Evening star., 1924-04-03
The North Window
By LEILA MECHLIN

BY taking thought man cannot
add one cubit to his stature, neither
can he gain originality If ne does not
possess it. Like genius, originality is
inborn; the one is the power to do,
the other an angle Of vision.
We have heard much in the past
few years from the modernists of new
forms OF expression, but I'm the field
Of art it would seem that Augustus
Vincent Tack was the first TO dis
cover or make use Of a form purely
original. The exhibition of recent
decorative paintings by Mr.. Tack
which is now on view at the Phillips
Memorial Gallery is a surprise and a
revelation. II Is painting OF a sort
"hlch mas never been done before and
yet which seems to belong TO the
Great Tradition. At first sight the
compositions-for such they truly
are-delight the eye because of color
rui quality, just as medieval stained
glass window bursts with radiance
upon the vision Of one entering a
ulmiy lighted cathedral. But what Is
II al about; are these pictures? In
one is a bit bewildered at first by the
intdhglDlllty of the shapes employed
IL is as though one listened to a poem
IN IN a foreign. unknown language
1rauualIy as imagination awakens
meaning dawns, and as one sees fam
tdstlc forms in the clouds, so un-
una gined beauty is unfolded by these
paintings. They are of the stuff of
which dreams are made, and yet most
For instance tbn 1900. ,
titled The Voice of MANY Waters"
lately acquired by the Phillips Me
mortal alry. One moment it would
seem 10 encompass all the little love-
a .iness die 80 OF majestic waterfalls-of Nj
asgara, OF those wisps of falls found
IN the swiss Alps-dropping from
great heights like maiden's veil; and
again 1t suggests the majesty of
mountain heights, the mystery of YER
dant ravines, aspiration, rich endow-
ment. How and why one cannot ex-
pam, the painter with tangible ma
terial has created intangible effects.
aho while making use of definite form
mas ians indefinitely extended the on
lookers vision. And he has done IL
Withoot straining; to the contrary,
with perfect naturalness, SO that il
seems not strange, but usual.
In order to point the way to under
standing Mr.. Phillips himself has giv-
en- brief explanatory account as
toreword to the catalogue. In this
he calls attention to the fact that
William Blake, the great mystic, la
mented the tyranny of the literal
and the local in the graphic arts"
1t was Blake who asked why paint
ing must be confined to the sordid
drudgery of facsimile reproduction. of
merely mortal and perishing sub
stances. rather than be elevated. like
poetry and music. into arts proper
sphere-invention and visionary con-
.ception." And Mr.. Phillips says in
answer, why indeed? Yet II is a fact
that the illustrative and initiative is
much more easily understood than the
purely interpretive"
The greatest thing art can suggest"
Mr. Philips athrms, sis the rhythm of
lie itself-the rhythm without which
lie would not persist" And he con-
tinues: Rhythm is that delicate eoui-
poise and balance which confronts
us daily with the miracle OF co-ordi-
nate action, OF natural movement
rhythm Is life with it reservoirs of
impulses and energy and its waves
or emotion. And is it not art as well.
with its complex relations between
part and part and between part and
whole, its mysterious harmonies of
proportion, its subtle sense OF scale
and tone, its unerring correspondence
iof theme and expression of matter
and spirit? In no other art has this
identity Of content and form seemed
$50 inherent as in music, which is self
contained and self-sufficient Yet
painters. too. have dreamed of NOV
ing US like music, of giving painting
the emotional potency and even the
time element which music has hither-
TO monopolized. Augustus Vincent
Tack is showing the way. He is a
great pioneer and one of the truly
significant and important artists of
our age. In his sublime decorations
we feel a quickened apprehension of
the ebb and flow, and the fluent, dy-
manic forces OF life. To his color
music we may go either for rest and
recreation, or for zest and stimula-
Ition; for seeing visions and for
dreaming Dreams
X X
There Is a strong clement of re-
semblance in some of Mr.. Tack's
paintings to the paintings OF the
early Chinese artists, the great mas
ters of the Orient. Particularly is
this felt in the decorative painting
or the sea, where crested wave on
wave pile high and suggest endless
motion-commingled tragedy and joy.
the common kinship which annihi-
lates time. for, as Royal Cortissoz has
said in a published essay, art, great
art, has no reference to time: it is of
all time" Also. Tack shows the
influence OF the italian primitives.
especially so in his Rosa Mystica."
owned by the Cleveland Museum and
lent to this exhibition-a work steep
ed in religious feeling. as is John La
F'arge's great painting The AS
cension' i'm the Church of the AS
cension, New York.
Tack himself is n mystic, a pro-
foundly religious man. and for his
inspiration, as Mr.. Phillips has told
US, he goes to two sources, first
the thought OF the divine Nazarene,
of the mighty spiritual forces Great
ed by Him to save the world from
itself; second. the majesty of high
mountains in serenity and storm, the
elements which transcend time and
place and speak with the voice of
the Great Spirit"
And, withal, Augustus Tack has
wonderful sense OF decorative val
ues, a sense which the world has
come to recognize, for of late he has
been commissioned to produce mural
paintings for the decoration OF the
new state capitol in Nebraska. that
building, designed along extremely
original lines by Bertram Goodhue.
which the architects of the country
with remarkable unanimity have
praised without measure; ana ne mas
also been commissioned OF late to
the PauIist Fathers in New York.
Aueustus Tack is a modernist. but