Evening star., 1938-03-13
Bv Leila MechHn.
MONG current exhibitions the

-
A MONG current exhibitions the
~ two outstanding are the Por-
~ traits of Children, which
opened in the Washington
Gallery of the Museum of Modern
Art on February 20. with a preview,
to continue to and through March
20-in other words, with a week more
to run-and Sculpture by Anna Hyatt
Huntington, which opened a week ago
In the Corcoran Gallery of Art and,
happily, will be on view until March
~, both of which are to be reckoned
as events of especial note. But there
are also to be seen at this time half
a score of lesser exhibitions which are
thought-provocative and well worth
seeing.
Third Annual Photographic
Sho1D Sponsored by
The Junior League.
THE Junior League of Washington,
for example, is now holding it's
Third Annual Photographic Show,
selected by jury made up of repre-
sentatives of the local press the edi-
tor OF national magazine and
painter-printmaker. Through few
well chosen examples. the inception
Of photography and its development,
are traced from about 1880 to the
hey-day of the Photo Secessionists,
which was about 1900. From this
point leap is made into the pres
ent, which is feat of considerable
magnitude, for. progressive as were
the SeceSSionlstS, there is wide space
between their day and ours. Obvious
ly, the inventors of Photographic
process had as their object accuracy
OF record. They saw with the cameras
eye. The SeceSSionistS, headed by
Alfred Stleglitz. went step further
and strove to make their records pic
torlal. Contemporary users of the
camera have joined the ranks of the
modernists and seem to strive to outdo
one another in the startling quality
OF effects attained. We have today
in this field of art, as in others, the
cult OF the ugly, and while it may
stimulate by amazing it must depress
and alarm-especially when We con-
slider that art is symptomatic of life.
To go back to the beginning There
Is in this exhibition a daguerreotype
OF lady-suppoSedly Jenny Lind
made about 1851 by Matthew Brady,
one OF the first commercial photog-
raphers, who had a great establish
ment in New York and later in WASH
lngton This is followed by an am
brotype OF Hannibal Hamlin and his
wife, produced about year later.
Then comes an example of portrait
study. Lady in Paisley Shawl"
by David o. Hill of Edinburgh, who
was perhaps the first to discover
means of making multiple prints from
a single negative
Daguerres invention, which through
the French Academy of Science he
gave to the public was positive re-
suit and not transferable. The Amer
lean, Brady. was keen and alert and
each discovery made was so much grist
for his mill, each bit of knowledge
that came his way was utilized and
HAnuo SIcpplHS STONE 10 Detter
achievement. OF much interest is his
photograph of Lincoln in this exhibit
tion. made for Truman H. Bartlett of
Boston. father of Paul Wayland Bart
lett, and himself sculptor, the day
after Lees surrender and not long
before Lincoln's assassinat ation-a pho
tograph which shas striking similarity
to the head of Lincoln sculptured by
Volk. which is now in the United
States National Museum. And from
this the next step is to war picture
produced by wet-plate process, dis
covered by F. Scott Archer, an Eng
hshman, about 1851, through which
medium Brady and his associates made
no less than 1000 transcriptions of
war scenes. many on the battlefields,
and despite the fact that it was essen
tal to coat, expose and develop the
plate all within 10 minutes. Thus the
early history of Photography as we
know it now is set forth.
The transition to the present is in
hgnificantly and inadequately bridged