Evening star., 1942-05-17

modern idiom with greatest ease
and complacence, whereas the Ca
nadians have derived chief inspi-
ration from their soil and employed
naturalistic treatment in the in
depreciation of their compositions.
This is particularly interesting as
having bearing on the art of the
United States which is to some ex-
tent mixture of the two, except
that our modernism obviously comes
to us via France and that of the
countries to our south, from their
own first settlers, the Indians, the
Incas, the Mayans. On the sim
plified expression of these primitive
people has been, in these later
days, superimposed the finish and
refinement of a sophistical Euro
pean school the roots of which
were sound deep in the soil from
which came the plant and flower
of the Italian Renaissance. The
excellence of the sculpture from
Latin America, like that from the
| United States and Canada, is not
confined to any one region, or for
that matter a few regions-it is
apparently universal-the inspira-
ton wide spread. This is as en-
couraging as 1t is surprising.
FORKS From the u. S.
Turning now directly to the con-
tributions from the United States
the observer will note many straws
in the wind, but few bending in
the same direction. AS is our won't,
we have borrowed not a little from
the native sculpture Of Africa and
the carvings of our North Amer
lean Indians, but also we have on
short acquaintance become ex-
ponents of cubism, expressionism
and the like: the various streams
Of influence can in most instances
be readily traced to their source.
But we show ourselves to be more
than copiests; in some instances
the works set forth are very plastic
in conception and sensitive in treat
Observation-Disclosures.
1t is q temptation to cite examples
but space at this time will not per-
NIT, besides which virtue in such
case is manifest. No longer does it
seem necessary to explain the diff
ference between creation and imi-
tation, between the stuffed shirt"
in sculpture and the vital individ-
ualistic work Our sculptors seem
intuitively to know that their work
must have relation to the mass from
which it comes, that it must be
enlivened by a knowing, skillful
touch, and modelled not by Jumps
of clay but with light and shadow
These are the simple requirements
OF all good sculpture, to which may
be added design, which is signifi-
cant, and charm Of line, these two,
not from one viewpoint alone but
from many, especially when the
work is in the round.
Phidias is accredited with having
said, perhaps a bit boastfully, that
he was worker in the idiom of
form, but was conscious at the same
time that the play of light and
shade was to sculpture as color to a
painting, and so employed it. This
in varying degree is exemplified in
some Of the sculpture in this ex-
hibition--colorful quality blending
with the plastic. Indeed in some
instances even an atmospheric effect
is produced by the shallowness of
cutting and simplicity Of design.
Another thing to be noted is the
variety Of material used and the
preponderance of stone, or other
hard substance, carved rather than
in bronze, which is cast. This
change came before the war created
a shortage in metal-and is good
one. for in cutting a piece of sculp-
ture from rock or other hard sub
stance, even wood, now very popular,
the work comes directly from the
hand of its creator.
Not only does this sculpture come
from Canada to the north but also
from Alaska. and from Hawaii, to
the east, and the Virgin Islands, to
the west; from South American
countries with which we have
scarcely had, in art, a bowing ac-
quaintance heretofore, and from