Evening star., 1928-12-30

"A esting exhibits one of art
termed commercial" the other
of garden designs.
There is a tendency on the part OF
the majority of persons to regard art
as a matter merely of painting and
sculpture, forgetting that it covers in
reality a much wider field, embracing
the greatest of all arts-architecture-
and the allied arts and landscape plan
ming, illustration, the so-called graphic
arts and design. In those days when
art attained greatest height the So
called minor arts took on greatest sig
nifcance. It is only thus that art be-
comes a part of everyday life and is
most itimately associated with the lives
of the people.
Perhaps comparatively few realize
the changes that are taking place at
the present time in the art of illuStra-
ton. Thirty or forty years ago TINS
art houriShed because of the demand
by the current magazines for llluStra-
tive material Some Of our foremost
painters began as illustrators. For m
stance, Winslow Homer, Abbey, Jonn
Alexander and a host of others, be-
sides those who specialized in 1llustra-
ton, such as A. B. Frost and Reginald
Birch. These men for the most part
worked in pen and ink or in charcoal
and crayon. Then came the lnventlon
of the half-tone process, and new
era set in. The wood engraving ana
the wood cut very soon went out.
Wash drawings took the place OF those
In which line chiefly was employed.
Within the last few years sun
greater change has come over the Illus
traitors world. This change has been
induced by the almost universal adop-
ton of illustrative advertising. Some
of our best artists give now the larger
nortion of their time to this so-called
commercial work. Why? Because it
brings in the largest returns, and, after
all, one must make living. Because
the magazines could not compete with
their advertisers, financially, several OF
the leading monthly publications have
within the last year or two practlcaily
abandoned illustration. To some TINS
might seem bad omen for the future
of illustration, but as the one avenue
is closed another avenue is opened, the
avenue of newspaper illustration. Some
of the finest drawings that have been
made during the past two years nave
been done to order for newspapers.
Our own local papers are showing great
Improvement in their commercial art.
The cartoonist's art and the art OF
scope than it has today, though it has
been perpetually in vogue for great
MANY years, and not only in vogue, but
a strong instrument influencing public
opinion. Here in washington Clifford
K. Berryman's daily cartoons in The
Star have brought him to national no
tice and renown. We have residing
here in Washington at the present time
one of the great caricaturists OF New
York-W. A. Rogers. The local news
papers, Furthermore, have capable
stats Of illustrators who are turning
out excellent material with rapldIty ana
skill
The works of some of these so-called
commercial illustrators constitute an
exhibit in the lower drawing room and
the dining room at the Arts Club. The
place of chief eminence over the man
tells has been gi--cn to representative
groups of Clifford <. Berryman'S works.
Opposite, in the drawing room, is an
interesting group of the work OF Mr..
Berryman's son, James T. Bergman,
who is working with, as well as under
his father on the staff OF The Star,
and shows in his compositions and in
his execution individuality of talent and
sincerity of purpose. To the right OF
the Clifford Bergman group in the
drawing room is group OF portraltS
by Herbert Murray, among them an
admirable one of Mr.. Bergman himself.
To the left are to be seen drawings to
accompany advertisements by Rochon-
Hoover, Newman Sudduth and Iris
Beatty johnson.
OF notable interest in this collection
is group of drawings by Charles A. r.
Dunn, entitled "Babbitt Through the
Ages" a series produced for the Ma
tion's Business, which has lately been
reprinted in pamphlet form. There Is
more than one FORM" says the intro
duction to this pamphlet, ''of attack
ing an injustice. Some wrongs can
best be righted by laughter. When the
business men of the Nation, were pill
loried as Rabbits. Nations Business
took this course. It answered invective
with ridicule. That's the why of Mr..
Dunn's striking series of cartoons en-
titled 'Babbitt Through the Ages"
Beginning with the Paleolithic Age,
Mr. Dunn in succession shows the
Rabbits of Egypt, of Phoenicia, OF
Greece, of Rome, of the Orient, of Nor
man England, of the days of piracy
and Of our own immortal '80's-"The
Mauve Decade" His humor is ire
sistible, and at the same time fully sig
nificant. Never was ridicule more poig-
nant or better attuned. Few of 1.-The
funnies" have been as funny as these.
Well composed. admirably drawn, amaz-
ingly expressive, this series takes its
place as art, and art of a very real
sort. "Babbitt Through the Ages"
should live.
THE landscape exhibit on the second
floor of the Arts Club Is no less sig
nificant, though much more widely
separated from the commercial art eX-
hibit than by a double fight of stairs.
Through 1t the observer is taken into
an entirely different world, the world
wrought in most instances, through the
rewards of commerce. The exhibitors
are Rose Greeley. John Small, III:
Horace Peaslee and George Burnap, all
local artists.
Miss Greeley makes perhaps the larg-
est showing with a number of photo
graphs of corners of gardens, not only
in Washington but in other parts OF
the country, which she has composed
and brought into existence. Mr.. Small's
exhibit is chiefly local, and to great
extent confined to large projects, land
scaping and planting of big areas, IN
which he would seem to have followed
to some extent the theories and prac-
tice of the elder OlmSted, though his
work has at the same time distinct
individuality. Mr.. PeaSlee, who is arch1-
tect as well as landscape architect. is
represented by only one or two ex-
amples, among them his designs for the
development of Meridian Park. So also
is Mr.. Burnap, whose book on this SUBJ
ject, however, is one Of the standards.
There is no difference between the
artist who paints q picture with pig
ment and the artist who paints ont
with living elements-grass, trees
plants, water-but the latter laborS un'
der greater difficulties. He is, indeed
but a co-worker with nature. Wher
asked once the prerequisite for land
scape architect Frederic Olmsted, jr.
promptly replied: Visual imagina
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