The New York herald., 1922-01-15

caviare TO the general as were its prede-
cessors. 1t was so caviare, In fact. that
l for one saw the pictures with ths
greatest difficulty over the heads OF the
throng. and fear l must give hazy
account of them.
1t was possible, as a rule, TO tel
whether you liked the pictures or nos.
but ii was not so easy TO get near
enough to see the small numbers upon
the frames and so identify them. Both
the Goncharova and the Larionov are
excessively modern, as all Russians are
apt to be- and both seem considerably
wrapped up in the stage, as all Russians
are also apt TO be. The drawings anu
designs that are not out and out abstract
seem to have served for certain Russian
plays and ballets, and so as such have =
certain family likeness to the drawlnSs
and designs OF Bakst and Roerich that
have preceded them here. Both OF THESE
artists seem cruder and less finished
than Bakst while going in for all OF mis-
vigor Of expression. There Is KIND OF
freedom that comes to man who mas
so mastered technique that he is 40
longer conscious of it. and there is
kind that comes to him who has no
technique whatever and doesn't care
whoop what you may think: but the
Goncharov and the Larionov have
neither of these two kinds OF freedoms.
One wishes that they knew little more
or a little less. They have riotors
color, however, at their command. ana
all the gorgeous Russian traditions as
to costume, and satisfy the public yearn-
ing for the strange, otherwise known az
"caviare."
Some of the abstract paintings OF
these two Russian artists are exceed
| ingly acceptable and some OF them are
thin and vapid. 1t is not possible 10
particularize further than to say that
the most agreeable and interesting pic
tures were those in the front and middle
galleries, and that most of the alb
stract paintings in the big rear gal
lery were boring. The artists such as
Picasso, Braque and Juan Girls, who
have forced their will to be abstract
upon the modern public, have done it
because they put a certain kind of
| passion into their work, welding their
compositions together in a heat that
continues to give back a sense of life
to the spectator. But when one at
tempts to do this sort of thing idly
in ten minutes it becomes nonsense.
DR.. Brinton helps the show with a
gorgeous red catalogue and some In
formation about the painters. The Con-
charova, 1t seems, was born on a
| spacious landed estate in the Govern
ment OF Tula, the daughter of a dis
tinguished architect and a great grand
niece of the poet Pushkin Goncharova's
childhood was spent wholly in the coun-
try. where she early learned to know
and love nature and the local peasant
life so stepped in color and so perme-
ated with religious fervor and artless
creative fantasy. And yet the charms
of great manor house with its walls
hung with stately ancestral portraits
by Borovikovsky and Levitzky. We're
not sufficient to keep the aspiring
young woman from her predestined
career.
'At first devoting herself to sculp-
ture she soon turned to painting, which
she studied during four years at the
Moscow School of Painting. Sculpture
and Architecture. Possessing such
heritage social and aesthetic. it is sig
nificant that Natalia Sergeyevna should
have become a modernist, yet 1t was
not long after leaving school that her
progressive tendencies were manifested.
Her association with Larionov. which
began when they were fellow students.
gave her the requisite courage and con-
viction. and together they initiated a
campaign for artistic freedom that
sadly perturbed the Muscovite press
and public"
OF Larionov DIR. Brinton says: "The
ernist movement in Russia, though
born in the south, in Bessarabia, is de-
scended from Nordic stock, his father
having been a prominent physician from
Arkhangelsk The energy, the poweD of
organized effort and the gift for leader
ship so typical of the north are exem-
plfied in" Larionov, who passed his
school days and received his artistic
training in Moscow.
"Of all the young Russian radicals who
Haunted their originally. real or fancied.
in the face of their aghast elders Mix
hail Fyodorovich was the most uncom-
promising. the most aggressively mill
tant At frs: somewhat influenced by
Gallo and Slavic neo-impressionists. he
soon forsook Seurat, Signac and Grabar
for Cezanne, Henri-Matisse. Picasso and
kindred apostles of expressionism. Dis
missed from the art school for reasons
sufficiently conclusive. this vertable
enfdnt terrible of brush and palette pro-
ceeded to travel. to paint with prodigal
energy and to pass with protean rapid
ity from one formula to anOtherr