Evening star., 1938-11-13
Major Portion of Loan Exhibit Is Made Up Works New Yorl
Artists, Representing Field of Whitney Museum-Some
Examples Showing Nature of Contemporary Spirit
Bv Leila Mechliu

Inc opening lIllS pdSI week Ol IIle
first of the 1938-39 series of eXhibi-
tions to be set forth by the Museum
of Modern Art Gallery of Washing
ton was an event of exceptional
note The private view, on Sunday
evening, November 6, was brilliant
affair, attended by those most
prominent in social and intellectual
circles here at the Capital of our
Nation. Greater tribute could not
have been paid to the works Of
world masters which generations
had, by common consent, agreed to
admire and rank most high. Yet
the exhibition set forth was, it will
be recalled, composed entirely of
paintings by contemporary artists
States and have as yet no other
claim to Immortality than that GER
tain museums have seen fit to ac-
Quire one or more of their produc-
tions. neither do they represent
more than a small corner of the
broad field of contemporary art.
The entire collection constituting
this exhibition consists of 46 paint
ings. lent by the Whitney Museum
of American Art in New York, pur-
chased from time to time from its
current exhibitions for its perma-
nent collection. This museum, Situ-
ated at 10 West Eighth street. New
York City, on the outskirts of
Greenwich Village, has since its
establishment, had as its chief OBJ
jective the encouragement of young.
struggling artists. It is supported
by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
tMrs. Harry Payne Whitney, who
Is we'll known as a sculptor, and
especially we'll represented in this
city by her Aztec fountain in the
patio of the American Building,
and her Titanic Memorial in Po-
tomac Park. but the management of
the museum has been largely left
In the hands of Juliana r. Force,
director.
Naturally, first aid has gone to
those nearest at hand, and it is
therefore not surprising to find that
the major portion of the present
loan exhibit is made up of the works
of artists of New York, and, among
these, of those who at one time or
another have come under the in
fluence of Kenneth Hayes Miller
and the schools of the Art Students
League. In measure this fact
makes for unity in the matter of
display, but it narroWs extremely
the significance of the showing as
whole. The works shown were
selected by Mrs Force and undoubt-
edly represent the taste and leaning
of those v her responsible for
Whitney : N ideals and the up
building { collection. All this
should be KEEP in mind.
Also, it is interesting to know
that of the 46 painters represented
more than fourth are of foreign
birth-three are natives of Rus
sia, three of Germany, one each of
Japan, Hungary, Italy, Poland,
Sweden, France and Great Britain
while about one-third are allied
with the Woodstock School or the
Art Students League. These mat
terS of nationality and affiliation
would have no significance were
there not so obviously community
OF ideals, and were not these in
themselves so contrary to both our
American tradition and the bulk of
critical opinion which during past
ages has established standards of
judgment. Boiled down to utmost
brevity, what are these? Simply
this-creative power, good crafts
manship and something worth while
to say. In an essay on THE
Critics Point of View" Royal Cor
tissoz, dean of American critics,
some years ago made the following
confession of faith:
Il believe" he said, that through
all the mutations of schools and
traditions, for many centuries, art
has recognized the validity of GER
tain fundamental laws. I believe
IN the art that is faithful to those
laws, that mean sane vision of
nature and an honest craftsman
ship. I disbelieve in modernism be-
cause 1t seems to me to flaunt fun
damental laws and to repudiate
what I take to be the function of
art-the creation of beauty"
There you have it. The con-
temporary artist-especially those
represented for the most part in
this collection lent by the Whitney
Museum of American Art-seems
completely satisfied with rejecting
the life he or she may see around
him or her with utter disregard
for its beauty or ugliness, its worth
or its meaning-and as the things
seen are more often unlovely than
not, this is the burden of their
song. Worse still, there is, beneath
great part of it all, an evident
undercurrent of contempt for ones
fellowman, a desire to show him
& up at his worst, not to laugh with
him, but at him, to exhibit not
merely his shortcomings but his
degradation. The effect of this can
, not be other than the lowering of
! the scale of contemporary civiliza-
ton.
Take for example such paintings
! IN this exhibition as George Biddle's
representation Of Negro Masons"