Evening star., 1936-02-29
Bv Leila Mechlin.


during the coming week. On
L Monday comprehensive ex-
hibition of etchings by John Taylor
Arms will be placed on view, and on
Saturday afternoon will be held
preview Of an exhibition of paintings
Of "The Sea and Ships" by Gordon
Grant, to which many are looking for
ward with pleasurable anticipation.
John Taylor Arms is washington
boy who has risen to pre-eminence in
his profession and today stands among
the foremost etchers, not only Of
America. but of our time. He has at
tanned this distinction through ex-
traordinary gifts of vision, perception,
intuition and understanding, together
with patience, perseverance and end
less industry. He Is brilliant drafts
man, . most skillful technician. fully
commanding his medium, using it well,
and he has no mannerisms. But all
this, while spelling perfection. might
occasion work of little or no interest,
save to technicians, were it not leav-
ened by the spiritual qualities of in
spiration and Deep strong feeling. Not
every plate that John Taylor Arms has
etched has attained his high ideal,
but never has one been done without
emotional urge.
Trained as an architect, he has given
himself to the Interpretation of archi-
teetural themes, and chiefly of an
earlier era than our own. In his early
days as an etcher he took stock of
the medieval towns of France, Italy
and Spain" and was especially at
tracted by rambling streets with
quaint shop fronts, old doorways and
gables" which he sketched with care.
Then came the war and a long
break. In 1923 he went back to the
land he had most dearly loved to draw
-France-and from there found his
way into the southern countries, which
likewise yielded him treasure in their
overwhelming store of architectural
beauty. 1t was then that his interest
began to center in Gothic buildings,
style which seems to him-and to
many others-to combine all that is
most beautiful-grandeur of scale,
1ineness of proportion. wealth of de-
tail-in buildings erected by the hand
Of man.
At first he confined himself, he says,
to details. To this period belongs a
series of plates depicting gargoyles-
the "Gargoyle Series" he calls 1.-THE
making of which gave him endless
pleasure" To him these grotesques
are an inexhaustible source of interest
and amusement-sheer delight. And
he has made them delightful to many
others, imbuing them with genuine
characteristics, personifying them-in
short, Interpreting them, as their me-
dieval carvers undoubtedly meant
them to be, with humor and admira-
tion.
Later developed the idea of etching
the cathedrals and churches of France,
which, with digressions Into the we'll
loved hill towns of Italy and the
sterner but no less beautiful regions
OF spain," has occupied him COM
pletely for the last nine years.
BY 1929 the number of his plates
had reached LAG, and since then six
fruitful years have come and gone. 1t
Is an inexhaustible field-a task which
can never be brought to completion
but each year as it passes brings addi-
tional revelations of beauty and in
crease in fascination.
IT have followed them," he says,
"from one end of France to the other;
have worked in the shadow of their
magnificent portals and climbing
apses, and always they have given me
fresh inspiration and renewed reso-
luton to interpret in so far as my linn
ited power will permit, the imagery Of
their beauty"
Such enthusiasm is bound to show in
ones work, and in Mr.. Arms etchings
1t Is a great factor. One may marvel
at his technical skill-it is almost be-
yond belief-but it is the artists sense
Of beauty and his eagerness to make it
known that constitutes the profound
appeal.
Take, for example, one of his most
famous etchings-"Lace in Stone
the west facade of Rouen Cathedral
with its rose window-which, published
at $35 or $40 soon sold at $50 and is
now listed at $l50-and rare. As
technical achievement this Is supreme.
but 1t was not done as stunt, and
never for an instant does the observer
have his attention distracted from the
thing itself by the intrusion Of bra
vado, or even self-consciousness, on
the part of the etcher. In this mag
nificent example of Gothic art Mr..
Arms found the quality which he be-
lieves should be in every good etching
spiritual conception and technical
power, perfectly balanced. For all
the unbelievable wealth of detail in
the lacelike web that is flung across
the front of this great cathedral" he
says, "the feeling for mass and struc-
ture and silhouette is never lost"
A somewhat similar plate is
"Gothic Glory" the north portal,
Sens, showing again q lacelike trac-
cry of glass and lead and stone. More
grave and monumental are the
churches Of Vezelay and Puerta de
Obispo Zamore, which he has etched
with full understanding of their dig
nifty and aloofness. With great
strength and vigor he has etched for
US the "via Facchini" in Pisa, and
with exceeding freedom he has rem
dered Q view Of the Chateau Stockal-
per-"
But when Mr.. Arms wishes to be ex-
plicit, no slightest detail escapes his
miraculous sight or his magical skill
the magic Of tireless training. This
may be observed in such plates as
''venetian Fingre," "Palazzo Angelo
and. in lesser degree, in Corona,
From the Ponte Vecchio" (not In
eluded In the catalogue of the forth
coming exhibition, but very well
known, Shadows of Venice" the
Rialto, and Stone Tapestry" me-
dieval carving.
The extraordinary thing about these
etchings Is that, with their multiplicity
Of detail, they present q thoroughly