Evening star., 1939-04-23

Pictures
Social Reform Has
Better Media
Than Art
By Florence S. Berryman.
Back Yard of the Nation" an
exhibition of approximately so
paintings, prints and photographs
now at the District of Columbia
Artists Union Gallery on Seven
teenth street, is the unions first
excursion into the field Of social
problems, according to one of the
members. Such problems have, Of
course, been dealt with by indi-
vidual artists who have contributed
to the organizations group exhibi-
tions, but the present show is who'll
ly dedicated to dilapidated shacks
and shanties, tenement yards over
flowing with tin cans and other
refuse and, in some instances, to
the inhabitants of these dismal
locales.
The unions effort to do some
thing in behalf of the poorly housed
third of nation" is laudable, but
one wonders whether the fine arts
are the most effective media for
this purpose. The union can cite
great masters who have also been
great reformers or possessed of
dominating social consciences, such
as Goya and Daumier. Neverthe.
less, they were primarily artists.
Social reform would appear to be
best served by the arts of writing
and speaking, since it involves more
mental concepts than visual aspects.
The union would perhaps disagree,
since its members are now present.
ing the latter.
Inevitable Question.
But the inevitable question is
whether artists are painting with
the utterly selfless purpose of en-
tertaining or uplifting or instruct
ing their fellow men by means of
infrequent exhibitions of their
works, or whether they hope to
place some of the latter in the
homes of their fellow citizens. And
the people have demonstrated that
they will not purchase in any great
numbers works which depict revolt
ing or unhappy subject matter.
Beauty lies in truth" as men,
ber of the union quoted when asked
why such subject matter should be
selected. One may concede that as
an axiom, yet point out that the
beauty in some truths lies so deeply
hidden that only great artist is
able to excavate it.
The present exhibition at the
Artists Union Gallery recalled an
incident reported in the press some
months ago. A painter became so
aroused over the destitution of slum
dwellers in his city that he organized
| group of artists to depict these
slums and present the proof to the
city council. But when at the ap-
pointed time the artists brought to-
gether their respective works, they
discovered that the results were
paintings of considerable beauty.
Confirming the widespread notion
that an artist is a seeker after
beauty. these painters had momen-
tarily forgotten their indignation in
the presence of the old buildings
they were depicting and had seen
only their picturesque charm.
In a few instances in the present
union exhibition this same situa-
ton seems to have occurred. as
in H. Swansons water colors, "Slums
of 30th Street and Rear of Old
Fish Market and N. Canter'.
'Slums of Georgetown"
Administrations Co-operated.
The Resettlement and Farm Sc
curity Administrations have CO.
operated with the Artists Union
by lending works-eight autographs
and four posters from the former,
and ten photographs from the lat
ter. The Autographs include tech
nically good work by such artists
as Ernest Fiene C'Steel Mills and
Slum Dwellings') and B. Bryson
cDust'). The photographs tell the
story of slum conditions more
starkly than do any paintings.
In the unions membership are
number of competent artists, rep
resented in the current show: Nico-
lai Cikovsky, Carl Nyquist and Phyl-
lis de Lappe. The last mentioned
has little oil painting of Negress
and her child. which in its form
and fresh colors recalls the work
of Diego Rivera. Only one sculptor,
R. Lamke, has participated in the
exhibition, with small simplifed
| figure of a worker. The largest
group from single contributor is
that of the president of the union,
c. Aruta, whose work has a prim-
tive quality like that of the late
John Kane of Pittsburgh.
This exhibition remains through
Apri1 an