Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20

| centers the wall to the right, and
Derain's "Mano the Dancer" that mar
velouS study in ivory, occupies like po-
sition on the left wall Around these
focal points the collection has been built
up each work making its own contri-
| button, yet taking its place in har-
moniouS whole. And in this instance
| the whole is even greater, more sig
nificant than any of the units in the
composition. An environment is Gre
ated, an environment conducive not
only to esthetic pleasure but 10 a bet
| ter understanding of the spirit Of art.
The little gallery is occupied at the
present time by group of water colors
| by John Marin the most abstruse of all
the modernistS, but one whose work MI.
Phillips and other discerning critics
greatly admire.
These exhibitions to which further
reference will be made later, will con-
tinue for two months, when they will
be changed.
THE Corcoran Gallery of Art has
- lately placed on view, as loan. a
portrait head in bronze of the prime
minister of Great Britain, Ramsay Mac
| donald, by no less famous a person
than Jacob Epstein. Only three copies
of this portrait exist. One is in the
National Gallery of Scotland at Edin-
burgh, one in the Public Gallery of AIT
in Glasgow, the third is now here.
Because of the recent visit of Mr..
Macdonald and the wide publication of
his photographs every one will have an
opportunity personally to decide wheti;-
er or not this portrait is q likeness. 1t
would seem to be-and something more
than this-a strong Interpretation of
character. But 1t is certainly not an
agreeable work because of the eXtraor-
binary technique employed by the art
ist-the handling of the original clay,
the roughneSs of surface, roughness
not necessarily indicative of ruggedness,
not essential to strength.
It is perhaps this casting aside of all
of the amenities of beauty-surface fin
ish, delicacy of touch combined with
structural strength. which the master
pieces of the world possess, that has
caused so much criticism, so much
aversion to Jacob Epstein'S works.
Probably no one was ever more criti-
cized than he; no one to whose work
more bitter objection has been made.
And yet Jacob Epstein is one of the
outstanding figures in art of our day.
He was born of Russian Polish parents
in New York in $780, As a well known
London critic has said, mo artist has
been more assailed by criticism. both
special and general and none has been
less affected by It," At the age of %
he sprang, full-f1edged, upon the Lon
don public with Is stone figures on the
old British Medical Association Build
ing In the Strand. These sculptures
called forth violent adverse criticism.
Twelve years later when the tomb thai
he designed for Oscar Wilde was erect
ed in the Cemetery Of Pere LaChaise in
Paris, he was again asSailed. ThA =
was trouble over his cubiStic Rock
Devil" more still over his statue of
Christ, and even more over the carved
memorial relief of w. H. Hudson, nat
uralist, in the bird sanctuary in Hyde
Park, London. Then, it is said, the
storm arose to q hurricane, but Epstein
remained as static as his sculpture"
Recently the London papers have been
full of discussion and vituperation of
his statues Day" and Might" over the
portals of the Underground Railways
new building. According to report,
crowds gather on the opposite side of
the street at every hour of the day to
examine and discuss these works.
And yet Epstein continues unmoved,
unchanged. He receives commissions;
he is rated among the great.
X 4 +
IN the Corcoran Gallery of Art there
will be opened on the evening of
october "a, with a private view, to
which invitations have been issued, an