The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-07-10
What Is Fame
To Some Chicago
Art Visitors?
RY GEORGE BRITT
NEA Service Writer

NEA Service Writer
Chicago. July lO.-"What picture
here is the biggest
That question on painting is the
one most often asked of the guards
nv casual visitors mt the Art lnstl-
tute Of Chicago. 1t goes in the
same classification with the ques-
ton. (Which picture Is worth the
most money!" and the comment
"That's n beautiful frame
When the King Tut interest was
ut it's height. visitors seeking the
Eryptian room commonly made the
injury. "Where are the dummies
And confusing the art galleries 1or
the ncighboring museum or natnral
history. people pass unnoticing be-
side Rembrandts and Corots while
they ask. as this the corridor to
the stuffed animals?"
Accompanying this jazz comment
on art, the guards ut the institute
pick out striking instances OF unar-
tistc looking people who register
keen appreciation. Ancient vaga-
bonds, looking as if they had slept
the night before in the park beside
the gallery, come on free days ana
study pictures intently.
Just the other Sunday there came
n Mexican railroad section hand, IN
new black shirt and overalls, and
he had an uncanny. reverent way OF
lingering longest at what critics
called the best pictures.
A wealthy collector of pottery,
who makes trips to the Art Institute
every few months from her home IN
Michigan, has carryall system
which might be the pattern for the
most modern bootlesger equipment.
She is elderly and has no taste
for flapper costume. On the con-
tra,v. she has her skirts made long
and full. Somewhere in the rust
ling interior of the skirt are con-
cealed pockets, in which she carries
rare Wedgewood china and priceless
porcelains. She will walk into the
museum without handbag or visible
luggage. But before she sits down
in the office which she is to visit,
she delves into the skirt and exhi-
bits her treasures. Not one has
been broken yet.
The interior decorating depart
ment at the Institute vOuches for
this story:
The tenants in certain depart
ment building habitually complained
of the cold. Even late in the
spring they reported that they were
freezing. 1t was noticed that the
walls were decorated with austere
grays and blues.
The landlord called on the paint
CIR instead of the coal man, fired up
the coloring and was commended fol
heightened temperature. Then sum
mer came, and the walls became
bake ovens!
Color blindness might be consid
cred fatal to an artist, but it did
not prevent Harry r. Wyrick, a
former student here, from winning
poster contest conducted by the
federal war risk insurance bureau.
Red and green constitute merely
an indistinguishable blur for Wy
rick. He discovered the defect in vi.
sion when he gave up his job as
mechanic in Pittsburg, Kas., severa
wears ago and came to Chicago tc
study art. He limited his work
largely to black and white, and
struck winning pace.
Nudes mean nothing any more II
the lives of picture gazers. But
work in the futuristic and post.
impressionist styles, the splotches
and jagged blocks which represent
moods and preach novel sermons, j:
regarded as an insult. A recent ex.
hibition which featured modernistic
radical schools Of painting, brought
screams of protest.
A story which percolates up &c
Chicago from Girard, Kas., seat
of the publishing business of f
Halde man-Julius. concerns the wide
circulation of the little paper bound
volumes of classics distributed from
there.
"A recent order came from con-
Wet in the death CELL" says the pub
Usher. ut was dated on the 2s1t
day of the month, and the man was
sentenced to be hanged the 9Th OF
the following month. He asked Us
to rush his order SO he might have
time to read his books. One Of
them was .Common Faults in Writ
ing English
Eventually ] got him = stay OF
execution. which Msy, help him
prove his inneespes."