The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-16
John Reed Club Art
Show Displays Class
Theme AS Main Note
BY J. Kainen

BY }. kalnen
THE most vital exhibition of con-
temporary art in New York
was opened Friday evening, Nov.
9Th. at the John Reed Club. 43O
Sixth Avenue. This show "Revolu-
tionary Front-l934' marks the
opening Of the current exhibition
season Of the J. R. c. and parallels
in quality the Social Viewpoint in
Art exhibition Of two years back,
moving. at the same time, to a
higher theological plane.
The paintings, wings and
sculpture have a uniformly excel
lent technical level, and the prob
lens the artists have tackled are
more fundamental than the usual
tear jerking question-mark pictures
of park bench scenes and garbage
can dramas. Also, some Of the OBJ
vious militant" pictures Of workers
with fists appraised and allegorical
compositions showing some aspect
of nature turning into the hammer
and sickle happily have been elimi-
mated.
Despite these advances, however,
the exhibition lacks a clear revolu-
tionary impact Many are not ag-
gressive enough-they lack passion.
Current gallery msnnerisms con-
tinue to influence some Of our paint
ers, bringing to their work the
melancholy, whimpering eSthetic OF
the petty buorgeoisie. This is a
minor characteristic, however. COM
pared with the bold and honest
work of the majority Of the exhi-
bitors.
PAINTINGS which are vital and
y revolutionary, blazing the trail
for this show include: Strike Talk"
by Selma Freeman, The New Deal"
by Jacob Burck, and a sensitive
er-color Meeting Of Japanese
Workers Club" by C. Yamasaki
Selma Freemans picture of girls in
a sweatshop passing the word for
a strike-meeting is authentic in
mood and detail A great deal of
the pictures power is dissipated,
unfortunately, by a disproportionate
sliding of interest toward the left
and out of the picture. Burcks pic
ture of a National Guardsman bay
oneting worker during a militant
strike scene possesses undeniable
power but loses much of its effec-
tiveness because of its athletic rhe-
toric and careless color.
Nicolai Cikovskis East Side
Landscape" has a deep and sober
harmony and stands out as one
of the ablest things on the walls.
The unemployed men on the dock
and their meek and worried atti-
tudes make the painting fall short
of what Cikovski can really do.
FULLY Filmus painting Workers
Meeting" possesses a charm and
cspability which delights and dis
arms, until one realizes how incon-
sistent the technical method is with
the subject. c. Pollock's tempera
Chicken in Every Pot" depicting
several homeless men heating up a
can of slop, is we'll painted but
shows a more than casual kinship
with the style of Thomas Benton
This results in a brittleness which
is not convincing.
AMONG the paintings of a more
II cerebral nature are those of
Abraham Harriton and Walter
Quirt. Harritons Death of Pro-
letarian Hero" has unusual power
and rich, clashing color Yet one
can't avoid feeling that Hsrriton's
antiseptic forms, Of classic end
monumental suggestion, smack of
anachronism. The grandiose and
legendary figures of Greek myth
ology seem biz remote from our
modern consciousness.
CURTIS painting The Past and the
Passing" requires figuring out" 1t
is an historical allegory featuring
the skeleton Of an American
soldier Of the Revolutionary War