Evening star., 1940-08-25

illustrative paintings on tin or wood
or other ground, with a written eX-
planation of each scene somewhere
in the painting. They represent
answers to prayers and depict sup
licants healed of fevers, for instance,
because of the intervention of the
Virgin or a saint. Many modern
artists declare that not few OF
these miracles" will be acclaimed
by future generations as great
masterpieces OF painting: to some
of us, however. they appear 10 have
their greatest value in Illuminating
human beliefs in a particular time
and place.
A vast display of recent and con-
temporary decorative arts, pottery,
weavings. lacquered wood. carvings,
figures made from various sub
stances, including such unlikely ones
as straw and sugar. grotesque masks
and musical instruments used IN
ceremonial dances-theSe and many
other objects reveal to us the MeXl-
can people.
There is also a large section of
modern paintings and prints by the
foremost present-day artists OF
Mexico, who have been so highly
praised Cand extensively commits
sionedl in the United States that
there is nothing to add on this
score One may point out, however,
that these artists are also unequaled
for violence of subject matter and
color schemes and are asSuredly
worthy descendants of the Indians
and the "Conqulstadores.'
During the early weeks of the
exhibition. the Mexican mural
painter. Orozco, worked each day
upon a portable fresco at the Mu-
scum of Modern Art. 1t is now
complete and seen as part of the
exhibition. The subject is dive
bomber. The bewildered visitor may
be pardoned for wondering why, out
of all the aspects of present-day
Cultivation this particularly hideous
manifestation should have been Sc
lected by the artist for the i'm
mortality of paint. The exhibition
remains on view through September
Riverside Museum.
Some so blocks north and west
of Twenty Centuries of Mexican
Art one may see. at the Riverside
Museum. a Latin American exhibit
ton of fine arts from Brazil, ECU
ador. Mexico and Venezuela, ar
ranged under the auspices of the
United States New York World S
Fair Commission. There are more
than 200 works in painting, sculp-
ture and prints from these nations.
The Mexican section is the largest
more than one-third of the total
also the strongest. most radical in
technique and uninhibited in view
point and choice of subject matter.
Brazils contribution had not ar
rived when the exhibition opened
the last week of July ITO remain
until the end of October. However.
it is actually one-man show of 81
paintings by Candido Portinari. with
three works in sculpture by Maria
Martins.
The sections from Ecuador and
Venezuela are presumably repre-
sentative: from the first come 40
paintings by IL artists; from the
second. approximately so works, both
paintings and sculpture. by 80
artists The general impression one
gets of both national collections is
their predominantly conservative
character. Landscapes are numer-
Gus and afford pleasant, picturesque
glimpses of the respective countries.
Venezuelas S contribution is the
stronger. esthetically as we'll as nu-
merically. More individual talents
are revealed, both in painting and
sculpture Pedro Basalo's bronze
Head of a Creole and Francisco
Narvaez' entirely different carving
in ebony of the same title are among
the memorable exhibits.
Metropolitan Museum.
No one can deny that there Is
contemporary mode in interior