The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 33

5 BROOKLYN D'ATEY. EAGEE, NOT YOKK, SUNDAY, APRIL" 28, 1335 The Brooklyn Painters and Sculptors Hold Last Exhibit Gallery Notes1 Grant Wood Exhibits Americana at the Ferargil Galleries At the left, 'Paul Revere Khle'; below, I 'Portrait of flan' at the right, 'Herbert Hoover, liMtf I mMm iiJkx Yf iSu iu Three Negroes and the Secessionists; Other Events in Manhattan Galleries The Brooklyn Painters and Sculptors Hold Final Show at Towers Hotel By HELEN APFLETON READ porary manifestation of the artf rather than in name will see to it and of selecting from amongst these Baroness Von Rebar Exhibits Cut-Oiits at the Wilddnsteiy fof the faintly decadent which, com THE current exhibition- by the Brooklyn Painters and Sculptors in the Artists' Gallery at the Towers Hotel brings to an end a' chapter ixi the history of an organisation which has played an Important part in Brooklyn's art hls- tory. The society will continue as a group or, what is a more accurate description, a concept, but it ceases to function as an organization with an exhibition gallery of Its own. The situation can, of course, be dis- missed as just another case where of art from them, the artist would the economic impasse has taken its be saved from undignified distress toll of the creative and intellectual and the life of the community en-life of a community. But that ds riched and stimulated by the con- spirit, and when that spirit In Its contemporary manifestation may perish for lack of sustenance It becomes his obligation if he has the means to collect, to prevent that situation from occurring.

This does not mean that the artist must be supported merely from a charitable impulse. But if every active patron made it his business to know who the painters and sculptors worthy of encouragement in his community are, and bought a work tacts made between patron and artist. To feel that It always Is ncces sary to patronize the dealers and exhibitions in the larger art centers is to be out of touch with the latest developments in this country. The whole trend is to demetropolitanlze the art situation and community sponsorship of local talent has tended to give the artists new im- petus. He is encouraged when he feels that he is actually appreciated and needed fcy his fellow townspeo pie- LL of which brings me back to liic oval iJU puuit LUC luai.

ca- hibition of the Brooklyn Painters and Sculptors. The society has continued to raise its standard and there is always work to be seen in its current exhibitions which has quality and personality. Brooklyn needs an exhibition gallery for its artists and it is hoped that the art lovers who are patrons in deed well-known "American Gothic," which continues to be his best canvas to date, was bought by the Chicago Art Institute. The present exhibition includes "American Gothic," "Arbor Day," Hoover's Birthplace" and "The Threshers' Dinner," which was shown at the merely shifting the blame and vaguely placing it upon the shoulders of an impersonal and at present insoluble situation. In the blame for the situation, as far as the artists of the community are concerned, cannot be so easily evaded, and it is not as intangible and impersonal as it might seem to be.

Brooklyn citizens, particularly those who are art lovers and so-called patrons of the arts, have not felt that they have an obligation to stand by the artists of the com- munity. There have been many so-called art patrons in Brooklyn. But their interest in and support of art has been very largely concentrated upon the art of the past or the art of other countries, with the notable exception of Hamilton Easter Field. Of course, every art lover has the right to collect his preferences. But if he is an art patron in the true fense of the word he cannot help but be interested in the contem- Grant Wood's Americana Seen At the Ferargil Galleries section is often the weak sister, but not in this case.

Dean Fausett's animated lithographs of Western figure subjects. Hector Costal drawings and James L. Montague's sensitive pen and ink sketches are all highly to be commended. PEAKING generally of sculptors as a group, they haven't been very productive these past few years. It is laborious, expensive work in the best of times, so it is little wonder that a major depression should curtail the general output.

But over at the oth Ave. building of the Grand Central Art Galleries there is indeed much to wonder over, for there is on exhibition the work done in the past two years by Stella Elkins Tyler, numbering no less than 63 bronzes made in this short period. What makes it remarkable is the fact that until two years ago Mrs. Tyler, a mature woman, had never tried her hand at this work. Then she goes at it like fury and knocks off in rapid succession all manner of subjects ranging in scale from small sketches to semi-lifesize figures.

Sha took her courage as well as her clay in both hands in attempting somo of the ambitious and highly Intricate compositions in the round, and whatever refinements of style and technique these efforts may lack they cio have the all-important quality of life. The sculptor's driving energy, her verve and feeling for rhythmic movement, have left their imprint everywhere. An exhibition of Louis Conrad Rosenberg's rirypoints and etchings i is opening at the Guy E. Mayer I Gallery tomorrow. Among the prints on view will be several rare states and many earlier rks that have not been shown for many years.

All of these pictures are from the artist's private collection. A free morning class for adults in portrait painting, still-life painting and outdoor sketching is being conducted at Willoughby House, 97 Lawrence Brooklyn, under the guidance nf Byron Stone. Mr. Stone's works have been rxhibited bv the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the National Academy of Design and the American Federation of Arts. Loan Exhibition EMIL CARLSEN Still Life, MACBETH GALLERY 11 Emt 57th Street Small Portrait in Gouachm by MARION JOCHIMSEN I'nlll Mkt tllh EHRICH-NEWHOUSE, Inc.

578 M.di.on Ave, N. Y. At strpri HILLA REBAY WILDENSTEIN CO. 19 E.it 64th N. Y.

UIGEXT II April 29 I.AUlltlrs'l W. Sired luy 1 1 PAINTINGS BY CHARLOTTE BEREND OF liniUN Krrrnt Anifrirnn I.mchrapr bv GEORGE LASZLO I nlil Mar tllh EHRICH-NEWHOUSE, Inc. 57 Mudimn N. Y. At Mlh Slrrrl By CHARLES Z.

OFFIN THE Harmon Foundation, in sponsoring exhibitions of work by Negro artists, has not only extended a helping hand to a group of creative Workers who might otherwise find great difficulty in exhibiting but have at the same time afforded the public the highly interesting opportunity of seeing what might be truly called authetic subject matter drawn from racial backgrounds. The seventh major exhibition to be conducted in New York by the Foundation is now quartered I in the Delphic Studios and com-! prises the work of two sculptors and I a painter. I Malvin Gray Johnson, the painter, was a New Yorker who did many i subjects in the rural South prior to his death last Autumn, working in both oils and watercolors. It is in the watercolors that the artist achieved his most telling effects, the clarity of the medium lending itself forcefully to his crisp use of brilliant primary colors in broad, flat brush strokes. The squalor and dilaplda- tion of the back country become i almost lyrical in statement when fused by the painter's dazzling pattern of color.

The hauntingly sad undertones of the Negro spirituals are not in these paintings, perhaps deliberately drowned out with gay color by a fellow creature to whom such undertones were best forgot-j ten. pictures are not seen to best advantage because there are far too many of them in one room, which contains, in addition, the work o'l the two sculptors, Richmond Barthe and Sargent Johnson. This exhibition of Negro work was worthy of spreading out over the entire three rooms of the Delphic Studios. Exhibitors shouM make sure that they know in advance exactly how much of the gallery space will be allotted to them io as to avoid the unpardonable confusion that exists in the present exhibition. rjlCASSO was recently referred to as "that aesthetic rake who lives each weekend with a different But what else is there for an experimentalist to do but to keep on experimenting? Picasso is outstanding because he solves each.

experiment successfully before he moves nn in the neL one. and while he travels a tortured route he never crosses his own path, but, really gets from place to place. The Gallery Sccessio on E. 12th over which Robert "Jlrlch Godsoe presides, just teems with experimental painters. Louis Schanker is a current exhibitor at the Gallery Secession.

For years he painted the purest of pure abstractions, the kind that mean just as lr'ich or even more when held upside down. But like a true Secessionist he 'ias begun to recede even from himself, and now deals in more or less recognizable forms. Has he given up talking in accents of pure abstraction because he has grown tired of it or because he has found something new to say which can't be said in the language of abstractionism? Assuming the latter to be the case, he has adopted a method of painting that is partly naturalistic, if telegraphically so, and partly geometric. The laying on of the color is also a partial swing from his abstract style toward at least i semblance of nat-uarlistic modeling. I would not tire you with this analysis and speculation concerning Schanker's current paintings if they registered aesthetically and emotionally with me, but they did not.

Tt was one of those Umi s. when a little weary. I wondered whether experimenting merely it.v 'i i'iv nt mi! sake is quite enough. Additional interest attaches to the group show at the Gallery Secession this time through the Inclusion of (our new gurst exhibitors. The gallery has adopted this new policy inviting non-members to exhibit guest contributors artists to be included later in the regular group.

The new participants on this occasion are Philip Evergood, I. Rice Pereira, Lorenzo Santillo and Deszo Kovesi. The regular exhibitors are Nahum Tschacbasov, Louis Harris, Byron Browne, Jennings Tofel, Helen West Heller, Anthony Palazzo, Otto Botto, Pietro Lazzari, Ben-Zion, Gershon Benjamin, Vincent Spagna, Marcus. Rothkowitz, Oronzo Gaspare Adolph Gottlieb, Joseph Solman, Yankel Kufcld. Harrison Knox, Ahron Ben- Shmuel, John Begg and Jean de Marco.

npHERE is nothing that really need be said about the exhibition of pastels and gouaches by Degas, Pissuro, Renoir and Cassat at the Duran-Ruel Gallery except that you should arrange to see it, even if you have to commit murder and arson. All the paintings would you say pastels were paintings or drawings, or both?) were done in the last quarter of the last century, after French impressionism had passed out of its obviously tricky period and into the subtly delicate distillation of light and air which is so exquisitely represented by the work in the present exhibition. One of Mary Casset's pastels, "Lady Holding a Cat," came a little later 1910 but It is of a piece with her other work, of which a very comprehensive exhibition was held at this sam: gallery earlier in the season. Pissaro's six studies seem Just the least bit stilted in contrast to the Renoirs, whose opulence always tenr's to sap thr strength out of any paintings that happen to be in the same room. But on closer Inspection the Pissaros hold up really well with their soft envelopment of atmosphere.

The outstanding Renoir in the group is the "Lecon de Piano," loaned by the Adolf Lew'isohn collection. This pastel was done in 1892 and is the original study for the painting called "Au Piano" included in the Renoir show last month at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. Renoir changed the composition slightly in the painting, putting a vase ol flowers on top nf the piano and a tied drapery behind the two girls. Personally, I prefer the pastel in the Lewisohn collection, but I'd take either. Coming now to Degas, I find myself running out of adjectives.

Of the six pictures three are ballet girl subjects and I don't think any he has done possesses the magic of his color more than the "Danseuse Rose" in the present group. As the1 title Indicates, the ballerina is dressed in a rose-colored costume, but the essence of the picture's beauty is in the illusion of a rose-tinted light that seems to be gleaming from its entire surface. Just how he was able to get that effect is a secret that Dega.s bequeather to no one. A new group of young painters 1 has as yet not given itself 1 a name and welcomes suggestions 'Alexander Woolleott would no doubt I recommend "The is exhibiting currently at the galleries of the Squibb Building, and right off let aic say that it is a group that seems to be going places and doing things. On canvas, of course.

Two of the young artists, Felicia Meyer and Yvonne Pene du Bois, were born with names distinguished in art, and some of the other exhibitors will no doubt make names for themselves in their own right. Liveliness nnd freshness rr -ms to have been the basis of selection all the sections of the show With about, i a hundred oils and sevrral dozen watercolors and blnik and whites, Jit, is impossible in tins space to do nttieh pnrtieulart7inii. Tn nixny iivrse group shows the black and white HE record attendance whichby Chicago art lovers and his now that met. the is adequately The current exhibition shows work in varied media. Possibly the most striking contribution is Robert Ryland's "Springtime in Poplar Street." Here is a case of the American scene painted not "because It is the fashion of the moment, bot because it is so obviously an expression of actual experience.

Mr. Ryland continues to reduce his subjects to the simplest arrangements but he successfully evades the barrenness of purely decorative compositions by investing them with a mood and with the reality of a felt experience. Harold Lund is represented by one of his frsshly painted landscapes; Win- I throp Turney is there with a close up of one of his favorite muleins, a subject which he can interpret with as fresh and varied a point of view as could Monet with his proverbial haystack. Agnes Richmond shows one of her portraits in an out-of-door setting, this one unus- ually striking because of the vivid pattern made by the mass of the I sitter's dark hair and deep blue gown against the pale tones of the Spring landscape background. Will Quinlan has broken away from his iiauiwn Ul 1JCW1II.5 WitlJ intimate landscapes and contributes a large and handsome, Autumn landscape in which an enlargement of scale does not affect his sensitive appreciation of mood.

Other mem- bers whose canvasses it is always a pleasure to see are William I Mathews, Clara Fairfield Perry, I Nicolas Macsoud, John Wells James, James Knox, Katherine Lovell, Benjamin Eggleston, W. E. Spader, Harry Herlng, Herbert Tschudy, Harry Roseland and Richard Hare. Newer members whose presence adds to the interest of the exhibition are Miklos Suba. William Thon, Fred Reinert, Charles Har-sanyi and Bernard Sack.

similable garb, and to these goes the credit for being the men of vision. They become fashionable becausp the public which failed to appreciate the idea it was first But what is significant in any re- view of Mr. Wood's esthetic beliefs is his emphasis on regionalism as the new development in American art. The following quotation from the catalogue will explain this: "Believing that the artist reaches better results Individually, Grant Wood founded Stone City Art Colony. Iowa.

Out of this important art colony experiment developed the ldpa of doing .,,,,1. Tn murals in which a number of Iowa artists worked as a co-operative group on Public Works 01 Arl In regional effort Grant Wdod sees possibility of an art peculiarly American." A LL of this has, needless 1.0 say, very little to do with a critical estimate of Mr. Wood's painting as it is shown at the Ferargil Galleries, although it may help to elucidate the motivating ideas. Taken as a whole the exhibition attests afresh to Mr. Wood's gifts as a craftsman and his ability to present, his sitters with a photographic exactness.

The genre subjects are invariably seen from a fresh and engaging point of view, although they are frequently suggestive of the Curnor and Ives lormula. With this quality, it should be superfluous to say that they have very Utile emotional quality1 nor any personal statement of a vision of life. H. A. TJILA VON REBAY'S new collec tion of cut-outs now on view at the Wildenstein Galleries Is again evidence of her remarkable craftsmanship and the apparently Inexhaustible fertility of her imagination.

The exhibition also includes a group of pencil drawings of Negro types which attest to the sound basic draftsmanship which underlies her fantastic cut-outs; they demonstrate as we'll her ability to express character when portraiture is her objective. "Cut-out" is an ineffective term to use in describing Baroness von Rebay's curious and distinctive art, because these delicate fantasies in colored paper actually express plastic value, and she uses' scissors and strips of colored paper as a painter uses his brush and colors. Furthermore, her compositions are never ruperim-posed on preliminary drawings. She cuts her designs with a free hand, actually drawing with her scissors. Some of the strips are so delicate that it Is hard to believe that they are not pencil-drawn lines.

The compositions continue to. exhibit that touch of the macabre and Leon 7 -r k. 1 HJA. ilk. oi-: i'- iiirlnilriL in uork at the IN -r a I I '-H i i i 3 bined with her feeling for color and texture, give her work its distinctive 'characteristics.

In her own terms, Baroness von Rebay carries on the tradition of Aubrey Beardsley. Or, to relate her to her own tradition, she evinces the painstaking craftsmanship of the designer artisans of the middle ages combined with the sometimes morbid fantasies of the romantics. H. A. R.

Every once in a while a dealer takes his own paintings from hiding and gives the public a chance to see them. This past fortnight Arthur U. Newton has pot on view some interesting eighteenth century portraits, including a Romney, a Rae-burn, several by Nathaniel Hone and a portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart thf is strikingly different in lighting than the popularly known Stuart portraits of Washington. Whether the use of strong, dark cast shadows repre- sents an earlier or period of Stuart's work I do not know, but it was very effective fof bringing out Washington's forcefulness of char- acter. C.

Z. O. Kroll an e.hihition of the artist' Milch (ialleriei. it kL til 4rlm iv I last Carnegie International, as well presrmen no ipris uuu .1 other canvases which have Covered something and is in the marked the progress of his growing vanpuard-always a flattering sen-popularity. Onlv two new canvases sation- So il 'f wlln tnc P'sent are included: "Portrait of Nan" and; of Monroe Doctrine on the High Road." The ex-1 nents.

I Grant Wood's exhibition at the Ferargil Galleries Is attracting is a significant commentary on fashions vin art and their relation to changes in the social and political scene. Grant Is for the innment the most popular interpreter of the American Scene. More so even than Mr. Thomas Benton, because his meticulously painted pictures of Western types and Western homesteads suggest no disturbing or controversial social problems. But absence of a social moral in his painting is by no means the major factor in producing the current vogue for Mr.

Wood's pictures. Among the contributing reasons is the fact that he hails from the Middle West, Iowa to be exact, and our latest pioneer spirit seems to be looking westward again, if only for fresh talent and Inspirational material. Then there is the happy coincidence that he came on the se'ene, or had his revelation of the value of pure Americanism in sub-1 ject matter, just at the time when the correct preference in art was undiluted Americanism. And he presents his neat and immaculate versions of America with an apparent factualness, humor, optimism and a touch of naivete that is very appealing to the American temperament, which has always preferred the story telling picture and rejoices that it no longer has to rave over European abstractions and other deviations from the normal factual approach in order to appear en courant. The exhibition at Feiwrgil's is Mr.

Wood's first one-man show in New York, although his work has been included in group shows at the Whitney and Modern Museums. The exhibition follows a recent one-man show In Chicago. Mr. Wood's spe- clal qualities were first recognized hibition also includes examples of Mr. Wood's early style when as an exponent of Impressionism he painted picturesque European bits in the traditional manner and with the traditional approach.

QOME of Mr. Wood's pronounce- ments as to the importance of painting subjects from everyday ex-uerience and the necessity of (jet ting free from European influences 1 do not seem so oracular when one remembers that all of the foremost Ammran nncta and nn inters and philosophers from Emerson and i Thoreau, Whitman and Wlnslow Homer down to Eaklns, Henri and George Bellows have advocated this same principle and, what is more, practised it. But their advocacy of a return to native sources of tradition and to "chant their own times and circumstance" came too soon or did not fit Into the mood of the moment. And it was not until this point of view had entered Into the general consciousness with certain fashionable aspects to it that the i artists who advocated such a point of view became the vogue. This Is vrry frequently the case in the his-1 tory of art; a new group-appears who take over the ideas of the poets and pointers and give them a rontom-I porary and hence more easily as-1 -y.