New-York tribune., 1922-03-17
u. S. Producing
Best of Artists.
Says Pennell.
We Are Unbeaten in Number
of Great Men Produced in
Last $50 Years, He De-
clares in Opening Show
Americans Often Hoaxed
Exhibition Of Native Work
at Acad G my Includes
100 Whistler Examples

one OF the most comprehensive ex-
hibltlons of American graphic arts, in
cludlng the work of the leading etch
ers, lithographers and engravers of the
last century, was opened last night at
the American Academy of Arts and
Letters with lecture on Whistler by
Joseph Pennell. This was followed bv
reception. The events were attended
by five hundred members of the acad-
emy and their guests.
Before settling down to rehearsal
of the history of Whistler's art and the
stirring events of his life, Mr.. Pennell
rose to the defense of American art,
and followed this by deprecating the
manner in which art is accepted in
this country.
Citing authorities who have said
there is no American art, Mr.. Pennell
declared that though there never has
been an artistic age or an artistic ma
tion America has produced during the
last hundred and fifty years as many
great artists as any other country.
Like all great artists, he added, how
ever, few Of them have been. during
their lives, recognized by their coun-
try or colleagues. Art with US usually
must have been recognized somewhere
else and marked with the money stamp
before we can appreciate it, he added
Cites Foreign Hoaxes
Then he cited an example of the
process by which, he said we in this
country arrive at an appreciation Of
art. Many interpreted this as refer
ence to the Blue Boy" which was just
exhibited here.
IF an Englishman a hundred years
ago painted a portrait as an expert
ment, and after that portrait had been
lost or stolen, and so acquired bv its
adventures financial standing. and if
after that it had been completely re-
painted, vanished, scraped off, cleaned,
restored, until not a vestige of the
original remains. and if then an art
patron pays 100000 for a work the
artist would have been glad to get
$500 for when he painted it and is
really now ghost of its former self.
we will swarm to it in crowds, talk
about it at tea tables and never know
that anything else has been done till
some dealer gets something else To- un-
load on us by the same methods. That
I is what we call the appreciation of
art, the love Of art, the encourage
ment of art in this land.'
Exhibition Opens To-day
The exhibition, which opens to the
public to-day, is divided into two sec
rions, one tnat is retrospective and
takes in the work of deceased Ameri.
can artists. This comprises the etch-
ings and Autographs of Whistler, of
which there are 100 examples from all
stages of his career, a complete collec-
ton of Frank Duveneck's virtually un-
known prints of Venice and Florence,
etchings by Robert Blum, j. H. Twacht-
man and J. Alden Weir. There are
wood engrayings by Henry Wolf and
Frank Juenglng and others.
In the contemporary group such we'll
known exponents of contemporary
graphic art as Mary Cassatt, Davies,
Hassam, Pennell, Bellows and Ruzicka
are represented.
The prints, particularly the earlier
specimens. have come from various
museums and private collections in
Guiding the Brooklyn Museum, which
lent the Whistler Autographs, and the
Cincinnati Museum, which offered its
fine collection of Duveneck's work.