Evening star., 1934-12-09

MINIATURE OF JESSIE KEN.
NEDY MURRAY. DAUGHTER OF
MR.. AND MRS. LEWIS n. MURRAY
OF DUNKIRk, n. u, PAINTED BY
MARY MCMILLAN AND ON EX-
HIBITION AT THE CORCORAN
GALLERY OF ART.
meeting of the State Art Society
of North Carolina, held jointly with
the State Poetry and State Historical
Societies December 3, and S. Miss
Mechlin addressed the convention on
the opening night. On December
she went to Savannah. where she is
directing the work of the Telfair
Academy Of Arts and Sciences. She
planned to remain there one week as
she is scheduled to give lecture on
prints and Print Collecting" and an
illustrated lecture on Painting From
Cimabue to Cezanne.'
VERSATILITY in choice of medium
is revealed in the exhibition of
oil paintings, sculpture and ceramics,
and work in black and white, by Max
Schallinger. on view at the Art League
of Washington, since December l. The
artist is an Austrian who has been
living in Baltimore for the past two
years. He studied painting and sculp-
ture at the Vienna Academy of Fine
Arts and the Kunstgewerbeschule, and
later in Munich and Berlin. He also
studied ceramics and produced work
which brought him the degree of
master potter. later becoming as
sistant professor of ceramics at the
Kunstgewerbeschule. Subsequently he
became assistant to Prof. Franz Click
at the Children's Art School in
Vienna. The Click method of in
struction has brought this school re-
nown in the United States.
All of Mr.. Schallinger's work is in
the contemporary idiom, with regard
to form, illumination and untram-
melled use of color, which is rich and
attractive. AS to surface. however,
the paintings are highly glazed. having
an enamel-like appearance reminis-
cent of works by Flemish masters. Mr.
Schallinger apparently favors COM
pound colors, subtle shades such as
violet-gray, gray-green, brownish-red,
against which an occasional color in
its pure state, such as the blue of the
Negroes trousers in Awnings" ap-
pears in startling contrast.
This subject, in two states, is one
Of the various representations of
Negroes the artist has observed in
Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore
of Maryland. In Awnings" portray
ing a group of them in indolent enjoy
ment of leisure on a heavily-laden
tomato and watermelon boat in Balti-
more harbor, Mr.. Schallinger gives
an up-to-date glimpse of the Land
of Cockaigne"
Among the larger paintings. "a
Major" is perhaps the most impressive.
Inspired by the well known Roth
quartette, Mr.. Schallinger has de-
picted the musicians from an unusual
angle, with StyliStic distortion of
forms, grouped as an inverted triangle
in a spot Lighted area cut by many
diagonal lines-a cubistic background.
The composition produces an optical
vibration suggestive of the music
emanating from the stringed instru-
ments and flute.
Two self-portraits in oils of the
artist, and one in ceramics, like all
portraits, are particularly inter-
esting, as they were presumably done
with the utmost freedom. Mr.. Schal-
linger seems to have approached these
directly and without conscious
ness. In one of them he leans for
ward upon a table and looks the
observer unabashedly In the eye. A
psychological portrait Of his wife is
somewhat more subdued in its trans
scription Of personality.
A number of paintings indicate that
Mr.. Schallinger has a forte for satire.
Their subject matter is limited in their
titles-"St. Francis Talks to the Fish
on the Eastern Shore" (and has a
large additional audience of Negroes
of all ages) and Don Quixote After
the Fight With the Windmills." The
battered knight wears modern clothes
beneath his cloak and his head-band-
age is fastened with safety pin, as
though the artist were insinuating,
This is the fate of idealists today, as
in Cervantes' time"
Don Quixote obviously interests Mr..
Schailinger, who shows an equestrian
figure of him done in brass sheet metal,