Evening star., 1928-11-25
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

n 2ol7 street.
Mr.. Hutty was born in Grand
Haven, Mich, in 1879. His boyhood was
spent in Kansas City. Mo. and in the
frontier town of Leavenworth, Kans. At
the age Of Is he won scholarship IN
the ST. Louis School of Fine Arts by
having. produced the pest original draw
ing in the local public schools, In early
manhood he entered a stained-glaSs
studio in Kansas City as designer and
painter of figures and landscape win
dows, A few years later, while working
In a similar capacity for a well known
firm In st. Louis, he saw an exhibition
at the municipal museum Of some hun
dred canYasses by a we'll known Eastern
painter. Such an impression was made
by these paintings that when Hutty
learned that the artist was the in
sttuctor in the then newly established
Landscape School of the Art Students
League Of New York he decided to go to
Woodstock for the Summer instruction
in landscape painting Finding the at
mosphere in the East congenial to
growth in art. he made it his home, di-
vtding his time for some years there
after between Woodstock and New York
City. It was at this period that his as
eociation with the Tiffany Studios be-
Ran, continuing until the World War,
when Mr. Hutty became camoufleur.
AS Birge Harrison, his friend and
mentor, whose work tempted him to
Woodstock. has said: "The very widest
found in Huttys later work. shows
clearly the effect of an this earlier
i. training"
IAN artist" Mr.. Harrison has ex-
planned, will usually make use of one
Of three we'll known technical forms of
expression to convey his message to the
public With the sculptor, this will be
achieved by means of the sensitive and
expert use of form: with the painter,
color and tone will dominate, while with
the etcher and draughtsman, line in all
Its intricate variations must be the tool
employed: and Just accordingly as an
artist is gifted in the sensitive appre-
citation and use Of one of these tech
nical means of expression will be the
nature and quality of his output" To
which he has added: 1T is not overStat-
ing the case when we assert that we
have rarely, in America, produced an
artist so sensitive to all the possibilities
Of line and so gifted in Its use as is
Alfred Hutty."
And how true this is! A most casual
survey of the etchingS and lithography
now on view at the Arts Club proves it,
Almost no one has ever drawn trees
more exquiSitely, more perfectly than
he, and his etched line is as sensitive as
It is significant.
At the close of the war happy COM
bination of circumstances took Mr..
Hutty to Charleston, S. c., and almost
instantly that lovely old city Of the
South charmed and held him. SO now
his Winters are spent in Charleston,
aie
of the etchings included in the present
old gateways, old buildings. live oaks,
rnagnolias-and in all these works the
spell Of Charleston, which every one
feels who goes there, is patent. 1t Is
not merely the aspect Of things that he
has set forth, but their inwardness-
the spirit rather than the letter.
One of the etchings in this exhibition
Is Of the court where the scene of
Dubose Heywood's "Porgy" is laid an
other shows a bit of the old Huguenot
Church: still others are of typical
Charleston gateways. In some in
stances Alfred Hutty has taken to
portraiture, character ,,zing the old
negroes who are still representative OF
the old South In their simplicity and
their devotion Undoubtedly. as Mr..
Harrison has said, Alfred Hutty had
instructive ability, but no one who has
q knowledge of art could see his work
without realizing what pains he has
taken to obtain accuracy and how
studious an artist he Is. In day when
good drawing has to an extent gone
out of fashion, he is brilliant
draughtsman. Witness his autographs,
even more, perhaps, than his etchings,
though the latter are but the fruit of
the former, for If Alfred Hutty could
not draw he could not etch-that is,
not as he does. But above and beyond
all, in consideration Of Mr. Hutty's work,
should be emphasized its colorful charm,
its flavor, its reticent but pregnant
beauty.
A r the same time that Alfred Hutty's
"A etchings are on view at the Arts
Club q collection of silhouettes and de-
signs In the extremely modern manner
by Hugo linden Of Dusseldorf, Germany,
are being shown. Mr.. linden is a we'll
known German designer, declared
modernist, and his works have been
reviewed and highly commended in the
leading German art publications.
Obviously, Judgment in matters per-
tanning to art must to an extent be
colored by personal preference. We do
not all see things the same way, nor do
we all like the same things, and un-
doubtedly this is well. The innovator,
furthermore, almost invariably has a
hard time, for though the world cries