Evening star., 1942-06-28
Art
Notes
Corcoran Gallery's
Sculpture Is Shown
To Good Advantage
By Leila MechHn.

The impression received by
visitor on entering an art gallery
goes far toward influencing attitude
toward its exhibits. In this par
ticular, the Corcoran Gallery Of Art
is both wise and fortunate, for GER
tainly none can step through its
main doorway without an immed,-
ate realization of beauty OF gen.
eral aspect, and OF works OF ART
which invite inspection.
Special emphasis is being laid by
the Corcoran Gallery on sculpture
this summer. Above stairs, three OF
the main galleries usually given over
to paintings are now occupied by
the collection Of sculpture OF the
Western Hemisphere assembled
and lent by the International Busi-
ness Machines Corp. of New York,
of which Thomas j. Watson is
president. This sculpture is all con-
temporary-in fact, for the most
part, recent work, modern In man
1er and feeling. On the main floor,
however, in the atrium and ada
cent galleries, the sculpture dis
played comes chiefly from the gal
lery's permanent collection, and
represents the history of the art
from the golden age Of Greece to
the present century. Here are to
be seen casts from the Antique and
of works wrought in the studios OF
sculptors of the italian Renaissance
as we'll as original American pro-
ductions in imperishable bronze ana
marble
Heretofore, the atrium has been
exclusively given over to the dis
plav of plaster casts, but recently
these have been rearranged, ma
tority of the casts being placed IN
the north court or pavilion, in order
that, in the south section OF this
handsome hall, works by American
artists of outstanding distinction
might be shown fittingly. The idea
is excellent, and the rearrange-
ment will be approved by many as
lending new interest, but the eHecU
is not so harmonious as it was be-
fore. the casts in color and scale
precisely fitting the environment
architecturally afforded, whereas the
bronzes do not. On the other hano,
it is gratifying and engaging 10
find that, when the works by our
American sculptors are thus brought
into direct competition with the
greatest of the past, they hold thelr
own. and the men and women who
wrought them are seen to be OF the
great fraternity by whom. through
the long centuries, the world has
been enriched.
Rich in Works.
Among present-day art museums
casts have not been in favor 1or
some time, and, to an amazing ex-
tent, have been banished to stor-
age rooms or disposed OF rather
ruthlessly. This has been occa-
stoned, in part, by the possibility
of replacement by originals which
have, to a surprising degree, come
into the market, and, in part, by
difficulty of keeping white casts IN
condition and showing them ade-
uuately. The Museum OF Fine Arts'
Boston, and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, both
have fine collections of original
sculpture from ancient Greece and
Rome: our National Gallery OF Art
is rich in works by the masters OF
the Italian Renaissance; almost
every small museum may boast one
or more such possessions, as well as
originals from the Orient.
Even so, however, good casts OF
the great works, we'll kept and llght-
ed, are by no means to be desplsed,
as the Corcoran has so well shown,
and still shows. Granted that they
are only shadows of that which they
represent. they still may open to the
observer the door to better under
standing. Some of the Corcorans
casts, when seen with light ana
shadow playing over their we'll
modelled surfaces, are beautiful, in
deed, and momentarily transport the
observer 10 the far-of days OF PM
dias and the nearer, but still re-
mote days of Michelangelo. The
students who have had the priv
ilege of drawing from them real
tze their Indebtedness for privilege.
Museums abroad have continued
10 hold casts in high esteem for their
artistic and educational value-ln
fact, one of the important functions
performed by the Art Section OF the
League of Nations during the days
following the First World War, when
war was to have been no more-Was
cataloguing casts in European mu-
seums and arranging for their dup
Ication and exchange. This now
seems but a part OF the shaooWy
past which has disappeared "as the
breath on the pane"
Beautifully Shown.
1t is not only casts, however. that
are poorly shown in public sculpture
galleries. Sculpture OF today IN
stone and wood and bronze, un-
fortunately, often meets with the
same i'll fate. BY no means is 1t re-
membered that those who work in
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shadow. and work so wrought must
be shown in similar conditions to
that in which, under the sculptor's
hand, it took shape. When a top
light is used for the display OF a
piece of sculpture modelled by side
light, it becomes another story. No
such complaint may be brought
against the Corcoran. The sculp-
lures in the transient exhibition and
its permanent collection are beauti-
fully shown. How charmingly are
the casts on the main staircase
placed! How we'll the works in the
whole of the lower atrium!
When the Corcoran Gallery was
founded, or during its earliest days,
its donor, w. w. Corcoran, gave it
not only a comprehensive collection
of casts from the Antique and from
the works of Renaissance sculptors,
but comprehensive group of origi-
nal works (mostly in bronco by
Barge, the great French animal
sculptor of the 10Th Century, who,
fascinated by the wild creatures with
which he became acquainted in the
Paris Zoo, perpetuated their grace
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