The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 34

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YORK, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1933 American Art Comprehensively Represented in the Whitney Museum's Second Biennial, 14 B-C OiV VIEW i MUSEUMS AW GALLERIES ART CALENDAR The Whitney Biennial By HELEN APPLETON READ Twenty Thousand Dollar Purchase Fund to Be Spent on Works Shown in Present Exhibition at Whitney Museum to Augment Permanent Collection When the history of American art during the second and third decades of the twentieth century comes to be written it will be inevitable that an accurate interpreter of events will credit the Whitney Museum and its predecessor, the Whitney Studio Club, as having been largely responsible for bringing about a recognition of contemporary artistic now, when contemporary American an 'Song of the Open Road' (etching), by Lewit Daniel (left). 'Finale' (mater color), by Karl Free (lower right). Both of theie are in-eluded in the Bienniaj Exhibition of Sculpture, Prinlt and Colon now on view at the Whitney Muteum. 'Antique etching by Peggy Bacon, thown at American Prinimakeri Exhibition at Town Hall Gallery (lower left).

expression in this country. Just is the most popular and successful tions and when museums are extending the scope of their permanent collections to include contemporary American art of the non-academic variety, the example and influence looked. But the perspective of time will again reveal this influence in its proper relations to the events of the period. Just as it will also prove again how infallible a prophet and interpreter art is of the changes in the national mood and point of view. The effort of American 1 Wi42 CSV "wfr '-h: Mm; ja ft -f- ii vf W- Vy-A 1 Flower paintings by Edna Bernstein.

EIGHTH STREET GALLERIE3. 61 W. 8th St. Christmas group show. FER ARGIL GALLERIES.

63 E. 57th St. Marine paintings by Erio Hudson. FIFTEEN GALLERY, 37 W. 57th St.

Paintings by Agnes Richmond. GRAND CENTRAL ART GALLERIES, 15 Vanderbilt Ave. Exhibition of Philadelphia Society of Etchers, 5th Ave. and 51st also paintings of Gloucester by Gordon Grant. Branch Paintings by F.

Luis Mora. GRANT STUDIOS. 114 Remsen St. Water colorg by Belle Cody White and Walter White. MARIE HARRIMAN GALLERY.

63 E. 57th St. Drawings by Peter Arno. KNOEDLER GALLERIES, 14 E. 57th St.

Flemish Primitives. KRAUSHAAR GALLERIES. 680 5th Ave. Water colors by Gifford Beal. JULIEN LEVY GALLERY.

602 Madison Ave. Paintings by Dahli. MACBETH GALLEY, 15 E. 57tlj St. Paintings by "gden Bleissner and drawings by Jerome Mayers.

PIERRE MATISSE. 51 E. S7th St. Paintings by Lurcat. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, 5th Ave.

and 82d St. Islamlo miniature paintings and book Illumination; lace shawls of ths nineteenth century. MTDTOWN GALLERY. 559 5th Ave. Paintings by Azzl Aldtlch.

MILCH GALLERIES. 108 W. 57th St. Water colors by Emlle MONTROSS GALLERIES, 785 5th Ave. Fifty paintings by American ttrtlsts MORTON GALLERIES, 130 W.

57th St. Oils and water colors by Elinor Gibson. MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, It W. 53d St. American paintings, Dec.

13 to Jan. 8. NEWHOUSE GALLERIES, 578 Madison Ave. Paintings by Josephine Paddock. ARTHUR NEWTON, 9 E.

56th St. Portraits and landscapes. NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, 476 5th Ave. Prints by Pop Hart, to Jan. 15.

RAYMOND AND RAYMOND, 40 E. 49th St. A group of paintings, drawings and miniatures in facsimile. FRANK REHN, 683 5th Ave. Water colors by George Biddle.

REINHARDT GALLERIES. 730 A py cJ if 1 subject matter for museum that brought this about may be over itself to an American tradition, to brook Carter's and David McCosh's work double-starred in my cata logue. Jack Greitzer, Grant Wood Josef Bakos, Ja5b Getlar Smith Florence Cramer. Stevan Dohanos Mable Dwight, Karl Free, Lucile Blanch and Henry Schnakenrberg are similarly designated. The drawings present an even more difficult problem.

But cer tainly those by Carlotta Petrina, Rockwell Kent, Leon Kelly, Rosella Hartman, Bernard Karfiol, William Palmer, Eugen Speicher, Charles Sheeler, Adolf Dehn, Henry Lee Mc Fee, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Virginia Beresford would be important con tributions to any collection. Among the prints I liked are Mable Dwight's "Dance Macabre," John Carroll's "Circus," Robert Riggs' "Center Ring," Andree Ruel lan's "Siesta," Louis Lozowick's "Midair," Albert Heckman's "Oil Yards at Rondout," Charles Locke's "The Max Kuehne's "Lower New York from Wee- hawken," Gerald Foster's "Atlantics Racings" as well as those con tributed by Peggy Bacon, Thomas Handforth, Wanda Gag, Luigi Lu-cioni, John Sloan and Lewis Daniel, The Sculpture Collection As I have said before, assembling ft group of sculpture in times like these is by no means as simple a matter as collecting an exhibition of paintings and prints. Nevertheless the group contains some interesting work as well as introducing a few names. At least new to this reviewer. Among the well-known sculptors who have made important contributions to the exhibition are Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Bi lotti, Arthur Lee, Jo Davidson, Wil liam Zorach, Rudolph Evans, Mau rice Sterne, Cecil Howard, Mahonri Young and Paul Fiene, Robert Lau rent and John Flannagan.

Mrs, Whitney's "Portrait of Gwen dolyn," a vigorous direct statement of a striking Negro type, shows the artist In a new mood or possibly recapturing one which her long preoccupation with monumental sculpture has prevented. True, there is something heroic and therefor generalized in Mrs. Whitney's conception, but nevertheless it remains a powerful piece of realism and one of the finest examples that she has exhibited in recent years. John Flannagan again evokes the suggestion of elemental forces in his granite monolith-like figure composition entitled "Woman and Concetta Scaravaglionl interprets the same theme from a more warmly human angle although in so doing she has not lost her invariably rich plas tic quality; S. F.

Bilotti shows a seated figure of a woman in which he again evinces his ability to give his work grace and charm in the layman's interpretation of these attributes without becoming pretty or sacrificing his essential sculptural interpretation of his subject; Arthur Lee's standing figure of a man entitled "Rhythm" ranks with his justly famous "Female Torso," which is to say that he has again met the high standard that he made for himself. Other exhibits included in the sculpture group which call for special mention are Henry V. Poor's glazed terra cotta decorative figure composition of humorous as well as decorative intention entitled "Ten Nights in a Bar Room;" Arnold Ronnebecks symblic analgnment of war entitled "Waste," and Hugo Robu's and using stylized figure of young girl yawning and which is appropriately named Dawn." 100 Best Prints Shown At B'klyn Museum An exhibition of 100 prints by European and American artists will open at the Brooklyn Museum to morrow with a private view for museum members, artists and friends of the print department of the museum, and will close on Jan, 12, 1934. This group of prints are those chosen for publication in the annual "Fine Prints of the Year 1933." Miss Susan A. Hutchinson, curator of prints of the Brooklyn Museum, has for the third time edited the American section of this publication.

It is largely due to her initiative that the museum is again enabled to show this group of prints, in which is represented the past year work of many of the leading artists of the worlU. As usual, although most of the names are familiar, there are several new comers to the list. It has been pointed out that in spite of the year of depression the graphic arts have continued their mounting popularity both with the artists and with the public. In the opening sentence of her distin guished review of the American section, Miss Hutchinson mentions this, saying: "It speaks well for the graphic artists that their output has been so large and of such high quality in face of the discouraging eco nomic conditions that have con fronted all phases of endeavor the past year." New names appearing in the American section this year are: James E. Allen, Beatrice Levy, W.

Nason and Alexander Z. Kruse. Among the familiar names one sees again are John Taylor Arms, W. Auerbach-Levy, Peggy Bacon, Kerr Eby, Childe Hassam, Harry Stern berg, Thomas Handforth and Ma honri Young. The English section of fine prints is edited by Malcolm C.

Salaman, the well-known British critic. He, too, finds that in spite of condi tions the output of the last year of the graphic arts has at least been equal to the best work of any pre ceding year and he looks with hope on the endeavors of some of the younger artists. The etchings chosen by Mr. Salaman to represent the British and Continental fields include work by S. van Abbe, Edmund Blampied, Arthur Briscoe, G.

Brockhurst, A. Hugh Fisher, Enid Butcher, Robert Austin, Harry Morlpy, E. Heber Thompson and Leonard Squirrell. Miss Cane Exhibits 1 At Neighborhood Club Miss Elsie Cane, director of the Artists Gallery, the exhibition ve hide for the works of the Brooklyn Society of Painters and Sculptors is showing a group of recent water colors at the Neighborhood Club 104 Clark St. The exhibition opened yesterday and will remain on view during December.

The exhibition will be reviewed in these columns next Sunday. In the Galleries News and Comments AN AMERICAN GROUP, Barbl zon Plaza, 58th St. and 6th show. ARGENT GALLERY, 42 W. 57th St.

Small paintings by members of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Artists Gal lery, Towers Hotel. Christmas ex hibition. JOHN BECKER GALLERY, 520 Madison Ave. The Wilde collection of early American sculpture. THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM, Eastern Parkway Best prints of the year.

Historic beads. Southern Handicrafts Guild. BRUMMER GALLERY, 53 E. 57th St. Brancusi exhibition.

CONTEMPORARY ARTS, 41 W. 54th St. Paintings by Marcus Roth- kowitz. CRONYN AND LOWNDES GALLERIES. 11 E.

57th St. Paintings by Eugene Small. DELPHIC STUDIOS, 9 E. 57th St, Paintings by Jerome Blum. DOWNTOWN GALLERY, 113 W.

13th St. Eighth annual exhibition of American Print Makers. DURAND RUEL, 12 E. 57th St. Correction This department apologizes for a mistake wrjich occured in these columns last Sunday.

In the review of the exhibition of water colors by Belle Cady White and Walter White on view at the Grant Studios the exhibitors were referred to as Mr. and Mrs. White. This is Incorrect. The error was based on the assumption that, in being Brooklyn- ites and co-exhibitors at the same gallery, they were husband and wife.

lonely figures brood on the shores of limitless seas or wander across desolate plains might be illustra tions for Swinburne's lines: "There is land that is lonelier than ruin; A sea stranger than death; Far fields that a rose never blew In; Wastes' where the winds lack breath." Although the present group is less conspicuously surrealist in its sub ject matter, the curious enchanted quality which is for me Lurcat's outstanding quality is possibly even more evocative. It is interesting to compare the Lurcat interpretation of the surrealist trend with that of Dahli, who is exhibiting at the Julien Levy Galleries. Dahli is a surrealist In the Freudian interpretation of the term. His symbols, if one can decode them, are based on personal experience. Not so with Lurcat, whose mirage-like designs are as unreal and impalpable as shadows.

Other Exhibitions The Knoedler Galleries are showing a collection of religious pictures appropriate to the season by Flemish and Italian primitives. It will remain on view until Christmas. The Marie Sterner Galleries are showing paintings and water colors by Charles Baskerville until Dec. 23. The Metropolitan Museum is showing two important collections recently presented to the museum.

They are the Mabel Fahnestock Collection of Lace and the Blacque Collection of Textiles. A recently-acquired life-size marble Roman copy of the Diadoumenos by Poly-kleitos, the torso restored in plaster and considered the best of the copies that have survived, has been placed on view. Angclc Watson's Show At Women's City Club Paintings and drawings by An-gele Watson will be shown during the month of December in the lounge of the Women's City Club, 22 Park Ave. Mrs. Watson, who Is a Belgian and has studied with Alice Ronner, the Impressionist, in Bruxelles and later with Orpen and Marcel Jefferys In London, is nevertheless an artist who has the precious quality of hav ing preserved her own individuality.

Mrs. Watson first exhibited in America at the Whitney Studio Gallery in 1927 and later her paintings were shown at the Babcock Galleries. The selection of her paintings and art in the post-war period to relate break with the allrpowerful influ- ence of French art what is it but aforeshadowing of this international demonstration of nationalism which Is the curious paradoxical phenom ena of an era which should logical Iv abandon racial and national bar riers in the furtherance of social Ideals. All this is by way of an Intro duction to the current Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is also a reminder that the discovery, as it were, that good work is being produced outside in local groups throughout the United States and that an American ex hibition to be American must be "all-American" can hardly be rated as a new thought.

Although some of the organizations who are only recently commencing to interest themselves in contemporary art seem to think that it is. It is the point of view that has been one of the corner stones on which Mrs, Whitney and Mrs. Force have built the museum. Chicago, Cleveland the Southwest, the South, California have all had showings in groups or In selected group shows at the club or museum. If this is one cornerstone, another equally important is the encourag lng of American art by buying it as well as exhibiting it.

Ana tne present Biennial is an exposition of one of the methods by which this policy Is maintained. The present Biennial is the sec ond In the series of exhibitions arranged by the museum in which the artists represented have chosen the work that represents them. The only selecting done by the museum Is the compiling of the list of artists to be included. No jury, however, passes on the work once it is sent In. This year's exhibition is confined to sculpture, water colors and prints.

Last year's was confined exclusively to oils. As was the case last year, and I believe that it is to be a permanent policy, the sum of twenty thousand dollars has been set aside as a purchase fund with which to buy pictures shown in the exhibition. The selections will be made at the close of the exhibition and will become part of the museum's permanent collection. High Standard of Work Exhibited I am happy to report that this year's selections will be extremely difficult to arrive at, as the standard is considerably higher than that of last year. In fact, the exhibition gives the impression of having been the choice of a single sensitive and well-informed enthusiast on American art.

I cannot remember having seen a more stimulating or representative group of water colors and prints. This does not hold for the sculpture group. But this is explicable on the grounds that in times like these sculptors are not experimenting with monumental themes or even for that matter with figure compositions or portraits unless there is a commission or a definite chance of selling their work, since the production of sculpture is extremely expensive. Nevertheless despite these practical difficulties there are some extremely interesting and able pieces shown. The high quality of the exhibition is due to the fact that this year the artists have been considerably more co-operative than last year.

It disproves the theory that artists are bad judges of their own work. Last year there was a regrettable tendency on the part of some of the exhibitors to send their second best, possibly in the belief that they were surer of selling their best work through a dealer. This tendency was the more regrettable because It presupposed forgetfulness on the part of the artist of the important fact that It was the Whitney Museum and the Studio Club which, by standing by them during the difficult years when there was little or no interest in American art, prepared the way for their final admission Into the lists of uptown dealers. Loyalty demanded that the Whitney Museum should have the best material from which to choose its permanent collection, which in being the only American museum dedicated solely to the showing of American art will necessarily be the only one in which the story of American art will be completely told. Another contributing cause to the effectiveness of the present exhibition is the fact that water color is, after all, a medium in which the American artist is singularly proficient.

This natural bent plus the fact that each artist has made a genuine effort to be represented at his best are good reasons why the exhibition deserves the highest praise. Furthermore, the Whitney Museum is especially adapted to showing water colors effectively. The quality of the color schemes, the pale rose, the grey and the white walls are effective backgrounds for the blond transparent washes which predominate in American water color painting. Some Personal Preferences In the entrance gallery there is Ignoring the Marins, the Zorachs, the Hoppers and the Francis Criss'. They would augment any collection.

'Then fiod Clarence Hoi- 5th Ave. The dance In modern art, an exhibition assembled by the College Art Association. MARIE STERNER GALLERIES, 9 E. 5th St. New French group.

VALENTINE GALLERY, 69 E. 57th St. Paintings by Elshemius. WEYHE GALLERIES Prints for the holidays. WHITNEY MUSEUM OP AMERICAN ART, 10 W.

8th St. First biennial of contemporary American sculpture, water colors, drawings and prints. WILDENSTEIN GALLERIES, 19 E. 65th St. Sculpture by Deru-Jinsky.

HOWARD YOUNG GALLERIES, 667 5th Ave. Ships and the Sea by Gordon Grant. American Art at Modern Museum The Museum of Modern Art announces an exhibition of painting and sculpture from 16 American cities, to open to the public on Wednesday, Dec. 13, and to continue until Jan. 1, 1934.

This is the 12th American show held by the museum and includes the work of 119 painters and sculptors from all over the country. An unusual feature of It is the large number of women artists represented; their works comprise almost one-quarter of the total number shown in the exhibition. As was to be expected, painters throughout the United States show in this exhibition a growing interest in the native scene. Architecture, farming, cattle raising, religious ceremonies, landscapes, interiorsnearly all are emphatically characteristic not only of America but in many cases of the sections where the pictures were painted. The regions which seem most artistically self-conscious are the Southwest, represented by Dallas and Sante Fe, and the Southeast, represented by Atlanta.

The different sections of the country will be represented in the exhibition as follows: The Southeast, of which Atlanta is the sols representative; the East, represented by Baltimore, Buffalo. Boston and Philadelphia; the Middle West, by Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis; the Southwest, by Dallas and Santa Fe, and ths Pacific Coast, by Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. drawings now being shown at the club are Russian Woman, Cinerarias, Still Life (vegetables), Coria (figure), two flower arrangements, two portrait drawings, "Rose Parsons" and "Azamat Gulrey" and another drawing. "Sadness." Mrs.

Watson's exhibit is one of a series of monthly exhibits being held during the year at the Women's City Club. CHRISTMAS GIFTS at Reasonable Prices Paintings Drawings Etching! THROUGH DECEMBER ARTISTS GALLERY TOWERS HOTEL BROOKLYN HEIGHTS French and Italian Landicapfi WALTER GRIFFIN, N. A. rnltl Dertmbrr SO FRANS BUFFA SONS S8 WmI 57tk Strnt Ntw York depends almost entirely upon Mr. Biddle's interpretive powers and his ability to organize his material into compact anecdotal patterns.

Water Colors By Gifford Beal Across the way at the Kraushaar Galleries, Gifford Beal is showing a group of water colors in which he again uses his favorite, painting habitat, Gloucester, as material for his com positions. Harbor, beaches, street scenes, sand dunes and back coun try landscapes are painted with his sincere and freshly stated appreciation of the beauty of reality. For artists such as Gifford Beal the problem of subject matter is ap parently never presented. Nature's commonly encountered moods and a locality that he loves offers him enough variety as the present col lection amply attests. It also reaf firms his position as one of the foremost exponents of American tradition in the water color medium.

Jerome Blum's Exhibition At the Delphine Galleries I can never review, an exhibition of Jerome Blum's paintings with quite the objective vision supposed to have been acquired by experi enced art critics and with which, I hope, I view the others that are a part of the week's routine. They awaken nostalgic memories of the days when I first attempted art criticism, because it was an exhibition of Jerome Blum's which gave me my first opportunity to ap pear in print with a signed review, I remember that at the time I spoke of a certain exhilarating ef feet that his color had upon me. And I remember too that the headline writer interposed the heading "Jerome Blum's Work a Tonic" and that I was very much embarrased for fear I would be thought respon sible for, what seemed to me, an inaccurate and gauche transposing of my thought. Now I. don't think it so bad.

In fact 1 could use just that word in defining the effect made upon me by the collection of still lifes and portraits which Mr. Blum is exhibiting at the Delphic Studios. The gorgeous and fearless use of color has a vitality that is nothing less than tonic. This gives his canvases a personality and reality that far exceeds their obviously decorative charm, which latter quality is considerable. Mr.

Blum is very successful in his arranee-ments of colors and textures. The vitality of his compositions is almost as dependent upon the variations of tone and surface as it is upon the zest for life that permeates them. New Gauches by Eur cat At Matisse Galleries Jean Lurcat is back again in this country with a collection of gauches which he is showing at the Pierre Matisse Galleries. The majority of the themes are variations on the "plage" and "baigneuse" motives. But needless to say, realism is not an important factor in Monsieur Lurcat's art.

He creates a world of his which combines the abstract quality of decoration with the mystic implications of the surrealists. Some of his compositions In which MOTHER AND CHILD Bacon's caustic and witty comments on the absurdities and ugliness of life. Not but what Miss Bacon is an etcher adept in the practice of her art but in one etching st least, "Antique Beauty," reproduced on this page, she has given an outstanding exhibition of technical virtuosity. The subject, incidentally, is Arnoesque in its implications, but the more devastating because it is a keener, more truthful statement of circumstance and type. "The Ogress," also included in Miss Bacon's group, a horrible, fat woman opening her enormous mouth to receive an enormous forkful of food, is an example of the artist's ability to see people with the imaginative but truthful eye of a child.

This is how such a monstrous human being would appear to a child. It suggests the terror that she would evoke and yet it is a caustic adult presentation of reality. Other prints which appealed to me and, incidentally, it is not because I happen to have feministic leanings, are Rosella Hartman's portraits of Siamese cats, Isabel Bishop's delicate and precise line drawings and Wanda Gag's imaginative interpretations of the commonplace and every day. However, there is a lot to be said for some of the other groups, notably those contributed by J. Steu-art Curry, Charles Locke, Louis Lozowick, Robert Riggs, Jerome Meyers, Adolph Dehn and Alexander Brook.

The Sbcak.casy Era Recorded by George Biddle Most appropriate and timely Is the current exhibition at the Frank Rehn Galleries. It comprises a collection of paintings, water colors and drawings by George Biddle of well-known and departed speakeasies, a pictorial record, and the only one to the best of my knowledge, because the speakeasies quite understanding avoided being photographed, of this phenomena of the dry era. Many of the visitors to the exhibition will recognize som of their erstwhile haunts since Mr. Biddle depicted those which were popuar with the art crowd, which means the expensive ones and those, rich in atmosphere but less conspicuously fashionable, preferred by artists and critics. Mr.

Biddle's gift for seizing upon the typical and yet humorous aspect of a subject has stood him in good stead in this case. The Speakeasy is depicted as the place we all enjoyed, requenters and owners, anecdotes and situations are seen as colorful and humorous. Thank heaven he has not used the theme as an excuse for a sermon on Jazz age degeneracy as has been the case with other recent pictorial histories. In view of their outstanding interest as documents it seems almost percious to talk about their quality as works of art. But their reality Quite contrary to the procedure usually maintained during the holi day season, the exhibitions continue to open, until the art calendar is almost as long and comprehensive as at any time during the months of January, February and March, which are usually credited with being the peak of the season.

Print exhibitions take the lead. There are no less than five big print exhibitions on view: The American Print Makers at the Downtown Gallery, the Philadelphia Society of Etchers at the Grand Central Art Galleries, the Society of American Etchers at the National Arts Club, the print group at the Whitney Museum's biennial and the 50 best prints of the year at the Brooklyn Museum. Such an array not only affords the art lover an opportunity to make a comprehensive survey of what is taking place in the graphic arts in this country but it also allows him to add to his collection of a considerably lower ex penditure than hitherto, owing to the fact that many of the artists are meeting conditions by cutting their prices in half. The collection at the Whitney Museum has been commented on elsewhere on this page but can again be summed up as being the most stimulating and representative selection of the graphic arts that I remember having seen in recent years. The Society of American Etchers was commented on in this column last Sunday.

It fulfills a different function than the others, since it is confined sole ly to etching. It does, however, offer a surprising variety of techniques and points of view and maintains its usual high standard. American Print Makers The Society of American Print Makers at the Downtown Gallery has entered upon its seventh exhibition season. Because of its unique method of selection, each of the members being allowed to invite guest exhibitors, it continues to retain its fresh pioneering quality. Although some of the prints are marked as low as $5, that is no indication that standards have been lowered.

On the contrary, there is greater concern with craftsmanship and design than before. Prints too casually turned out, despite the fact that well-known names may be attached to them, are no longer salable. The collector and layman enthusiasts want more for their money, so to speak. Therefore the artist who thought that he could turn out a few lithographs on the side to supplement his income has been obliged to learn more about the technical demands of the print mediums. Nevertheless, the quality which distinguished this exhibition from any other, namely, that prints were merely another medium whereby an artist set down his vision of life, continues.

There are, for example, Peggy 'f Sculpture by Cnncettn Sraravagliom, thown tit the Whitney Biennial Exhibition of Sculpture and Water Colon,.