Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-01-06
Notes of Art and Artists
BY LEILA MECHLIN

cording to the announcement issued
by the club, is internationally known
as a painter of portraits. Born in
Manchester, England, she received her
early training under Walter Crane in
the Manchester School Of Art. She
then studied in Vienna under Helm
rich Won Angelic, later In Munich and
Paris. In 1922 she came to this coun-
try, of which she has now become a
citizen. Her works will be shown in
the gallery.
ORANGES GEARHART, whose block
prints in color will be exhibited
in the drawing room of the Arts Club,
is one of the few who has employed
wood block as an original medium,
following the Japanese, If at all, at a
very great distance, and finding for
herself purely personal expression.
She has in this medium interpreted
California landscape and flora with
exceptional veracity and charm. She
is one of three talented sisters. May
Gearhart is supervisor of art in the
public schools of Los Angeles County,
and occasionally makes a wood block;
Edna Gearhart is a teacher of the
history of art in one of the Los An
geles high schools. They live in a
small house in the old quarter of
Pasadena and have adjacent to their
home a studio which has become a
meeting place for the West Coast
print makers and other artists. Be-
tween the house and the studio is a
small, fascinating garden in which
Frances Gearhart grows many sorts
Of rare plants and flowers, being an
ardent horticulturist All three sis
tiers have cultural tastes in common.
but great independence of viewpoint
and action. They are all eager for
adventure and are good sports"
Frances Gearhart cuts her blocks with
great accuracy and invariably does
her own printing. Each print is,
therefore, an original. and often from
the same blocks very different i'm
preSSions are made. She uses rather
delicate colors in gentle gradations
and without obvious lines or insist
ence on black. Her prints are also
individualized by being three rather
than two dimensional. They have
depth and atmosphere. In compost
ton they are simple, but they do not
by any means deliver their message at
glance; rather do they hold it in
reserve for those who linger. These
prints are good to live with, which.
after all, Is the acid test.
4 4 4
ON TUESDAY evening. January g.
the honor guest at the Art Clubs
dinner will be the Baroness Violet B.
Wenner, whose portraits will be on
view in the club gallery. Following
the dinner the baroness will give a
talk on Modern Tendencies in Art"
THE Arts Club announces the ap-
pointment of Harold Allen Long
as chairman Of its 1885 Bal Boheme
Committee. and the subject this year
to be In the Orient" The Bal
Boheme will be held at the Willard
Hotel as usual. the evening of Feb
ruary 4. The theme. both in decora-
ton and pageant, will be taken from
East of Suez and West of the Golden
Gate" which will allow for sumptu-
GUS and colorful treatment. 1t should
prove a notable and very picturesque
occasion.
EVERETT v. MEEKS, fellow of the
American Institute of Architects.
dean OF the School of Fine Arts of
Yale University, professor of architec-
ture and director of the Yale Art Gal
lery, will be the speaker at the Wash
ington Society of Fine Arts January
meeting. Wednesday evening, Janu-
airy 9. in Barker Hall. His subject will
be The Romantic Revival in the Mid
Nineteenth Century-Victoriani in
Architecture and the Decorative Arts"
1t will be illustrated by stereopticon
slides.
"A TALK on Pictures" given BY
Gertrude Stein in the Phillips
Memorial Gallery before a compare
lively small invited audience. will not
soon be forgotten by those fortunate
enough to hear it. At the outset Miss
Stein announced she would not talk
on modern art of which she is and
has been for years a leading expon-
ent, but rather upon her own personal
attitude toward pictures. The talk
was written and read in a pleasant,
informal manner with attractive in
Elections and emphasis skillfully
placed. 1t is much pleasanter and
more satisfactory to hear Miss Stein
than to read her. Using the vernac-
ular which she, herself, has invented.
very simple word-forms with constant
repetition, she was able to put forth
old truths in such completely new
dress that they seemed new in them
selves, and presumably carried con-
viction. The giSt of what she said
was that paintings were in themselves
entities, and that when through re-
Semblance to something else they
ceased so to be. their value was gone.
Any painting in oils on a fiat sur
face. she said, interested her from
childhood, continuously. When, how
ever, Cain wheat field was so real
that it could scarcely be distinguished
from the field itself, it began to
bother" her and she lost interest.
Apparently as years passed the less
painting had the appearance of
things seen, the more it appealed to
her. until finally came Matisse and
Picasso." Obviously, what Miss Stein
said was true. The charm of paint
ing is the way it is done, the fact that
it is work of art. That which is
merely initiative cannot hold ones
interest-it has no message But why,
to make this understood, is it neces-
sary to go back to primitive forms
Of expreSSion-to cruditieS, to exag-
gerationS-unless, to be sure, we have
become blinded and deafened by our
own conceit. 1t may be. In any event
Gertrude Stein was very worth hear
ing. In the gallery, in which she spoke,
were some superb paintings by those
as strong and as independently mind
ed as herself-Courbet, Daumier,
Eakins and Ell Greco. 1t was good to
hear her in this company.
X y X
DURING the past week Marguerite
~ Mum has been holding in her
studio at 1858 Pennsylvania avenue an
exhibition of paintings by her child
pupils. boys and girls from 9 to II