PAGE 2, EUROPEAN EDITION

# MODERN U.S. ART ON VIEW HERE

## All-American Exhibition
Draws Big Crowds

When the doors of the Galerie Briant-Robert in the rue d'Argenteuil opened yesterday, a large number of Americans entered to view for the first time an exhibition of the works of some of the most modern artists among their countrymen.

Eight American artists, six painters and two sculptors, attended the vernissage of their works, which are the outgrowth of an intensely national American consciousness and are believed to represent a definite rupture with European art.

In addition to the Americans, a goodly number of the elite of French society was present for the occasion of this unique all-American show.

Artists represented are Messrs. John Storrs, Marsden Hartley, George Biddle, Hunt Diedrich, John Barber, Paul Burlin, Jules B. Pascin and Maurice Sterne.

The sculpture of Mr. Storrs, a Chica-goan who studied under Rodin, drew much attention from the visitors. Mr. Storrs has studied architecture, too, during his years in Paris, and knows well the beauty of massive form. One study in metal, of perfect balance and with a curious sense of rhythm, seems for all the world like a design for one of those modern skyscrapers, and would look just as beautiful if it was as big as the Woolworth Building.

For sheer, sincere modernism, however, the prize at the exhibit is carried off by Marsden Hartley, whose vigorous, sweeping strokes—devoted to the depicting of abstract ideas—have almost terrifying power, though sometimes reminding one rather more of a bad dream than a picture. Both Mr. Hartley and Mr. Storrs have thrown away all the shackles of artistic conventions.

Mr. Diedrich's extremely decorative models and firescreens, with animal life as the chief theme, exude vigor and the music of action. Mr. Biddle's color schemes remind one of a motley cluster of flowers lying in the daz-zling sun of a tropical country.

(See Picture Page 6).

Puccini Is Honored

II Rocky Neck Ave.,
Gloucester, Mass.

Nov. 7th., 1934.

My dear Stieglitz:-

I have a letter from Mrs. Halpert a
copy of which I enclose you regarding that deahh-dealing
problem of the Lincoln storage.

As I haven't the slightest notion where I am to ger bread
and butter from when I get back to N.Y., I am wracking my
brains to see how I can encompass this immediate problem.
The letter states as you see that you have had a "notifica-
tion from the Lincoln that unless the bill is paid in the
first week in November they will take "all" the pictures out
and selll them at auction.

I have no one to turn to for direction or advice and you
know how ineffectual I am in such matters.

I am not well and have thought it best to stay at least
an other month here where it is quiet, so that I might get
up some sort of resistance to meet the most terrible ogre
of my life, namely N.Y.; You know long before now what it
always has done to me, and how I have sought all possible means
to be out of it.

As I am trying to make new connections, and have already made
some with the idea of teaching there next winter and here in
Gloucester, I need all the new approaches I can gather, and
plan to set out on a private campaign to get myself known
among the educationals, so that the word may be passed around
that I will be in the field from now on as a teacher, which is
not a new matter to me as I have taught before, and feel that I
am better equipped now than ever to do so.

I have been asked so often here this summer if I would or why
I don't, and since Gloucester is so marked upon the summer
school maps that they come from all over the country here, and
as I have also learned are also tired of the abstractions of
Hans Hoffmann who has been here the past two aeasons in the
Thurn school, I am assured by several that the time is ripe for
me to have a good school os a good class, a school, if someone
will take over the business end, rent a classroom etc, or more
to my own taste, go from pupil tp pupil and givw a lecture once
a week to them besides the regular twp"criticisms".

Twenty pupils and I do not think there would be much difficulty
getting that many, would provide the major poction of a years
living and could be earned in ten weeks here.

But the present problem of the storage, am I to lose everything
in this easy manner, and is there no way of getting reprieve unt
until something may be managed. I know nothing of these
things--and there are my private belongings which I would
give no one the right to touch, must they be sacrificed for th
sake of after all a not so terrible sum, and is there no respect
for you and the rest of us whose storage you have supported
all those years. As I say, if I were in N.Y. I could

have the best legal advice in the matter, but I can't while I
am here, and I am in the throes of my season's work and need to
finish it and above all keep as quiet as possible and rest for
the to me terrible ordeal of N.Y.

[11/7/34]

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2-

There is

a vast difference, Stieglitz between the methods of 291 as it was and what the quality of the enclosed letter implies. But of course there is no use expecting anything to be like it was for it just isn't, even the quality of life itself is different, and one is inclined to think for general reasons just a bit tawdry it seems to me.

I didn't know what else to do under the circumstances, but take the liberty of writing to you, even though it has been a principle of mine not to want to demand or tax you in any way for any reason, and I have relied upon you to understand but somehow the situation has never been thoroughly complicated. I am not uptown and I don't seem to know just how much downtown I am, though I am always inclined to feel and think that Mrs. Halpert is truly interested and wants to do the best she can.

The last statement of account that was sent me gave me a jolt such as I have not yet recovered from, and I must find out the meaning of it is as careful a way as possible, which is to say, there was an item of something I took to be storage, an item of nine dollars for photos, the which I did not order, and the last item of forty five dollars for frames, which I can only take to mean that the framing of Mrs. Rockefeller's pictures which she bought last psing and on which I have lived this summer, was taken out of me and if this is so then it is one of the most unethical actions known to man kind as far as I am concerned and must be spoken of somehow or other, for it must not be permitted to happen again. I never knew that painters were expected to pay for the frames when the frame on the picture was not suitable, or only in case the price was ample enough to cover such costs. I tell you this not because I feel I ought to, or rather because I feel that I ought to just that someone beside myself knows of the incident. I must talk of this with Mrs. Halpert but as carefully as possible. Could I ask you Stieglitz to help in any way that you can to smooth this matter over until something can be done. I have little left of the funds I came with naturally and I must eat if I am to live, and I must sleep somewhere.

I have meant to write you before for merely human reasons but the summer has been provocative of silence all round, and I seemed to feel it was better not to speak than to speak. I am writing also to my friend Mrs. Kuntz who lives not far from the Lincoln if she will, to go in and talk it over with one of the officials and perhaps the approach of a nice and cultivated person may help a little and she can get me a status of the case as it is. I want to stay on here until early Dec. because I have staked out a lot of work for myself, the autumn having been astounding and still is, even now, so like the last movement of a great musical composition, and I need the full experience of it to go on with the work in mind.

Make I ask you therefore, to do anything you can to help by word to soften this problem, so that it can be carried on a little longer--after all it does seem a bit rough to attack a man when he is down, and I have never been so down as now.

I hope you are well and that O'Keefe is recovered herself again and doing good work.

As of old,

An American Place
509 Madison Avenue
New York City
Nov. 8, 1934

My dear Hartley

I have your letter and I am sorry to hear
of the trouble. I was staggered when I received a letter
from the Lincoln Storage Company re your indebtedness to
them. Their letter was addressed to me personally - that
is what staggered me. For, when you decided that you'd
throw in your lot with Mrs. Halpert and the Downtown Gal-
lery it was clearly understood by all concerned that I
no longer felt any responsibility about your affairs.

I have never been able to do anything for
anybody except single handed. You wanted a dealer and you
also wanted to "save" me. Now all mail matters addressed
to you coming to 509 Madison Avenue was redirected to you
care the Downtown Gallery. I suppose the Lincoln Storage
Co. had been sending bills which neither you nor Mrs. Hal-
pert took any cognizance of. As for upwards of twenty years
I payed your storage bills, the Lincoln probably assumed
that they could not sell you out without at first noti-
fying me because of my former assuming responsibility for
you for upwards of twenty years.

When you transfered your pictures to the
Downtown Gallery I told you to give Mrs. Halpert power of
attorney to go into your vaults at the Lincoln. At the
same time I notified the Lincoln personally that this
would happen. I took for granted that this matter had been
attended to. I, too, told Mrs. Halpert what I had advised
you and what I told the Lincoln. Whether she remembers
this or not I don't know and it's immaterial.

I have a pretty good idea of your circum-
stances but let me assure you they are better than my own.
As for money I have none nor has O'Keeffe and the Place
has none either. As for "customers" there are none in sight.
We never had more than a few at best and those few gradually
have dwindled into zero. This is literal.

Marin just manages to eke out an existence
and O'Keeffe lives mostly on a remnant of capital which
still exists but is fast also turning into zero. She is
somewhat better but far from fit to meet the world as it is,
or to do any painting of any consequence. As for myself
I have no choice any more than a captain has on a sinking
ship. Whether the Place is a sinking ship or not I do not

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know. I do know that our seas are pretty storm tossed and
our vessel is dangerously close to impossible rocks. If you
were to offer me all your paintings for $1200.00 - that is,
$100.00 a month for a year - the amount which you wished
for all your paintings before the famous auction I arranged
for you, I would not know where to turn to get that baga-
telle of money. There is no longer a Kennerly to turn to.
Not a soul.

Now I don't see why Mrs. Halpert can't place enough
of your paintings at whatever price, no matter how low, in
order to pay your storage bills. If I were a dealer in art
I know I could do so. As for the Rockefeller framing you
speak of I do not know the customs of dealers - I do know
that at "291", which was not a business, that when anyone
wanted a special frame they payed for it extra, the artist
didn't, but "291" was certainly a thing apart - as is the
Place.

I don't know what to say to you or how to help
you. I advised Edith Halpert when phoning to her that she
pay the bill and take as many of your pictures as she saw
fit as a quid pro quo, that they must have some value to
somebody and so to an art dealer. Of course I believe she
must be very short of cash, but she is in touch with the
world and I am not. I do hope she will find some way of
protecting you in this matter.

If you feel like it you might send her this let-
ter or a copy of it.

With heartiest greetings,

Ever your old,