Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-04

UEaf they mean.
BY G.. FR4NCIS DICKIE.
n r is 2 o'clock in the morning on the Boule-
ward Montparnassc This quarter which
for years has been the home of all manner
of artistic workers, has now also become
the center of night life, and robbed Mont
martre of much of its former glory.
In the Cafe Select. on tall stools before
what the French call with an amusing mis-
conception of the real article. the Bar Amer1-
cain. are seated four men from the United
States. Their fo-efa!hers made too much
money in the land of opportunity and now
these children play at art but work overtime
only in cafes.
Oueerly enough. Americans the widest
OF all the inhabitants of this mad section.
They are the most freakish dreSsers. At the
bar sits man. who in his home town OF
Kansas City was undoubtedly clean shaven and
wore at least well fitted ready-to-wearS. Now
he sports a beard no Frenchman of today
would dare, ard a suit of corduroy that smacks
Of the days of Trilby.
In far corner of the room seated alone at
q table before one franc beer is Russian sur
reast painter, all the mournfulness of his
tragic land in his heavy brooding eyes,
Starving usual" he remarks with tired
whimsical smile.
And yet this painter Michonze seems to have
q touch of genius. For five years he painted
before he sold a picture, record even for
Paris where 1t is said there are 40 900 artists.
What strange images he conveys to canvas.
They grip you They give you strange emo
tions. His men, women and animals are OF an
unreal world, the earth of the -realists,
most modern of schools in painting. Men with
out heads. Trees uncanny like in q neither
world.
One of his paintings in particular, shows q
long road leading up hill between mccarthy
trees. In the middle of it two gigantic eggs
seem moving up the hill.
But those are not eggs. Those are men
but expressed Sur-realistically," he tells you,
speaking in all seriousness. Growing animated,
he proceeds to expound the theory OF this new
school. Life" he cries with flashing eyes, "is
too terrible, or it is too banal to contemplate
as it is. So I and my brother artists paint
: something out of space and time
A LITTLE apart for the moment. lost In con-
N temptation the while he munches> on a
large piece Of Swiss cheese, sits Abraham Lin
coin Gillespie, in whom is eptomized all the
modern group Of writer's who are treating the
written word in the same fashion that the
cubists and the sur-realists have treated paint
ing He belongs to the school of word jugglers
whose high priests Gertrude Stein and
James Joyce, the writings of both Of whom
are unintelligible to the average reader.
II 1t is possible, Abraham Lincoln Gillespie,
more briefly known as "Linkers" to all the
Shining lights Of MontparnasSe's literary frma-
ment Is more obscure than either Stein or
Joyce. An example of his work Is quoted rs
indicative Of the working of the modern mind.
It is titled: "a Love Episode" and is given
exactly printed, capitals and all:
"She ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ome-d delaying
clouds away hbido-see percepscient Hofnag-
complish OpenBeautys love-committing EEFie
Woke Bloom Reason Push"
IN the terrace of the Cafe du Dome you
~ may hear the now celebrated painter
Foujita relate his receiving a commission Of .
hah million francs to paint fresco in the
home of French induStrialiSt. This Japanese
painter, just past middle age, is of the
exceptions to the generally true rule that most
painters die without getting their just none
tary rewards.
In brief time he has leaped into inter-
national fame. His rise is exceptional It is
only matter of a decade that he sat pen
nilesS and unknown on the terrace of the
Cafe Rotonde The son of Japanese adj
mral, he had his allowance cut of when he
refused to return to Japan after finishing his
art course. The day after receiving this news
he sat upon the cafe terrace and related his
situation to a chance-met buxom young French
woman, q painter like himself
"But, mon vieux, haven't you any work you
can sell?"
Foujita admitted he had plenty Cd drawings.
but expressed his doubts of their bringing any,
thing. However. Fernando, with that keen
practicabifty of the French woman, insisted on