Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20
BY LEILA MECHLIN.
N exhibition of extraordinary in
terest and unusual character

II 1peneo at tne GorcoLan StS1
noon, to remain on view until
February 3. This consists of sculpture
and drawings by Malvina Hoffman. the
latter supplementary TO the former, and
occupies the center of the aStrium, max
ing an impressive showing. The coll
lection, representing over three years
of intensive work in Africa, in Jugo-
Slovakia and in Paris, had its first
showing fortnight or more ago in the
Grand Central Art Galleries, New York
at which time it received from critics
and members Of Malvina Hoffman'S
profession the highest acclaim
Augustus Saint-G audens was of the
opinion that women rarely possess
creative instinct. But here is woman
who evidently possesses it in large
measure, a woman whose work, while
extraordinary sensitive, shows no weak
ness. no femininity save that Of SYM
pathetic understanding -at-oneness
with the subject. Her command Of
medium is amazing, as is also her veF-
satility. She has not one, but many
manners, yet those whom she portrays
fully possess their own personalities,
the artist being lost in her work as in
terpreter
Perhaps the most interesting feature
of this present exhibition is the fact
that represented herein are so many
ionalities-England, by Sir David
Henderson; Poland, by Paderewsh;
Czechoslovakia, by Ivan Mestrovic;
Russia, by Anna Pavlowa; the Javan-
csc. the SengaleSe, Hebrews, Italians
and others-many races, many sorts,
the gifted and the simple, the woman
of wealth and Of social standing, the
ignorant African slave, each an indi-
viduality, each rendered in a manner
and material suitable to the subject;
q remarkable series of types, each
genuine portrait. And how much every
one of these portraits signifies, how
much there is behind the mask!
Undoubtedly the visitor will first be
attracted by two heads in black Bel
gian marble, one Of Sengalese soldier,
sal, boldly rendered, simple. In both
instances the skin Is polished until it
shines like ebony, and the hair and
other parts are in the rough. Both OF
these works were modelled from life ac-
curately, later enlarged, simplified, per-
fected. Their manner of expression is
what is today termed modern, but lack
of this modernism is the tradition of
the past. They are akin to the classic.
works produced by the unnamed Sculp-
tors of Egypt and Greece. And the
manner employed in these instances
perfectly accords with the subjects pre-
sented. How different it is from that
which Malvina Hoffman has used for
her portraits in bronze of Mrs. E. H.
Hartman and of Giovanni Boldini!
From the simple AMI plastic one pass
es to the subtle and complex. the rid
die propounded by civilization. And
how different again, is the treatment
bronze and in wax, of the mask of
Paderewski, Of the portrait in marble
Of John Keats.
More archaic than even the portraits
of Sengalese soldier and the Mar
Unique girl (Which, by the way, have
been purchased by the Brooklyn Mu-
scum for its permanent collection) are
the two heads carved in wood, one of
rabbi at Hara-Srira, Island of Djerba,
the other of an African slave. In these
TO an extent Malvina Hoffman resorts
to an ancient vernacular, but makes it
her own, and as one looks into these
faces carved in wood one seems to real
ize the antiquity Of the people repre-
sented, the antiquity Of race. No
less a Characterization is the figure,
half length, of an African youth hold
ing fighting cock--a supebr specimen
of humanity as well as game fowl
But perhaps, after I'll, most intimate
and interesting is the group of the
sculptor's neighbors in Parasitic coal
MAJ, carved from great lump of an
thracite coal; the mason, made out of
his own bricks ground up and serving
as clay; Nine. La Notice, in terra Gotta,
an old face wonderfully Illuminated by
the spirit within: 1.-THE Lady Next
Door," commonly declared to be a
witch; Mime. Tarti, the Mattress
Maker" beautiful, as age can make
enc, with all the history Of hard life
written on the countenance, and yet
hardness glorified by the spirit within
a work so sensitive, so sympathetic, so
skillful that before it one must stand in
awe and admiration
And with this ability to interpret life
through the individual, Malvina Hoff-
man combines a splendid power of
imagination, that creative genius to
which reference has already been made
Some years ago there came to her a
great vision of the triumph of good over
evil. Her inspiration came from the
reading of certain lines in the book of
Revelations, those describing the four
Observation-Disclosures War, Famine and
Death, through which comes sorrow,