. However,
like art students for everything but their art.
They are an interesting lot those boys and
girls who are studying to paint, II you do
not have to be polite about what they paint.
The other night / went to studio party
and sat among them for some hours and
was greatly entertained by them and in their
company, for we laughed together over the
amusing doings of some older folk who were
fellow guests. To reach the place we
plunged down q dark alley protected by
posts in what corresponds, suppose, to our
Latin quarter-not far from Camac street.
We climbed to a big loft over n warehouse
that Is the studio and the workshop for toy
Dorothy Stewart and Miss 0tey Williams,
who were our hosts as we'll rs the i'm
prcsarios of the evenings uplift.
THE toys made or in process Of becoming
J. were strung along the beams and, as
Ipppu Fnrbce who r,nvnd of tha olOop,
to sit next to me, remarked, the stuffed ele-
plants hung like large teeth dental signs
In the shadows of the rafters. A drop cur
tain Of very moth eaten blankets was
hitched across one end of the room on wires.
the cleared place on the floor for a stage
was fenced about with bulky properties be-
longing to the toy making, a starred patch
work quilt formed tho back drop and the
scenery was Of futtcring shreds. We sat
on anything handy. except chairs, and as
the place has no visible means Of heat, some
of us brought our oil stoves, which burned
purrngly in the dark corners and made
sort of ring Of warmth.
Sometimes the audience got up one by
one and enjoyed themselves on the stage;
sometimes there was what appeared to be
n more or less rehearsed program.
That is, the play the three Biddle sisters
gave was written by Georgina Biddle and
completed that afternoon, 1t was read some
what wonderingly by Constance and Alice
Biddle and prompted uncertainty by the
author when she was off the stage. 1t was
very, very funny-really funny-both as to
its wit and MS to It's acting. The other
somewhat preconcerted item on the night g
program was n Bah Ballad acted in pan
tomine. The audience never knew who the
actors we're because they wore masks
painted on hat forms by Otey williams.
| Those masks were dreadfully clever much
more so than any picture she is liable 70
| paint or toy she has yet invented. That is
| the characteristic of those art students and
young artists-what they do for fun Is so
| much better and more worth while than
what they do In earnest.
| LNOR instance, there was q young Danish
r chap there, named 40" Mierzlner, who
took OH two Of the Academy professors,
painters of no less fame than Mr.. Henry
! finish and perception and accent that. put
| into a painted portrait. would make him
famous discovered afterwnrd that he ID
not all Dane. His grandmother is an
in Paris most of her life and writes for the
French journals under the signature OF
"Frcnd" Che is over seventy and got Ia
the front at the battle OF the Marne and
covered her assignment with the best oi
them.
| Two Russian artists danced for us one
they called for short Lola Lomsch and tn,
other Is an army officer named Parfielief
who had been aide de camp for Genera
Denekin and who escaped via Siberia after
the defeat. He has among his few be
longings. after that dangerous trip, a bool
of photographs that he has taken himsel
OF the "terror" that beggars description fo
awfulness and horror. He Is a very serious
young chap, but he did for US the onl!
happy thing he knew to do in English
danced a peasant dance.
There was japanese there, too. who di,
something that in Japan is meant to seen
like the flying OF bird. 1t certainly woui
add TO the gnyety OF nations.
DESIDES the artists there were art pa
d irons, even art critics Mr.. Langdo
Warner very kindly obliged with an i'm
promptu bagpipe solo He dressed in kilt