Evening star., 1936-07-18
Bv Leila Mechlin.
MERE is today q distinct vogue
for things American. Whether
it comes from introspection a

but none can deny its existence. After
many years Of following European
leading strings we seem to have
broken loose and, reafhrming our in
dependence, set boldly to work tc
prove our birthright. The dominant
note in painting in this country II
the last three years has been "the
American scene; silver by early
American silversmiths commands
much higher price than that by the
best European makers of even ar
earlier period; early American glass
is assiduously sought by American
collectors; portraits by early Ameri-
can painters are more in demand
than those by their British confreres
OF glamorous reputation; even feeble
and in many instances patheucallJ
poor, paintings by amateurs OF a hum
dred or more years ago have been dug
out of attics and paraded under the
nisapplied title American primitives'
as of real worth and interest. If this
movement Is sincere it is certainly
laudable, a tangible evidence tha'
despite delay and encouragement
and youthful laundering America L
really coming of age and attaining
through maturity, to her own estate;
but If it is not our later state will be
infinitely worse than our former
when at least we had the wisdom tt
seek the guidance and follow the ex-
ample of those more richly endowed
In an excellent article on "Ameri-
canism in Painting" lately published
in the Summer number OF the Yale
Review. Virgil Barker, formerly OF
this city, says: The art which we
have thus far produced, and any ar'
we shall yet produce. may prove tc
be. when compared to the art Of other
lands and ages. second-rate. But
even If it be tenth-rate, it will be
better for us in the end than the bet
ter art of other nations" Adding
only by making an art which in turn
makes US can We attain spiritual
maturity" 1t is this matter OF max
ing u.s. which gives us occasion for
contemplation and concern. Obvi-
ouslv we should think Of what we
may be doing to art, but OF infinitely
greater import is what the art We
make is doing TO us-art will go on
our DAY is limited.
Mr.. Barker's attitude toward cur
rent production, this newborn Amer
icanism, is essentially optimistic
After warning that "only the painter
who cannot help being American can
safely be 3d." he processes great sat-
isfaction In the contemporary "redis-
covery of the American scene and the
''unmistakably American way In
which it Is being rendered.
Among the leaders in this move
ment in its manifold regional mani
festations he cites Reginald Marsh
John Steuart Curry. Grant Wood anc
Thomas Benton, all of whom have
been commissioned to produce mural'
for either the new Post Office De-
partment Building or the Depart
ment of Justice Building, as we'll as
James Chaplin, John Marin, Hopper
Burchfeld. Coleman and Sheeler, in
whose realistic efforts he finds "a
common bond of honesty" and emo
tional content which ''transcends mere
subject matter" But admitting that
art is in the doing rather than the
thing done, have we not the right to
question the definition, individual OF
collective, Of Americanism and to urge
the matter of choice?
WHAT is typically American in our
w contemporary life and outlook?
Perhaps a foreigner could answer this
better than native-born citizen
How is it that in a foreign crowd an
American is almost always dst!n'
guishable. BY what subtle quality is
he so marked? Mark Twain and Wal
Whitman are regarded abroad as typ
ical Americans, but in matter OF fact
are they any more so than Abraham
Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt? The
paintings of Curry. Wood and Benton
may be typical of some places OF
phases of life in the Middle West, bu
are they any more typical of America
as a whole than the landscapes o.
Inness or the marines of Winslow Ho-
mer? Couse's paintings of Indians in
New Mexico were typically true, bu
they do not discount the veracity OF
Tarbells pictures of home life ir
New England among descendants Of
the Puritans or of Benson's paintings
of wild life and sport. Nationalistit
tendencies are certainly not to be
sought in subject matter and will moi
be found there as much as IN char
acter and spiritual quality.
Furthermore, ,internationalism, which
has come through closer association
and increased facilities OF commu
nication, has to great extern
obliterated national differences ano
put the emphasis where it belongs
on individuality of expression ano
universally of meaning.
Ten years ago the only countries Of
Europe that exhibited any very mark
ed nationalistic tendencies in their ar'
were Sweden and Spain, which up tc
then had been comparatively isolated
and apart. These tendencies are still
observable in the Swedish industrial
arts, but not to any degree in the ART
of painting-and in Spain they seen
to have disappeared almost entirely
individuality breeds in isolation and
not through premeditation and SELF
seeking.
The search for Americanism is not
newt was begun a long time age
by painters Of the Hudson River school
of landscape painting, who gave them
selves to the transcription Of scenery
typically American. In the Corcoran
Gallery OF Art are two such paint
ings by Albert Bierstadt and one by
Frederick E. Church, both Of whom
were born before 1882 and lived to
see the opening of the new century
The Bierstadts are 'The Last Of the
Buffalo," a typical Western scene OF
Indians descending on ponyback upon
a herd OF buffalo crossing-the plains
and Mount Corcoran," peak OF the
Southern Sierra Range in Nevada
named after the donor of the Corcorar
Gallery of Art. The latter Is un-
doubtedly Photographic, a portrait Of