Evening star., 1939-07-30

York Worlds Fair, the museum has
set forth for the summer months an
extensive exhibition of "Art in Our
Time" both here and abroad, COM
prising paintings in oil and water
color, sculpture in various media,
prints, house design, photographs
and moving pictures, which occupies
four floors and the garden court, the
last approximately an acre in ex-
tent. In the first two divisions
painting and sculpture-the exhibit
runs to more than 200. That these
works were produced in our time
must be sorrowfully admitted, but
that they are art worthy of the
name may, with equal assurance, be
vigorously denied.
Few Gases.
Formerly one went to a museum of
art for esthetic enjoyment, to find
delight through vision, to enter into
the company of the masters and re-
ceive what message they may have
had to give, to offer, as it were,
tribute to genius and to come away
refreshed and enriched. Not so here
With the exception of few oaSeS
this Museum of Modern Art with its
anniversary exhibition is worse than
desert-a mad house-filled with
examples of the work of those who,
while in some instances gifted, were
or are mentally unbalanced or moral
degenerates. 1t is unbelievable, espe-
cially when one recalls the glamor-
Gus things that were said about it at
its august, formal opening, and the
roster of those who give it tangible
support.
Mr. Nelson Rockefeller, when asked
at the opening when he took over
the presidency. why he was interest
ed in art of this sort, said that 1t
amused him. as, for instance, did a
baseball game Others declared that
1t was exciting, stimulating-not one
claimed for it any pretensions to
beauty or made any mention of quail
ity in the matter of production. OBJ
viously the purpose is to shock and
startle. to horrify and disgust-pro-
vided the onlooker has the sensibili-
ties of gentle breeding-and frankly
the merit most boasted is that of ig-
norance and illiteracy Yet this is the
art which is set forth before the
public with the Endorsement of those
who loom large in American life to-
day, which brings high prices in the
auction rooms and is exploited with
the utmost cleverneSs as of utmost
importance. Also this is the art
which, unseen, the President of the
United States, in broadcast at the
opening of the exhibition. recon-
mended be circulated throughout the
country
Building Also Modern.
The building, which is now the
home of the Museum of Modern Art,
is the last word in modernistic de-
sign. Philip L. Goodwin was the
architect; Edward D. Stone. asso-
ciate. They brought to bear upon
the work 1.-The ingenuity of today
and the experience of yesterday"
The appearance is that of Mis-
sissippi steamboat gone wrong The
facade of heavy opaque glass is fiat
and unornamented, with, however.
strongly demarked horizontal deck
lines. The roof is uplifted like
an awning and regularly pierced
with huge circular portfolios. which
produce, collectively, an effect of
structural weakness. The entrance,
which is on the level of the street,
is under-cut and by no means sug-
gestive of welcome; in fact, it car
ries out the simile. Upon entering
the impression of boarding a boat
by way of the freight deck becomes
vivid.
Within there is high counter
where one registers, buys or is given
a catalogue, fully illustrated and
annotated, and is told to take the
elevator to the third floor and walk
down The stairs are in a large
we'll to the left, lighted by the
glass wall of the facade and orna-
mented rather handsomely by sue
cession of green foliage plants. The
entrance to the sculpture court and
garden is at the rear and the garden
is surrounded by waffle fence.
Throughout the building the walls
are white, the galleries formed by
movable screens; there are no vistas,
no actual doorways-just openings
through which one makes ones
progress until the circuit is complete
and one finds ones self back at
the starting place. There is great
deal of light through the glass wall,
which, incidentally, is about 21a
inches thick and bubbled as though
pressed, and when this light is not
adequate artificial daylight" is used
to flood the galleries. Above the
galleries is the auditorium, seating
500; lounge and lunchroom. Ad-
mirably does the building accord
with the exhibition it shows-and
If this is the art of tomorrow we
shan undoubtedly have more of the
same kind-but heaven forbid!
Early American.
Turning now to the exhibition. 1t
consists of "the present achieve
rnent of living artists together with
the work of certain important mas
ters Of yesterday" and differs from
the exhibitions set forth at this
time by other New York museums
and at the Worlds Fair by includ-
ing foreign work as well as Ameri-
can. The painting and sculpture
sections are about evenly divided
between American and European
works Of the last 10 years. ct is
hard to realize that the present So
called modern movement stahted
back In the 70s in France, but it
did, AS preface to the division
Of painting there is shown a small
collection Of the still earlier Ameri-
can works done by unskilled anna
teurs with qauint naivete, works
In which Mrs. Rockefeller, jr., has
taken great interest and which
made a notable collection.
Like the samplers of other days,
these pictures have place in the
history OF art in our country, re-
1lecting a striving for that which