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<title>Philadelphia Art News: Vol. 1 No. 7</title>
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<titlePage>
<titlePart type="main">PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS</titlePart>
<titlePart type="sub">ALL THE NEWS OF PHILADELPHIA ART IMPARTIALLY REPORTED</titlePart>
<docDate><date when="1938-01-31">JANUARY 31, 1938</date></docDate>
<docEdition>Vol. 1 - - - No. 7</docEdition>
<docDate>Ten Cents per Copy</docDate>
<titlePart type="halftitle">PHILADELPHIA ART NEWS</titlePart>
<docImprint>Published every second Monday by</docImprint>
<docImprint>BEN WOLF PUBLICATIONS, INC.</docImprint>
</titlePage>
<div type="masthead">
<list>
<item>Ben Wolf</item>
<item><emph>President-Treasurer</emph></item>
<item>Henry W. Taylor</item>
<item><emph>Vice-President-Secretary</emph></item>
<item>Russell P. Fairbanks</item>
<item><emph>Advertising and Circulation Manager</emph></item>
</list>
<list>
<item><emph>Managing Editor</emph></item>
<item>BEN WOLF</item>
</list>
</div>
<div type="copyright">
<p>Subscription Rates</p>
<p>One year—20 issues—$1.25</p>
<p>Copyright 1937, Ben Wolf Publications, Inc.</p>
<p>This publication and all the material contained in it are the subject matter of copyright.</p>
<p>Address all communications to</p>
<p><name>Philadelphia Art News</name></p>
<p>1009 Central Medical Bldg.</p>
<p>Phone, Rit. 9810</p>
<p><name>Philadelphia, Pa.</name></p>
</div>
</front>
<body>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-01">
<head>ARTISTS WANTED</head>
<head type="sub">ABILITY NO CONSIDERATION</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> H<hi rend="small-caps">ENRY</hi> W<hi rend="small-caps">HITE</hi> T<hi rend="small-caps">AYLOR</hi></byline>
<p/>
<p>The Coffee Bill, officially called the “Federal Arts Act”, is primarily a piece of imperialistic bureaucracy. It is filled with political plums. Under its terms the government assumes a paternalistic attitude towards the family of artists it creates. This family becomes a dynasty of princes and princesses who inbreed in the manner of the ancient Egyptians. Poverty is sufficient proof of royal blood, admitting one forever into the corridors of the Federal Arts palace, “entitled to all the rights and benefits and privileges of Federal employees.”</p>
<p>The Federal Arts Bill as it was introduced in the House of Representatives on <date when="1937-08-16">August 16, 1937</date>, is not democratic. It would create a new class in a society which pretends to the exclusion of class distinction. This class would be supported by taxation of the community-at-large. It would be ruled by political appointees. Its chief Commissioner would wield enormous political power. He himself would be answerable, not to the requisites of Art—but to the whims of the political administration of the government.</p>
<p>Those who would be on the payroll of the Federal Arts Act would be beautifully protected. They, as a class, would enjoy an economic security not granted to any other professional group.</p>
<p>These two factors, one the political bureaucracy controlling the organization, and two, its lesser members enjoying a guaranteed security based primarily on economic need, are antagonistic. The former points directly toward fascism; the latter toward communism. Combined, they would operate a mass production of art, lacking the tonic of aesthetic selectivity, and ignoring the abilities of all those artists who are not on the government payroll.</p>
<p>As it now stands, the Federal Arts Act is an anomaly. It is politically inconsistent. It proposes to take over the whole fabric of the art projects under W.P.A., a relief measure, and transform it by fiat into a bureau for the development of American culture.</p>
<p>The industry of art suffers from an inadequate and cumbersome distribution system of its products—a system which is filled with abuses. Something must be done to enable art to function as a vital cultural factor in the life of the nation, but whatever is done, should be harmonious with the spirit of American democracy.</p>
<p>Government support for art may be a necessity. Artists need an economic security which seems unattainable under present conditions. However, economic need, per se, is not a criterion of aesthetic value or cultural worth. We understand that the Federal Arts Act is now being revised. Let us hope that it will be redesigned to insure the employment of capable administrators and artists of high promise and proven ability; that the bureau will have the specific function of promoting a vital national culture and will not be merely a colorless annex to the Relief Administration.</p>
<p>Despite all the weaknesses of the Federal Arts Acts, it is without doubt one of the most courageous and hopeful bills ever introduced into the House of Representatives Intelligent revision can make it the most effective cultural aid in the history of the country. If the government is going to operate a bureau of the Fine Arts, it must do so with full responsibility to its citizens. The steps necessary for the democratic, and at the same time aesthetically sound functioning of the Bureau are very clear and easy. They are:—</p>
<list>
<item>1. The president should appoint the chief commissioner.</item>
<item>2. The chief commissioner should appoint an executive committee to divide the country into districts necessary for the impartial operation of the Bureau, and to administer the business of the central office.</item>
<item>3. The PRACTISING ARTISTS, and this means ALL practising artists, whether or not they are on W.P.A., should select the regional administrators by untrammeled nomination and vote. This would insure true democratic cultural representation.</item>
<item>4. Artists who work on the projects, or who become connected in any way with the activities of the Bureau, would be chosen solely on the basis of their capabilities.</item>
<item>5. Artists now engaged under W.P.A. who were not found available because of lack of ability would remain under the jurisdiction and discretion of the Federal Relief Administration, and or the W.P.A.</item>
</list>
<p>We believe that a law incorporating this plan could actually carry out the high aims outlined by Representative Coffee in his introduction to his bill. We believe that a law so formulated would create a bureau well worth its cost. Its result would be a higher standard of living—not for one professional group—but for the whole nation.</p>
<div>
<head>ARTISTS WANTED</head>
<p><hi rend="font-weight:bold">Reprint of Body of Federal Arts Act Affecting Operation of Federal Arts Bureau Note Those Parts Printed with Bold Type</hi></p>
</div>
<div>
<head>BUREAU OF FINE ARTS</head>
<p>Sec. 2. (a). There is hereby created an independent bureau under the President of the United States to be known as the “Bureau of Fine Arts” and herein referred to as the “Bureau”. The Bureau shall consist of a Commissioner and six members.</p>
<p/>
<p>(b) The Commissioner shall be appointed by the President of the United States. His salary shall be $5,000 per annum and he shall be appointed for a term of two years and he may be reappointed.</p>
<p>(c) The members of the Bureau shall be appointed by the Commissioner. Their compensation shall be as follows: They shall be paid for such time as is necessarily devoted to work on the Bureau at an hourly rate equal to the rate of compensation payable to them if they were employed as artists on the works projects provided in this Act. The tenure of members of the Bureau shall be two years. In selecting the members of the Bureau, the Commissioner shall consult with organizations representing artists employed on the works projects.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>TRANSFER OF POWERS</head>
<p>Sec. 3. All the functions, powers, and duties exercised by the Works Progress Administration in connection with Works Progress Administration sponsored Federal projects in the fields of art, music, theater, writers, historical-records survey and in any and all other fields enumerated in section 5, subdivision (a), of this Act shall be assigned and transferred to the Bureau of Fine Arts.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>REGIONS</head>
<p>Sec. 4. (a) The Bureau shall divide the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Territories and outlying possessions of the United States into appropriate regions for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act.</p>
<p>(b) In each region there shall be created a regional committee consisting of an administrator and four members.</p>
<p>(c) An administrator shall be appointed by the Commissioner, his salary shall be $4,000 per annum, and he shall be appointed for a term of one year. In selecting a regional administrator, the Commissioner shall consult with the organizations representing the artists employed on the projects within the region.</p>
<p>(b) The members of a regional committee shall be appointed by the regional administrator from a panel of ten names submitted to him by the organizations representing the artists employed on the projects within the region. The compensation of members of a regional committee shall be as follows: They shall be paid for such time as is necessarily devoted to work on a regional committee at an hourly rate equal to the rate of compensation payable to them if they were employed as artists on the project. The tenure of members of a regional committee shall be one year and they may be reappointed.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>WORKS PROJECTS AND EMPLOYMENT OF ARTISTS</head>
<p>Sec. 5. (a) The Bureau shall establish a system of works projects which shall include, but are not limited to, the following:</p>
<p>(1) The theater, its allied arts, and research and teaching therein;</p>
<p>(2) The dance, its allied arts, and research and teaching therein;</p>
<p>(3) Music, its allied arts, and research and teaching therein;</p>
<p>(4) Literature, its allied arts, and research and teaching therein;</p>
<p>(5) The graphic and plastic arts, their allied arts, and research and teaching therein; and</p>
<p>(6) Architecture and decoration, their allied arts, and research and teaching therein.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>QUALIFICATIONS</head>
<p>Sec. 6 (a) All artists employed upon Federal projects by the Works Progress Administration on <date when="1937-06-30">June 30, 1937</date>, shall continue in such employment without interruption under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Fine Arts. The Bureau shall immediately increase the number of artists employed by the Works Progress Administration on <date when="1937-06-30">June 30, 1937</date>, by a MINIMUM of 20 per centum.</p>
<p>(b) The regional committee shall have sole authority to determine all questions of eligibility and assignment of artists to employment on the projects.</p>
<p>(c) Needy or unemployed artists desirous of employment shall be employed on said projects and the regional committee shall give them PREFERENCE in employment.</p>
<p>(d) No artist desirous of employment under this Act shall be required to meet any qualifications which shall be set up either by local relief bureaus, Federal agencies for relief, or otherwise for the purpose of granting relief, nor shall standards for obtaining relief set up by these agencies be used for the qualifications of any applicant under this Act.</p>
<p>(e) Employment on projects shall not be denied to any artist by reason of sex, race, color, religion, political opinion, or affiliation or membership in any economic, political, or religious organization.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>WAGES AND WORKING CONDITIONS</head>
<p>Sec. 7. Wages and working conditions on the projects shall be the same as those established by trade unions for similar work in private industries. In no event shall the weekly wage be less than 20 per centum above the weekly wage presently paid to artists on Federal projects by the Works Progress Administration.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>CIVIL SERVICE</head>
<p>Sec. 8. (a) The Commissioner, members of the Bureau, regional administrators, members of regional committees, and artists employed on the projects shall not be appointed subject to the civil-service laws.</p>
<p>(b) Both the Commissioner and the regional administrators with the approval of the Commissioner may hire such employees as may be necessary to perform the administrative work under this Act. Such employees shall be appointed subject to the civil-service laws.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE BUREAU</head>
<p>Sec. 9. (a) The Bureau shall supervise the allotment of funds appropriated pursuant to the provisions of this Act shall determine the nature of the projects to be financed, and shall make all other determinations of general policy necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act.</p>
<p>(b) The Commissioner shall be responsible for the administration of this Act.</p>
<p>(c) The Commissioner shall act as chairman of the Bureau.</p>
<p>(d) Each member of the Bureau shall act as a national director of one of the projects enumerated in section 5. subdivision (a), of this Act.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>DUTIES AND POWERS OF REGIONAL COMMITTEES</head>
<p>Sec. 10. (a) The regional administrator shall be responsible for the administration of this Act within his territorial region.</p>
<p>(b) The regional administrator shall act as chairman of the regional committee.</p>
<p>(c) The regional committees shall undertake the education and instruction of the public in the knowledge and appreciation of art. They shall undertake the teaching, training, development, and encouragement of persons as artists.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>TENURE</head>
<p>Sec. 11. Artists employed on the projects shall be entitled to all the rights and benefits and privileges of Federal employees.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>VACATIONS</head>
<p>Sec. 12. Every artist employed on a project shall be entitled to sixteen days’ annual leave with pay each calendar year, exclusive of Sundays and holidays. This section shall not affect any sick leave to which employees are now or may hereafter be entitled. The part unused in any year shall be accumulated for succeeding years until it totals not exceeding sixty days.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>SICK LEAVE</head>
<p>Sec. 13. Every artist employed on a project shall be entitled to sick leave with pay. Cumulative sick leave with pay, at the rate of one and one-quarter days per month shall be granted to all such artists, the total accumulation not to exceed ninety days. Regional administrators may advance thirty days’ sick leave with pay beyond accrued sick leave in cases of serious disability or ailments and when required by the exigencies of the situation.</p>
</div>
<div>
<head>COLLECTIVE BARGAINING</head>
<p>Sec. 14. Artists employed on the projects shall have the right of self-organization; to form, join, or assist labor organizations to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing; and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, free from interference, restraint, or coercion of the Commissioner, the Bureau, the administrators, the regional committees, and any and all other administrative organs and officers.</p>
<p>Every citizen should state immediately his opinion of the proposed Federal Arts Act to his congressman and to the Committee on Education of the House of Representatives.</p>
<p>In the interests of impartial and democratic cultural representation, this paper offers its facilities as a clearing house for your opinions. Please fill in the form below and mail it to us immediately. We will see that your statement reaches the proper authorities.</p>
<p>I am in full agreement with the proposals outlined in the above editorial and urge you to incorporate them in a new draft of the Coffee Bill (known as the “Federal Arts Act” H.R.8239).</p>
<p>I am a United States citizen of voting age.</p>
<p>Signed . . . . .</p>
<p>Address . . . . .</p>
<p>If you do not agree with Mr. Taylor’s editorial, please fill in form below or state your opinion in detail by letter.</p>
<p>I approve the Federal Arts Act as it stands . . . . . </p>
<p>I submit herewith proposals which I consider more practicable . . . . . </p>
<p>Signed . . . . .</p>
<p>Address . . . . .</p>
</div>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-02">
<head>AQUA-CHROMATIC EXHIBITION</head>
<p>The research laboratory of M. Grumbacher, New York City, in an effort to discover why some water color paintings retain luminosity and original values indefinitely, while others fade and become lifeless in a few years, has sponsored the Aqua-Chromatic Exhibition, a collection of water colors shown in galleries, museums, and other art centers throughout the nation. Leading water colorists from all over the country have entered their work, among them more than fifty Philadelphia artists.</p>
<p>All paintings are of the same size, are done with the same brand of colors, and are on the same kind of paper. The paintings are sold with the understanding that a check-up on the condition of the paintings will be made periodically. The combined results of these check-ups will then be printed and distributed to all artists cooperating in the Aqua-Chromatic Exhibition.</p>
<p>One of the most important of he shows is that in Boston, held at he Jordan Marsh Company’s art galleries, <date when="--02-07">February 7</date> to 12. To this exhibition Eleanor Copeland sent “Petunias”, J. Frank Copeland, “Handy Swimming Hole”, Harry Leith-Ross, “Pointing Up the Dyer House”, Robert Rushton, “Willow n Wheat”, and Vernon B. Sisson, “Barnegat Sand-Dune”.</p>
<p>In the group recently displayed at the Edinboro State Teacher’s College, Edinboro, Pa., Edythe Ferris was represented by “Tulip Borders”, J. R. Good, Jr., by “China Water”, Alma Kleefeld, by “The Red Barn”, Wayne Martin, by “Young’s Mesa”, Henry Reiss, by “Woodland Path”, Nat Sanders, by “Landscape”, Conwell Savage, by “Vacant Dairy”, and Ethel H. Warwick, by “Nantucket, Mass.”,</p>
<p>Lehigh University, Bethlehem Pa. is also showing an Aqua-Chromatic Exhibition. Philadelphians, there, are Ethel V. Ashton, with “Holiday”, Beryl Cook, “Early April”, M. May Gray, “The Beach” and Leslie Henderson, “Sun Shower in Philadelphia”. Harry M. Book has entered “Sunny Day” in the show at the Lancaster County Art Association, Lancaster, Pa.</p>
<p>Traveling further afield, Marion Cohee shows “Harbor View” and Molly Wood Pitz, “Looking Through” at the H. Sophie Newcomb College, New Orleans, La.: Louise W. Wright, “Fruit and Wild Gentian” at the State Teachers’ College, Superior, Wisconsin; John J. Dull, “So Broad St.”, at Ohio University, Athens, O.; Florence V. Cannon, “Spring Flowers”, Mary E. Pedlow, “Wyalusing Rock” and “Pennsylvania”, and Henry C. Pitz, “The Reluctant Mare” at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn Al.; Helen M. Berry, “In the Fog”, at the Utica Public Library, Utica, N. Y.; and Henry White Taylor, “Curiosity” at the National School of Fine and Applied Arts, Washington, D. C.</p>
<p>Other Philadelphians participating in the Aqua-Chromatic Exhibitions are: Mildred Avery, Raymond Ballinger, Pasquale Battaglia, Morris Berd, Charles Coiner, Donald Cooke, John Folcarelli, Mary Faulconer, Margaret Geiszel, Albert Gold, Laura Greenwood, Earle Horter, Ronald Hower, Maulsby Kimball, Katherine McCormick, Ralph McLellan, Hilda Orth, Justin Pardi, Marie Ramsey, Fred deP. Rothermel, Samuel Salko, Joseph Smith, Frances Spielberg, Benton Spruance, Minnie Steele, Franklin Watkins, Charles Whitman, Ben Wolf, and Grace Wyeth.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-03">
<head>FRESH PAINT</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> W<hi rend="small-caps">ELDON</hi> B<hi rend="small-caps">AILEY</hi></byline>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig176.jpg"/>
<head>“Marianna” by Eugene Speicher</head>
<figDesc>Photograph by Chappel Studio</figDesc>
</figure>
<p>We can remember, a number of years ago, when our annual visit to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, for the Oil and Sculpture show was an eagerly anticipated emotional experience. We never knew exactly what we’d find there, but we were fairly certain that it would be unusual, exciting and inclined to provoke a great deal of dissension and discussion.</p>
<p>Many a painter would hold forth, to some, with glorious verve of line and color—to others, with impudence; while many another canvas may sparkle with the makings of a grand fight between critics and public alike.</p>
<p>But now we seem to have settled down, if the One Hundred and Thirty-third Annual Exhibition, now current there, is a criterion. Here we find an evenness of pigmental conception and execution that verges upon the monotonous. There is not one canvas in the exhibit that rears itself proudly above its fellows—and very few that sink to the level of definitely bad painting.</p>
<p>We are not of the opinion that this sort of exhibit is a truthful cross-section of contemporary American painting—at any rate we want to feel that there should be some highlights.</p>
<p>Occupying the most prominent position in the show is “Marianna” by Eugene Speicher, manifesting little more than sound but uncompelling painting. Doris Lee, on the other hand, does “Strawberry Pickers” replete with phantasy and provocative color. Fullness of form and decorative concentration reminiscent of Peter Breughel is to be found in James B. Turnbull’s “The Refugees”, while the same spirit, but accomplished with vastly different technique, emanates from Paul Cadmus’ “Guilding the Acrobat”, a small canvas, but one of the most arresting in the show, and, for its quality, badly placed.</p>
<p>An interesting comparison of opposite visions is to be made between Daniel Garber and James Calder, both of whom contribute canvases of “Willows”, which unfortunately are not placed together. Garber runs the gamut of meticulous technique and has not missed a variation of the subtle greens found in a tree mass; Calder sees breadth and no great variety of greens, and paints with a sweeping, dramatic brush stroke. The Calder is the more vital.</p>
<p>Ruthless honesty resides in Max Weber’s “Broken Tree”. It is refreshing to see a canvas of Weber minus his accustomed pudgy distortion. The Martino brothers, Antonio and Giovanni, are coming up, and show street scenes that would do credit to Hopper.</p>
<p>Isaac Soyer sees “School Girls” with a subtlety that the girls themselves probably do not possess; “Dream House”, by Alexander Brook, is not only an ironic comment (being a shack in process of remodeling) but one of the show’s finest bits of painting. Louis Eilshemius is represented by a peculiarly bad canvas, George Grosz by a riot of color (a street fight on a large scale—seemingly war), William Glackens by his vague but gorgeously effective iridescences, and Walter Gardner by a landscape rich in green, and active, for all its peace of spirit.</p>
<p>Earl Horter’s “Black Water” is one of the freshest oils we have seen from this artist. Incidentally, it is in effect, more like his water colors—the quaint buildings, carriages and ship masts are quite jewellike. From Rockwell Kent comes one of his most stolid, and least expressive, mountain studies, and S. Walter Norris, on the other hand, shows one of his most agreeable compositions of squarish buildings in a squarish world.</p>
<p>William Paxton’s “Nausicad” we should like to sub-title “Nausea”. We have never been able to unearth a sufficient excuse for Paxton’s technique of the tinted photograph, but this canvas of pretty-pretty nudes is particularly offensive.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig177.jpg"/>
<head>“Boy Eating” Oil by Samuel Heller</head>
<figDesc>Federal Art Project Photograph by McClintock</figDesc>
</figure>
<p>Kuniyoshi’s “Toward Village” and Hobson Pittman’s “Early Spring” are well placed side by side—they compliment each other and show great feeling for flow of color tone. A view of “Steeplechase Park” by Reginald Marsh indicates that the painter should be quite wealthy if paid by the figure; in this composition another would burst through the frame. Marsh has a genuine claim to fame, but why must he overload his canvases?</p>
<p>In “Sheldon Street” Francis Speight shows the beauty of hills in the city and has made the most of it in a simple tonal way. Walter Stuempfig’s “Skating Party” strengthens his reputation as an original colorist and happy composer of pictures; Emlen Etting’s “Stone City” creates an eerie mood with its arch, background of drab stone buildings and a few lonely figures. “Flower Seller”, by Herbert Jennings, is an accomplishment of tonal paintings—vivid flowers are contrasted sharply to the darkly clad and almost silhouetted negro vender.</p>
<p>Something is happening to Biago Pinto. Where are the Soutinesque swirls? Pinto’s “Checker Game” is quite devoid of them—instead we find thick outlines and enormous solidity of mass and color. It’s an interesting development and we’re anxious to see what will happen.</p>
<p>Julius Bloch, we are convinced, has found his metier—American youth—as witness “The Hitch-Hiker”. As the antithesis of this realism we may cite Stuart Davis, who, although “skyed”, has contributed the most joyously patterned color in the exhibition: “Composition—Terminal”.</p>
<p>Walter Baum, in “Carversville”, continues to view small towns with looseness of handling, much plastic strength and richness of color. Fred Wagner’s canvas is of ambitious size and captures beautifully the spirit and motion of a large city’s busy harbor.</p>
<p>Henry Varnum Poor’s study of Waldo Peirce is the best portrait here. As a character study it is forceful and uncompromising, and as color tremendously striking: the sitter’s blue sweater sings against a crimson background.</p>
<p>Among the more conventional portraits, two are outstanding. Jean MacLane’s young girl is most agreeable, and we should like to see what this painter might do with landscape. The Sargeant-school type of technique found usually in the paintings of Wayman Adams we do not care for, but his present portrait, that of Morris Gest, is one of the most superb characterizations we have ever seen. Gest seems at any moment, ready to burst into an orgy of elaborate theatrical production.</p>
<p>George Biddle’s “Family Portrait” is large and (for its size) very delicately handled. Other arresting canvases (not portraits) are contributed by Virginia Armitage McCall, Elliott Orr, Paul Mommer, Robert Phillips, Lucius Crowell and Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones.</p>
<p>The sculpture section is far from encouraging. There are the usual conventional nudes, conventional heads and conventional animals—dull and without imagination, except for a possible half-dozen works.</p>
<p>Walker Hancock’s “Fallen Boxer” has caught the beauty of an athlete even in defeat; James Savage’s “Bell Ringer” manifests the simple strength of motion; Emma Lu Davis’ crouching football player, “Centre”, is full of imagination (executed in color); “Three Bears” by Edmund Amateis and “Mother and Child” by Samuel Cashwan reveal great ingenuity of geometric form; and Nathaniel Choate, with his “Morrocan Goat” has grasped the amusing character of the animal.</p>
<p>Oils, water colors, pastels, drawings, sculpture, prints and posters executed by artists under the Federal Art Project of Pennsylvania are now being shown at the Pennsylvania Museum.</p>
<p>It is a highly stimulating show, quite varied, and indicates that emphasis is being placed upon our more youthful and progressive artists, which is largely as it should be.</p>
<p>The future of American art lies in the hands of the young artists of today, and those working under this project are making the most of their opportunities.</p>
<p>The oil section is particularly varied and vital. William Ferguson, well represented, is a painter of vivid imagination, whether he turns to phantasy or a simple scene. Thomas Flavell is improving tremendously in strength of conception and technique. Leon Kelly’s oils, varying greatly in size, are executed with his accustomed vigor, and Grace Gemberling, in “Harvesting”, has realized the joy of golden browns and greens.</p>
<p>Michael Leone sees “Philadelphia from the Museum” with Dufy-like pattern, but with a harder line. We like Salvatore Pinto’s “Ballet Girl” with her unusually pink body—the whole a fine decorative color scheme. Another visionally expressed affection for the Museum comes from Frank Stamato. Matthew Sharpe’s contributions are not his best. Stewart Wheeler shows an increasing inclination for hard, black outlines, rather suggestive of Van Gogh—particularly his oil “Zinnias and Squash”. Julius Bloch is represented by three oils varied in style: a floral study, simple and fresh, an expressionistic “Camp Meeting Evangelist” and a strong portrait: “The Marble Champ”.</p>
<p>Among the drawings, Daniel Rasmusson is most widely represented. He draws with much verve, and his delineations of the nude are most sympathetic. Included is a large mural study—“Te Deum”—in pastel. Striking drawings are likewise contributed by Leon Kelly, Julius Bloch, William Ferguson, Hubert Mesibov and Salvatore Pinto.</p>
<p>Contributors of water colors include Glenn Pearce, whose “The Old Maid” is one of the best water colors, revealing the exterior of old-fashioned houses, the sun shining quietly, and convincingly, upon them; Lloyd Ney who concentrates upon the character of his fellow man; Thomas Flavell, whose water colors range from bananas to the circus; and Stewart Wheeler, who eyes a swimming hole.</p>
<p>Yoshimatsu Onaga’s colossal “Figure”, in stone, dominates the sculpture section. Michael Gallagher, Richard Hood and Hubert Mesibov are the most generously represented in the prints. Gallagher in a wood block, portrays Onaga engaged upon his large statue.</p>
<p>A recently perfected method of printmaking, known as the “Carborundum tint”, has been most effectively utilized in a number of prints by Gallagher, Mesibov and Dox Thrash. Other print media are lithography, etching, aquatint, drypoint, mezzotint and linoleum block.</p>
<p>Posters are contributed by Katherine Milhous, Robert Muchley, Horatio Forjohn and others.</p>
<p>Two of the three prizes awarded by the Philadelphia Print Club during its Tenth Annual Exhibition of American Lithography went to P. W. A. workers.</p>
<p>The Mary Collins Prize of $75.00 was won by Elizabeth Olds, of P. W. A., for “Miner Joe”, as strong and rugged a portrait as one would care to see; Benton Spruance captured an Honorable Mention for “Macbeth—Act V”, apparently a doleful small-town funeral; and an additional prize of $10.00 was granted Leonard Pytlak, of P. W. A., for his color lithograph “Underground”, a subway station seen with definite power.</p>
<p>The jury was composed of Mrs. John C. Atwood, Jr., Emlen Etting, Henry P. Mcllhenny, Robert von Moschzisker and Salvatore Pinto. The result is a vital, well balanced show. Here are some of the peaks.</p>
<p>Hyman Warsager: “Doctor’s Office”—surrealistic agglomeration of gadgets; Waldo Peirce: “Circus on the Move”—strong, colorful, not at all self-conscious; Gyula Zilzer: “The Postman”—large, bold and amusing print; Jack Markow: “Seven Course Dinner”—painfully frank comment on an obese gourmet; Kenneth M. Adams: “Miner”—fine, strong delineation; Hubert Davis: “The Ocean View” and “Window on the Valley”:—unusual for Davis, large, light and free; Meyer Wolfe: “I Hid My Face Before the Lord”—deeply rhythmic expression of negroes singing.</p>
<p>Stow Wengenroth: the usual hard, cold, but effective evergreens and rocks; Joe Lebort: “Sit Down—Brooklyn”—full of compositional zest; Wanda Gag: “Fairy Tale” and “In the Year of Our Lord”—vastly different in treatment, the former whimsical, the latter a departure for Gag (death and destruction in China); Earl Miller: “Hot Country” and “Design with Nudes”—the first an effective combination of brush and crayon, the second delicately scratched white lines upon black ground, and pictorially powerful; Vera Andrus: “Leaves of the Sea”—refreshing cleanliness and originality of form; Minetta Good: a bit of this artist’s characteristic graphic poetry devoted to flowers; Will Barnet: “Miner’s Son”—one of the most substantial pieces of draughtsmanship in the exhibit.</p>
<p>Other attractions: Chuzo Tomotzu, Adolph Dehn, William Gropper, Emil Ganso, Mabel Dwight, Joe Jones, Peter Hurd, Rockwell Kent, Howard Cook, Joseph Margolies and George Biddle.</p>
<p>Portraits and decorative paintings by Fergus Monro Mackie are now to be seen at McClees Galleries.</p>
<p>As an artist, Mackie appears the possess a dual personality: of the portraitist and the decorative painter. So at variance in spirit are the portraits with the decorative paintings that they may well have been produced by different artists.</p>
<p>The portraits, to be sure, embrace a great deal of the decorative themselves, but of a very unlike nature. They are lively, and Mackie has successfully incorporated acute character analysis and a genuine flair for the proper presentation of his sitter.</p>
<p>Our favorites are “Old Arab” and “Mon. Andre Blanchard”, free, full in tone, and courageous in interpretation of character.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig212.jpg"/>
<head>“Mother and Child” by Ramon Bermudez</head>
<figDesc>Federal Art Project</figDesc>
</figure>
<p>The decorative paintings, none of which are very large, for most part express the happy vision of a man who loves the world he lives in and sees nothing unpleasant in it. Such canvases as “On Lake Como”, “Antibes”, “Provencal Landscape” and “Near Biot”, have immense variety of form, and color well proportioned in relation to their complimentary grays.</p>
<p>“Biot-Var” makes the most of the decorative roofs of quaint buildings clustered upon hills. “Wild Flowers” is a sprightly canvas and offers the agreeable contrast of thick impasto in the blooms and thin glazes of pigment in the vase and background. The only nude in the exhibition is handled with simplicity and here no effort has been made in the direction of color elaboration.</p>
<p>The Artist’s Union is staging an exhibit of oils, water colors, and photographs at the Union’s Club House.</p>
<p>It is inclined to be a rather uneven show, although boasting several extremely fine works.</p>
<p>Ralston Crawford, for instance, has contributed one of his best canvases: “Steel Mill #2”. Composed of flat patterns of gray-brown, pale blue and black, it is an accomplishment of thoughtful, logical pattern. This and Charles E. Cockey’s “Landscape” are the best in the exhibit. Following closely are Nat Koffman’s freely handled “Girl” and Josef Presser’s “Cunegonde”, a nude of extraordinary vigor.</p>
<p>Jof Tonnar’s “Suppertime” is an iridescent and well rounded human comment, and Samuel Freed’s “Miners” is characterized by a most unpleasant distribution of two figures which, in themselves, are well painted. Miriam P. Rosenbach shows an admirable landscape, executed with free painter’s vision and composed of sensuous, expressive masses of soft, thin pigment.</p>
<p>Isadore Possoffis “Sweatshop” has much in point of active design reinforced by vivid color, and Nicholas Marsicano’s “Spain” is an inchoate bit of pigmental lust. Crude and raw is Lisa O. Langley’s “Hillside in Glen Riddle”—we’ve seen much better from this painter.</p>
<p>Among other exhibitors are Fritz Noyes, Robert Volz and A. L. Chanin.</p>
<p>The most patent quality in the oils of Ben Wolf, now on exhibition at the Warwick Galleries, is simplicity and concentration of color tone. From these canvases we assume the painter’s philosophy to be one that admits of but a minimum of tonal variation.</p>
<p>It is, all things considered, a vision more at ease with landscape than figure, although two “studies”, small nudes, are accomplished with a great deal of expressive freedom. The better of the larger nudes is “Flesh Against Lemon Yellow”—the flesh, nevertheless, is rather too putty-like.</p>
<p>“Dyer Street, Provincetown”, is a solid composition of buildings, the color tastefully grayed, except for the impact of its green tree. Rugged indeed is “When the Tide is Out”, the harbor, with its pier, realized with vigor. In the beach the painter has achieved convincingly the effect of its unevenly distributed sand.</p>
<p>“Cold Day” and “Over the Hill” reveal the painter’s happiest subject-matter. Both have quiet color—all elements of the pictures under control, and well balanced.</p>
<p>Wolf’s best canvases are those in which blue is realized as the keynote. “The Witching Hour”, “Thick Fog”, “Dark Against Light”, “The Solemnity” and “Reflections” embrace the beauty of blue as Wolf sees it. The last named is the finest of these, wherein the painter has enhanced the poetry of blue by an occasional, and well placed, spot of orange.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-04">
<head><pb n="2" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-2.jpg"/>LETTERS TO THE EDITOR</head>
<p>“I have just returned from my winter trips to the important exhibitions in the East. It was a pleasant surprise to find three fresh copies of your dandy little paper waiting for me. You have, it seems to me, undertaken a really worthwhile task in your publication of a Philadelphia Art Digest. Philadelphia needs it. I wish your paper every possible success.</p>
<p>I have a suggestion to make. With the low price of your paper and with sufficient general information together with feature articles concerning the Arts, it will not be long before there is a wide distribution, which in turn surely will have a tremendous effect (I hope!) on the public’s interest in works of art. Perhaps an appreciation of what Art really is will grow from your noble endeavor. Perhaps you will help transform public taste and encourage new standards. Perhaps you will sow the seeds for the feeling of quality which is so necessary . . . for no art can endure if it cannot stand on its own quality, regardless of all the ballyhooing and publicising and showmanship employed to make it popular.</p>
<p>Tell the truth and the public will eat it up!</p>
<p>Among the shows I had chance to see, were of course the Dutch pictures at Knoedler’s. I happened in last Sunday when they were being hung. The confusion didn’t spoil it for me because there are so many wonderful works as only the seventeenth century Dutchmen could produce them. I was in a glorious state of excitement. I was not only excited by the busy men with ladders and hooks and the activity of my friend that helped decide where the de Hoochs and the Cuyps and the Terburgs should hang, I also found time to ooh and aah at the perfect examples of correct drawing and naturalistic representation of the Ruysdaels. I was so happy with the exhibition ‘Holland Indoors and Out’ that when I returned to my friend’s studio I felt like an academic pedagogue that had just wakened from a dream in which everything conformed with my canons of good color and proportion and notions of what the Golden Age of Dutch Art really is. The Dutch in their fight for liberation from the Spanish situation of the day built up their national character and developed the resources of their own country. Yet under conditions quite dreary the genius of the seventeenth century masters discovered its own racial expression in painting.</p>
<p>New York has had a great many other fine shows this season as have Washington, Richmond, Pittsburgh and other cities. I was quite thrilled with the needlework shown at the small Arden Gallery in New York. At Charlottesville in Virginia I ran across a small Gallery managed by a Mrs. Speed who has a good deal of taste and is willing to arrange for loans of pictures.”</p>
<p>DE BONNE GRÂCE!</p>
<p>Our thanks to the author of this interesting letter, who has written at the bottom of it only “De bonne grâce!”. That is not sufficient clue to his identity for us. Why the anonymity?</p>
<p>Ed.</p>
<p>Att. Mr. M. Stiles.</p>
<p>Auriga Martinus Civi Militi Juniori S.P.D:</p>
<p>Me pudet te certiorem facere puellam in capite quinto perfecisse anulum suum—nunc lapides armillae adaegnatere perpolire et mihi has litteras tibi scripsisse.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-05">
<head><pb n="3" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-3.jpg"/>EXHIBITIONS</head>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">1525 LOCUST STREET</item>
<item>Paintings by Mr. and Mrs. J. Frank Copeland, February</item>
<item rend="list-head">ARTISTS UNION</item>
<item>1212 Walnut Street</item>
<item>Exhibition of Members’ Work</item>
<item rend="list-head">CARLEN GALLERIES</item>
<item>323 South 16th Street</item>
<item>Prints by Kaethe Kollwitz to <date when="--02-10">February 10</date></item>
<item>Etchings by Joseph Margulies, <date when="--02-10">February 10</date> to <date when="--03-09">March 9</date></item>
<item rend="list-head">McCLEES GALLERIES</item>
<item>1615 Walnut Street</item>
<item>18th Century Portraiture. Contemporary American Painting.</item>
<item>Paintings by Fergus Monro Mackie, through <date when="--02-05">February 5</date></item>
<item rend="list-head">PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS</item>
<item>Broad and Cherry Streets</item>
<item>133rd Annual Exhibition of Oils and Sculpture. From <date when="--01-30">January 30</date> to <date when="--03-06">March 6</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PENNSYLVANIA MUSEUM</item>
<item>The Parkway</item>
<item>Johnson Collection. “Federal Art Project.” <date when="--01-22">January 22</date> to <date when="--02-27">February 27</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA A. C. A. GALLERY</item>
<item>323 South 16th Street</item>
<item>Caricatures by Lou Hirshman, <date when="--02-01">February 1</date> to 20</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA ART ALLIANCE</item>
<item>251 South 18th Street</item>
<item>Craft work by Philadelphians Second Annual Water Color Show—Lithographs by George Z. Constant—Oils by Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, <date when="--02-01">February 1</date>–20</item>
<item>Oils by Art Alliance members to <date when="--02-11">February 11</date></item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA FREE LIBRARY</item>
<item>Logan Circle</item>
<item>European Manuscripts of the John Frederick Lewis Collection</item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA PRINT CLUB</item>
<item>1614 Latimer Street</item>
<item>Ninth Annual Exhibition of prints by Philadelphia artists to <date when="--02-12">February 12</date></item>
<item>Exhibition of Book, Magazine and Advertising Illustration, <date when="--02-14">February 14</date> to <date when="--03-05">March 5</date></item>
<item rend="list-head">PHILOMUSIAN CLUB</item>
<item>3944 Walnut Street.</item>
<item>Oils by Pearl Van Sciver February</item>
<item rend="list-head">TEMPLE UNIVERSITY</item>
<item>Sullivan Memorial Library</item>
<item>Paintings by Allan Freelon To <date when="--02-07">February 7</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">WARWICK GALLERIES</item>
<item>2022 Walnut Street</item>
<item>Paintings by Ben Wolf, <date when="--01-31">January 31</date> to <date when="--02-19">February 19</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">WOMENS’ CITY CLUB</item>
<item>1622 Locust Street</item>
<item>Portraiture and still life studies by Gladys M. G. West, February</item>
<item rend="list-head">WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY CLUB</item>
<item>Warwick Hotel, 17th & Locust Sts.</item>
<item>Oils by Nancy Maybis Ferguson, February</item>
<item rend="list-head">Y. M. & Y. W. H. A.</item>
<item>Paintings by Joseph Hirsch</item>
<item>Pottery by Frances Serber.</item>
</list>
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</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-06">
<head>ORGANIZED COLLECTORS TO BUY AMERICAN</head>
<head type="sub">NEW SOCIETY WILL AID CONTEMPORARY ART</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> H<hi rend="small-caps">ENRY</hi> W<hi rend="small-caps">HITE</hi> T<hi rend="small-caps">AYLOR</hi></byline>
<p>Constructive appreciation—a positive attitude towards American art instead of the negative one which is so general—is very necessary for the healthy growth of art. This constructive appreciation must be evidenced by discriminating patronage. Every great period of art in history has existed because of active selective financial support of artists.</p>
<p>The Collectors of American Art, Inc., has been formed for this specific function—“to promote extensive private ownership”.</p>
<p>This new organization is a healthy symptom of the growth of American aesthetic consciousness and confidence. Through such movements as this the day may come when the intelligent American will feel free to think for himself and be guided by his individual taste in the selection of art for his home. Art will then, but not until then, contribute fully to the richness of living in this nation.</p>
<p>Those who begin now to share in the discriminating patronage of contemporary American Art will profit thereby. They will help to find great art in America, and become the owners of it. They will receive a substantial aesthetic return, and it is doubtful if they could make a sounder financial investment.</p>
<p>The prospectus of “The Collectors of American Art, Inc.” follows</p>
<p>An organized effort is being made to bring into a more adequate ratio the problem of supply and demand in contemporary American art. The Collectors of American Art, Inc., a non-profit organization to promote extensive private ownership of contemporary American art, has just been formed by a group of New York art lovers. The new organization is basically a revival of the idea of the old American Art Union, which, started 99 years ago, grew in one decade to a membership of 18,960 and in 1849 distributed among its members art works worth $96,300. Headquarters have been established at 38 West 57th Street, New York, where active preparations are now in progress for the first monthly exhibition to open <date when="--02-02">February 2</date>.</p>
<p>As in the days of the old Art Union, funds obtained from lay membership will be utilized to purchase paintings and prints from this and subsequent exhibitions for allocation among members at the annual meeting of the Association in <date when="1938-05">May, 1938</date>. Any American artist may submit pictures for these exhibitions, the exhibits for which will be selected by the organization’s Exhibition Committee. Application for invitation to submit work should be made to Collectors of American Art, Inc., at 38 West 57th Street, New York City. In line with the Association’s policy “to promote extensive private ownership”, the public will be welcome at these exhibitions.</p>
<p>The seven incorporators of Collectors of American Art, Inc., Miss Francis, Herbert B. Tschudy, Mrs. M. B. Sinclaire, George H. Fitch, Dr. Alice I. Bryan, G. M. Dallas Peltz III and Kenneth Howell, were later joined by Robert W. Macbeth, Peyton Boswell, Jr., Frank D. Fackenthal, Robert M. McDonald, Lee Ault, J. Hamilton Coulter, Miss Olive M. Lyford, Miss Grace Mayer and Mrs. Martin Frisch. This is the nucleus of an organization that presents a call to the American can people to sustain and encourage the native artist through the purchase of his work.</p>
<p>Success of the organization’s aims will, naturally, depend upon the scope and loyalty of its lay membership. Every subscriber of $5 is a member for the year, and entitled to all the benefits of participation. According to the number of members, works of art will be purchased from the monthly exhibitions for distribution among the members in May. Each member will receive a painting or a print equivalent in monetary value at least to the cost of membership—it may be an etching well worth $5, or it may be a painting for which the Purchasing Committee has paid the maximum price of $250.</p>
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</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-07">
<head>FRESH PAINT EDITORIAL</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> W<hi rend="small-caps">ELDON</hi> B<hi rend="small-caps">AILEY</hi></byline>
<p>The most uncomfortable thing we can think of concerning the artist is his name. Not name in the sense of “reputation”, but as we use other nouns: butcher, baker and candlestick-maker.</p>
<p>Today the word “artist” seems to possess a significance which it disdained even during the magnificence of the Renaissance. Michaelangelo was, to himself, a tradesman, while the brothers Van Eyck were little more than house-painters to their public. The fact that they were artists was assumed, and upon that blessed name hung no fabulous jewels of temperament: they were simply, and fruitfully, workers—worked as many another, but perchance better.</p>
<p>The appellation “artist” lacks today that erstwhile dignity, and implies in most minds more of the cavorting of a prima-donna than the labor of a creator. And it is by no means advantageous to the artist.</p>
<p>In fact, herein resides one of the major tragedies of America, which, for all its culture in certain respects, continues to insist upon things being definite. Her doctors have their degrees and have duly served their internship. They are definitely doctors. The lawyers have been admitted formally and officially to the bar after a logical amount of preparation. They are definitely lawyers. The accountant is certified and the plumber registered.</p>
<p>But what, definitely, is the artist? To America, nothing. He may have studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, or the Art Student’s League, or gone abroad to Andre L’Hote. Likewise, he may have gone no where at all, like John Kane, or many others. That is what confuses his own America. She accepts him because he has thrilled her occasionally, and because she “couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler”. But she must be made to respect her artists as professional men.</p>
<p>In this she has failed largely because many have taken undue advantage of the fact that an artist may reach Parnassus without either diploma or degree. By the same token an impostor can organize an exhibition of his work and consequently call himself “artist”. In such a case, there is small wonder that America is a bit dubious concerning her artists, when the bad is touted equally with the good.</p>
<p>Try as we may, there seems but one solution to this evil: time.</p>
<p>The artistic parasite shall gradually be weeded out by the inevitable scythe, but not before he has accomplished a bit of emotional swindling. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped that the process of absorbing pictures shall add considerably to intelligent buying by the public, and that a purchase shall mean, not merely an investment or the slavish devotion to the advise of a friend, but the acquisition of a work of art genuinely loved by its purchaser, where neither pity nor charity for the artist exist—only the satisfaction of buying what one desires from a respected source.</p>
<p>This is our legacy from past civilizations, and it will one day arrive with interest. It needs, however, every iota of possible cooperation from our artists; as they desire respect, they must, in turn, respect. When the best of art removes from the studio into the open air, on a pedestal not too high for the people to see, there may come an emotional reenactment of that greatest of all spiritual weddings: Cimabue and the people of Florence.</p>
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<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig180.jpg"/>
</figure>
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<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig181.jpg"/>
</figure>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-08">
<head>PROFESSOR OF CARTOONING</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> H<hi rend="small-caps">ARRY</hi> S<hi rend="small-caps">TOLL</hi></byline>
<p>“Some of my students can draw better than I,” said Jerry Doyle, “professor” of the world’s only University chair of cartooning. “But drawing is only ten per cent of cartooning. The other ninety percent? Why, the idea behind the drawing.”</p>
<p>Jerry, sun-tanned from his recent West Indies cruise, mustache waxed, eyes sparkling, sat in his class room on the tenth floor of Temple’s Cromwell Hall. In the class seventeen year old hopefuls sit next to high school teachers. Some aspire to the same type career as Mr. Doyle, who does political cartoons for the Philadelphia Record, the New York Evening Post and the Courier-Post newspapers of Camden. Others dream of a Walt Disney career.</p>
<p>“If they have ideas, it is easy enough to teach the techniques,” believes Doyle, “and if they can be taught to incorporate those ideas in their drawing, they will make good.” If four of the class become successful cartoonists, Mr. Doyle will consider the class a success, and he is confident that more than that number will make the grade.</p>
<p>Twenty per cent of the class are former art students, having studied at the Academy or the School of Design. It is this group that sketches so well. However, the difficulty of the former art student is in learning to draw from imagination rather than from models.</p>
<p>Most of the instruction is individual, and informality is the keynote. “Professor” Doyle is affectionately known to the class as Jerry. On his desk the other evening were candy canes wrapped in a big bow; the evening before, an apple.</p>
<p>Jerry Doyle never took an art course. He boasts that Homer’s “Iliad” was his only art teacher. It seems that Jerry was so bored during Greek classes at Philadelphia’s St. Joseph’s College that for diversion during those classes, he drew. There were so many and such lengthy classes that he became quite a proficient and imaginative artist. Jerry’s first major cartoon was drawn during an important Greek examination. He glanced at the questions and proceeded to sketch in the examination book his impression of Attic Greek. The drawings, but for a Jesuit teacher with a sense of humor, would have meant expulsion. The cartoon? Jerry doesn’t recall exactly, but he has a vague memory of an over-ancient cheese depicting an over-ancient language.</p>
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</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-09">
<head><pb n="4" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-4.jpg"/>THE OLD CYNIC</head>
<p>An illustrator who had achieved great success in his field had maintained a growing interest in the fine arts during the years.</p>
<p>At last came a time of awakening, when he interrupted his commercial career to make purely aesthetic expressions of the concepts which had been developing in his mind. After a period of trial and error he painted a group of remarkable canvases which synthesized his great experience with life and his keen emotional responses to Nature and Man.</p>
<p>These canvases were unlike anything he had previously painted, except that in them he employed the great facility of craftsmanship he had acquired in commercial practice. In color, form and content they had assumed a new personality and individuality which was astonishing and stimulating to those who visited his studio. Many asked him when he was going to exhibit his work. He replied that he was biding his time until he himself had thoroughly digested his new point of view.</p>
<p>In due course, the director of one of America’s greatest art museums visited the studio of the illustrator. The director was on tour, inviting pictures for a forthcoming exhibition. He immediately invited two of the illustrator’s new paintings.</p>
<p>Shortly before the date set for the exhibition, the museum director found that he had exceeded his quota of invited pictures. Therefore he wrote an apologetic note to the illustrator, asking him to allow one of the two invited pictures to go before the jury. The illustrator consented.</p>
<p>The jury met. The illustrator’s striking canvas came before it. There was a concerted gasp of approval. Someone asked, “Who painted that?”—and started forward to find the painter’s signature.</p>
<p>“Gentlemen,” urged the director, “won’t you vote on this picture according to its merits, before you learn who did it?”</p>
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<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig184.jpg"/>
</figure>
<p>“Why not?” agreed a juryman. “It’s a swell thing.” Acceptance was unanimous. Then the jury chorused, “Who painted it?” They examined the signature. “Well I’ll be——!” exclaimed one. “He’s nothing but a—illustrator!”</p>
<p>“I might have known!” grumbled another. “Look at that bird!” He pointed to a detail with a scornful snort. “It’s an illustrator’s bird—”</p>
<p>“And the way he’s done this bit,” complained a third. “Only an illustrator would have done it that way.”</p>
<p>“Be that as it may, gentlemen,” interrupted the museum director with a chuckle, “you have already accepted the picture.”</p>
<p>The work was duly hung, but, as you have guessed, was not awarded a prize.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-10">
<head>BROKEN COLOR</head>
<head type="sub">DISPLAY NOTE</head>
<p>Two of the city’s big florist shops have been making the most of the connection between art and flowers. The window of one has been transformed into a section of art gallery wall. In front of a black curtain are lovely framed flower compositions and Japanesque still lifes, done in living flowers, frequently changed and varied. The other window uses a similar idea in the background, framed bowls of roses against silver, but the central figure is a huge palette, the color being supplied by potted cyclamens ranging from white through pinks to deep red.</p>
<p>Anti-Climax: The palette idea is also being used by a drug store eatery—the artist—a chef, the colors—egg through catsup.</p>
<div>
<head>SUBTERRANEAN SIGNAL DEPT.</head>
<p>A bunch of the boys were shooting the after-dinner gaff around a club table recently, when one began to orate about the hideousness of a gingerbready Philadelphia public building. He received a sharp physical reprimand on the shins, and was later informed that the building’s architect was among those present.</p>
<p>Why shouldn’t we start a LONELY HEARTS COLUMN when the Art News is responsible for things like this?</p>
<list>
<item>Summer—Girl meets young artist. Is smitten. Vacation ends. They are separated by the cruel hand of fate.</item>
<item>Autumn—Girl is working in Philadelphia. By reading Philadelphia Art News discovers that young artist has come to town.</item>
<item>Winter—Love in Bloom; June in January, etc.</item>
<item>Spring—Watch the Society columns.</item>
</list>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-11">
<head>ART IN PHOTOGRAPHY</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> O<hi rend="small-caps">GLE</hi></byline>
<figure>
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<p><hi rend="font-weight:bold">STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN</hi> to a couple of ways to snare speed with the camera. The right way is the wrong way . . . and vice-versa. Technically speaking. Jumping our shutter up to, say, a thousandth of a second will certainly stop speed. That is the trouble. It will stop it dead, reducing movement to inertia. The result is static. Buck tradition. Go into reverse and slow down the shutter. Let the velocity of the approaching object spread over the film, trapping and imprisoning the sensation of speed, juggernaut power, and rapid rhythms.</p>
<p>The accompanying photograph of the Broadway Limited was managed in such a manner. Lying prone on the ground as close as was safely possible to the tracks, the shot was made as the engine roared over head with the focal point about one third of the distance photographed. Coupling this with the diminished shutter action necessary enabled the capturing of speed sequences glimpsed in the foreground, meanwhile maintaining adequate detail in the distance. The diaphragm was cut to fill.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-12">
<head>ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS AT LIBRARY</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> J<hi rend="small-caps">ANE</hi> R<hi rend="small-caps">ICHTER</hi></byline>
<p>“European Manuscripts from the John Frederick Lewis Collection” is the title of the exhibition now being held in the Parkway branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Illuminated books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance are on view in the entrance hall of the Library for a period of six or seven weeks</p>
<p>Manuscript illustration, in general, follows the characteristics of the painting of the period, if anything retaining certain archaisms or conventionalities a little longer. A leaf from an Italian Antiphonarium of the late thirteenth century, probably executed in Florence, shows an idyllic, carefully done landscape with much the same qualities of space, quiet and symmetry as those in contemporary Florentine painting.</p>
<p>Again, in exhibit No. 99, a Flemish Book of Hours of the Early fifteenth century, the Last Judgment shows many similarities with early Flemish easel and wall painting. The marvelous reds and blues of the Van Eycks are echoed in the colors of the manuscript; the intense, yet whimsical, realism that inspired Geertgen reappears in the partly buried souls whom a diminutive and greatly winged St. Michael assists to the Throne of Heaven; the gaping Mouth of Hell indicates the fascination with the grotesque which the elder Breughel displayed.</p>
<p>One of the dominant traits of English art has always been the feeling for graceful line, and the manuscripts reassert this feeling. In an English Bible of the early thirteenth century, No. 29, the dominant decorative note comes in the marginal patterns of fine, suave curves.</p>
<p>Other items in this exhibition of especial interest are a 1450 Italian edition of Vergil, a Greek Psalter of the thirteenth century, and the Augustinus Aurelius of the late twelfth century French School.</p>
<p>Mr. Edwin Wolf, 2nd, of Rosenbach’s, who compiled the catalogue for the collection has called this the finest exhibition of its kind ever held in America.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-13">
<head>CAMERA CLUBS</head>
<p>The Lantern and Lens Club continues to be one of the most progressive of Philadelphia camera groups. Besides their weekly meetings, the Club is sponsoring several exhibits and contests. <date when="--02-02">February 2</date> to 15 there will be a wall exhibit of modernistic pictures, while on <date when="--02-09">February 9</date>, there will be a portrait class under Miss Hedwig Rohn.</p>
<p>The evening of <date when="--02-24">February 24</date> Miss Margaret L. Bodine will show a series of colored motion pictures, “Maine Buds,” at the Church-woman’s Club, 134 S. 22nd St. This entertainment will be open to the public at a charge of twenty-five cents.</p>
<p>The award for the Cup Contest was given to Miss M. E. Allis, <date when="--01-19">January 19</date>, for her entry, “Winding River.” Mr. Alfred de Lardi has been selected for the Fowler Cup Contest, to be held <date when="--02-16">February 16</date>. At that time Mr. de Lardi will speak on the exhibition.</p>
<p>The Council of Camera Clubs, to which belong the Photographic Society, the Photographic Guild, the Miniature Camera Club, the Photo Group of Philadelphia, the Lantern and Lens Club, and the Glenwood Camera Club, announces an All Philadelphia Salon for photographers. The Salon will be held <date when="--03-19">March 19</date> to <date when="--04-03">April 3</date>, in the Parkway Branch of the Free Library.</p>
<p>Notes from the Photo Group tell of a meeting New Year’s night at which S. Mendelsohn spoke on “Developments in Photo - Flash.” Also scheduled among the Group’s activities is a Studio Night, <date when="--01-25">January 25</date>, when there will be a demonstration of lighting.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-14">
<head>ABOUT ARTISTS</head>
<p>Estella Goldschmidt, local craftswoman, recently designed a pair of silver earrings for actress Gale Sondergaard.</p>
<p>Quita L. Brodhead is holding a one-man show at the Charles L. Morgan Galleries, New York City.</p>
<p>Francis M. Bradford, well-known Philadelphia decorator, has recently been chosen as third vice-president of the American Institute of Decorators.</p>
<p>Among the Philadelphians showing prints at the 42nd Annual Exhibition of the Washington Water Color Club, now on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., are Florence V. Cannon, Hortense Ferne, Margaretta Hinchman, and Wuanita Smith.</p>
<p>And another new art school joins the directory. Irene Johnson has drawn up the plans for her classes. The object will not be to train for commercial art, but for painting merely as a hobby.</p>
<p>Leona Miller has moved in with Olive Brewer and Lynn Mahaffey, the art team that has done such distinctive wall paper and drapery designs.</p>
<p>Mildred Murphy has just finished a series of designs for the Sianci Tile Co.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-15">
<head><pb n="5" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-5.jpg"/>PRISMS. AN ARCHITECTURAL COLUMN HARRY STERNFELD</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">LYDE</hi> S<hi rend="small-caps">HULER</hi></byline>
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<head><hi rend="font-weight:bold">“GREATER LIGHT” NANTUCKET</hi></head>
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<p>Last summer we heard curious rumors concerning Nantucket. One rumor whispered that it was about to secede from these United States. Another that Windsor and his Duchess were to be urged to establish a Duchy on this island in the sea. And thus Romance reared its lovely head over the rocks and dunes of this mellow, sun-rich land.</p>
<p>On this island so touched with royal romance, two Philadelphia artists built a home. Being two buildings, they called it the “Greater and Lesser Light.” From an old New England barn and little carpenter shop Gertrude and Hanna Monaghan created a poetic fancy. They created Romance of their own in wood and iron and stone.</p>
<p>In this small home is a poetry warm and rich, a poetry as of some calm soul set dreaming; dreaming a tiny castle in the sand. Within its walls it seems to soar afar into distant lands and ages. It relates to its place as a dreamer to his soil and there is the same rich joy in it.</p>
<p>As you enter in you are enveloped by a sense of feudal richness—a flavor of old Phillip of Spain or the Medici or of Richard of England.</p>
<p>The windows that see you come and the studded door that lets you in are of rich chinese red. The large tiled floor is in deep blacks and grays. The pillars by the yawning fireplace and a door near by are of antique gold Italian polychrome. The thick hand-hewn beams are oiled to a deep, rich tone. Two antique gold pillars flank the tall doorway leading to a bright, well-appointed breakfast room.</p>
<p>Heavy wooden stairs descend to a sunken garden on the lower level and on the site of the old pig pen is a small brick Patio. A pair of large wrought iron grilles enrich the Patio with a frozen black lace.</p>
<p>The old carpenter shop in the garden is now a rose-covered Guest House, the “Lesser Light,” and on its top is a wrought iron weather vane, drawn from a favorite grey-hound.</p>
<p>With fine sense of selection the Misses Monaghan have gathered here and there, from auction rooms and junk yards. With these bits they have dreamed on paper and with tiny models. They have dreamed the romance of rich ages and have achieved a harmony that only comes through deep appreciation.</p>
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<head><hi rend="font-weight:bold">“Lesser Light”</hi></head>
</figure>
<p>You can be sure that this building was done with great sincerity and with great joy. There is not a part of this “Greater and Lesser Light” that was not conceived with loving consideration. It is as much a part of these two artists as their own breath and blood. It is the outward expression of the inner soul.</p>
<p>Must this not, then, be a work of great Art?</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-16">
<head>NEW ROOMS AT MUSEUM</head>
<p>The Pennsylvania Museum of Art has recently completed the installation of a representative group of modern French paintings in five new rooms. Among the paintings displayed are three Renoirs, a Cezanne and two Fantin-Latours never before seen in America.</p>
<p>The collection covers the period in French art from 1850 to 1920, showing typical works by painters from Delacroix, Daumier, and Corot though to the Cubists. A Picasso, and several examples from the recent Daumier exhibition are included. Two Degas, the newly acquired “Ballet Class” as well as one lent from the Wilstach Collection, Memorial Hall, are being shown opposite the Cezanne “Bathers”.</p>
<p>This exhibition, which was opened to the public January I, will be on view for several months.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-17">
<head>DANCING GIRL</head>
<p>Justin Pardi, whose “Dancing Girl” is reproduced as the insert in this issue, studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. In 1927 he was awarded the draftsmanship prize and the Hollingsworth Prize.</p>
<p>Mr. Pardi has exhibited in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Besides holding art classes of his own, he is instructor in anatomy at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and President of the DaVinci Alliance of Philadelphia.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-18">
<head>SAME NIGGER—SAME WOODPILE</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> J<hi rend="small-caps">ANE</hi> R<hi rend="small-caps">ICHTER</hi></byline>
<p>“Every work entered will be submitted to the Jury except work by members of the Jury itself; work by members of the Academy’s own faculty; work already accepted by a Jury of artists and hung in some other exhibition and which may be invited for this exhibition; and such work as in exceptional instances may be invited by the Jury itself acting as a whole or by its authorized sub-committee.”</p>
<p>This statement is taken from the circular announcing the One Hundred and Thirty-Third Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At first reading, it sounds pre-eminently fair. Any artist is urged to submit his work, and each work so submitted is assured of being fairly judged. But is this exactly the case?</p>
<p>For last year’s Annual, between seventeen and eighteen hundred paintings were submitted to the painting Jury. There were 258 canvases in the show. BUT 160 of these 258 had been invited. In other words only a mere fraction, 98 to be exact, of the 1700 or 1800 were actually accepted by the Jury. Has the Jury been reduced to a group of artistic yes-men? The figures for this year’s show have not been made public, but we can infer from the very secrecy which surrounds them that they are substantially the same.</p>
<p>Is this either a fair or sensible arrangement? The expense of transporting, framing, insuring the pictures is not only enormous, but to the great majority of the 1700 or 1800 artists worthless. But an even more important situation derives from this practice. Will not many worthwhile artists be deterred from submitting work because of the apparent hopelessness of being one in eighteen?</p>
<p>In view of these facts, should there not be some changes in the organization of the Annual Exhibition? Two alternatives seem to present themselves. The show should be entirely invited, as is the American painting show at the Whitney Museum, and thus cease to flutter so many false hopes. OR the number of invited pictures should be enormously reduced so that the Academy Annual may substantiate the belief that it is an attempt to present the best of American painting, and not merely the work to which established names are affixed.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-19">
<head>GARBER EXHIBITS AT TRICKER GALLERIES</head>
<head type="sub">NEW HOPE ARTIST HOLDS FIRST NEW YORK SHOW IN FIVE YEARS</head>
<p>Daniel Garber, long recognized as one of the outstanding figures in American landscape painting, is now holding his first New York one-man show in five years. Twenty-eight of Mr. Garber’s paintings are on view at the Tricker Galleries, 19 West 57th St., New York, until <date when="--02-10">February 10</date>. There is also a group of thirty-three etchings and drawings, the drawings being shown for the first time.</p>
<p>The titles of Mr. Garber’s pictures recall the Pennsylvania landscape he paints so frequently—“Birmingham Meeting”, “Lambertville”, “Tohickon”, “Springtime: Tohickon”. The portrait of “Lathrop”, owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, is included among the oils, while in the group of etchings and drawings is Garber’s “Self-Portrait”.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-20">
<head>DISPLAY SCHOOL</head>
<p>The Atelier du Mode, a display shop at 1728 Ludlow St., has started a school of display carrying out the idea, long in practice in New York, that the student should learn display by carrying out practical problems of display merchandising. The school which will be held in the actual shop, will work out ideas that are salable. In this way students will be confronted with the problems that arise in the display man’s world and learn by actuality rather than theory.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-21">
<head>T SQUARE CORNER</head>
<p>The Philadelphia Housing Authority is losing no time and evidently intends to maintain this city’s big-time lead. A drafting room has been opened by the Authority in the offices of the City Planning Commission, in City Hal Annex. Sketches are being prepared of the desired type of typical housing units. These drawings will be turned over to the architects for adaptation to the site of the project assigned.</p>
<p>Frank Albright and Dick Elwanger are now with Edward Schoeppe.</p>
<p>Estimating terrazzo and marble is the recession employment of Joe Kierny.</p>
<p>Ted Montgomery is with the Philadelphia Housing Authority.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-22">
<head>COMING SHOWS</head>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">PHILADELPHIA ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE P.A.F.A.</item>
<item><date when="--02-10">February 10</date> to <date when="--03-02">March 2</date>. Open to members. Entry cards and works must be entered on or before noon <date when="--02-03">February 3</date>. Oil painting and sculpture. See Fellowship News.</item>
<item rend="list-head">PRINT CLUB EXHIBITION OF BOOK, MAGAZINE AND ADVERTISING ILLUSTRATION IN ANY MEDIUM</item>
<item><date when="--02-14">February 14</date> to <date when="--03-05">March 5</date>. Original drawings or prints in color or black and white that have been used for illustration. Entry blanks should be returned not later than <date when="--02-04">February 4</date>. Exhibits must reach The Print Club, 1614 Latimer Street, on or before <date when="--02-07">February 7</date>. July. Prize.</item>
<item rend="list-head">New York, N. Y. 113TH ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN</item>
<item><date when="--03-16">March 16</date>–<date when="--04-13">April 13</date> at the National Academy, N. Y. Open to all artists. Media: Oil, sculpture, prints. No fee. Jury. Prizes and awards. Receiving days, <date when="--03-01">March 1</date> and 2. For information and prospectus address: National Academy of Design, 215 West 57th St., New York City.</item>
<item rend="list-head">FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF THE ARCHITECTURAL LEAGUE OF NEW YORK</item>
<item><date when="--04-20">April 20</date>–<date when="--05-12">May 12</date>, at the American Fine Arts Society Building. Open to all. Media: Photography, drawing, plans, crafts. Fee $5. Jury. Medal awards and cash prizes. Last date for return of entry card <date when="--03-10">March 10</date>; for arrival of exhibits, <date when="--04-15">April 15</date>. For information address: Architectural League of New York, 115 East 40th Street, New York.</item>
<item rend="list-head">Hartford, Conn. CONNECTICUT ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, 28TH ANNUAL</item>
<item><date when="--03-05">March 5</date>–27 at the Morgan Memorial Museum, Hartford. Open to all. Media: Oil, sculpture, black and white. No fee. Jury of selection. Numerous cash prizes. Last date for arrival of exhibits <date when="--02-25">February 25</date>. For information address: Carl Ringius, Secretary, Box 204, Hartford, Conn.</item>
<item>Birmingham, Ala.</item>
<item rend="list-head">SOUTHERN PRINTMAKERS’ ROTARY <date when="--03-01">March 1</date>–30 and tour for 12 months.</item>
<item>Open to all Printmakers. Media: All graphic processes (no monotypes). Fee $3; Jury of selection. Many prizes, at least five purchase. Last date for return of entry cards <date when="--02-10">February 10</date>; for arrival of exhibit <date when="--02-15">February 15</date>. For information address Frank Hartley Anderson, 2112 South Eleventh Court, Birmingham, Ala.</item>
<item>Richmond, Va.</item>
<item rend="list-head">FIRST BIENNIAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PAINTINGS</item>
<item><date when="--03-12">March 12</date> to <date when="--04-23">April 23</date>. At Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Open to all artists. Medium oil. No fee. Jury of selection. $6000 in purchase prizes. Last date for receiving pictures <date when="--02-15">February 15</date>, New York, <date when="--02-21">February 21</date>, Richmond. For information address Thomas C. Colt, Jr., Director, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.</item>
</list>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-23">
<head><pb n="6" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-6.jpg"/>THUMB TACKS</head>
<head type="sub">COMMERCIAL ART NOTES</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> P<hi rend="small-caps">ETE</hi> B<hi rend="small-caps">OYLE</hi></byline>
<p>Al Bendiner and George Beck are writing the continuity for the forthcoming Annual Party at the Sketch Club. This party hopes to equal its predecessors as one of the most engaging art brawls in our town.</p>
<p>H. M. Rundle, Art Director of RCA-Victor across the river has the breeziest nickname of all. It is, in a word, “SKEETS”.</p>
<p>Harry Wienert of Washington Square, has a color cartoon in “Click”, the latest addition to the ranks of photomagazines.</p>
<p>ANTHONY ADVERBS</p>
<p>James Reid, of Lambdin Associates has done the book jacket for Hervey Allen’s first book since his noted best seller. Called “Action At Aquila”, the book is being published by Farrar and Rhinehart. The jacket is in full color and Reid has also done a poster advertising the volume.</p>
<p>Bill Wolf, A.D. of the McLain Organization, is burning midnight oil paint and doing a series of nudes.</p>
<p>A striking black and white by William O. Schoonmaker for Fidelity Philadelphia Trust Co. has plenty of stand out quality in recent issues of the local newspapers. It was done through Jerome B. Gray Agency.</p>
<p>Joining the exodus to New York are Laura Sackett and Michael Leoni, erstwhile Philadelphians They have just opened a studio in the “Big Town” to do commercial art work for the department stores.</p>
<p>Frank Smith tells us he has just finished a luscious job, illustrating a book on the history of copper. The volume was put out by the National Association of Electrical Manufacturers.</p>
<p>UPPER CRUST</p>
<p>Some idea of the upset social conditions prevailing in our country can be appreciated when you consider the fact that two art directors and four free lance artists were seen having lunch at the St. James Hotel recently. And sitting at different tables, no less. The management has promised to do something about it.</p>
<p>Byron Conner, formerly of Hoedt Studios, has joined the staff of the Ewing Art Service.</p>
<p>We heard Walter King, of King Studios, giving a swell impersonation of the Abbey Theatre Players, after seeing “The Far-Off Hills”. With a brogue like that he ought to be on the police force.</p>
<p>Tom Sinnickson has just completed some advertising folders for Wetherill.</p>
<p>Herman Suter is now doing advertising illustrations for the Bradford Oil Company, having just joined their regular staff of artists.</p>
<p>NEW YORK: ONE WAY</p>
<p>Bert Conway, formerly A.D. of John Falkner Arndt and Atlantic agencies, has deserted the local scene and is now affiliated with a New York cartoon service.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-24">
<head>FELLOWSHIP NOTES</head>
<p>The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts announces its Annual Exhibition of oil paintings and sculpture by members of the organization, to be held <date when="--02-10">February 10</date> to <date when="--03-02">March 2</date> in the Gallery of The Art Club, 220 South Broad Street. The private view will be four to six p.m., <date when="--02-10">February 10</date>. <date when="--02-11">February 11</date>, at three o’clock, Roy C. Nuse will speak on the pictures in the exhibit.</p>
<p>All works must be entered upon the regular entry cards, properly filled out and sent to The Fellowship Exhibition Committee, the P. A. F. A., on or before Thursday noon, <date when="--02-03">February 3</date>. Each work must have the proper label attached. Additional cards may be had upon application to the Chairman of the Exhibition Committee, or from the doorkeeper, at the Academy. Not more than two large or three small pictures may be entered.</p>
<p>The jury for the oils will be: Grace T. Gemberling, Paul L. Gill Franklin Watkins, Mary Townsend Mason and Arthur Meltzer. The sculpture Jury is composed of Beatrice Fenton, Walker Hancock, Raphael Sabatini, Katherine Stimson, and Aurelius Renzetti. Members of the Exhibition Committee, to have charge of placing and hanging, are: Carl Lindborg, Chairman; Helen Shand, Vice Chairman; Yarnall Abbott, Caroline Gibbons Granger, Paul Laessle, Virginia McCall, Arthur Meltzer Edward Shenton, Franklin Watkins, Catherine S. Williams, and Mary Butler, Honorary President, Ex-Officio.</p>
<p>The two prizes offered at this exhibition will be the Fellowship “Gold Medal Award” ($50) and the May Audubon Post Prize ($50), the latter a prize established by Miss Cornelia M. Post as a memorial to her sister, who was a member of The Fellowship.</p>
<p>The “Fellowship Prize” of fifty dollars in the one hundred and thirty-third annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts will be awarded “to a member of The Fellowship who has been a regularly registered student in the Academy schools within ten years.” For 1938 it will be selected by a jury of former recipients of the prize, Beatrice Fenton, Juliet White Gross, Maurice Molarsky, Francis Speight, and Helen Mills Weisenburg.</p>
<p>Academy Gallery Talks will be given <date when="--02-03">February 3</date>, at two o’clock, by Roy C. Nuse, painter and member of the Academy faculty, and <date when="--02-10">February 10</date>, at the same time, by Harvey M. Watts, author and art critic.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-07-chapter-25">
<head>PAINT-CRAFT</head>
<p>In this and several later issues PAINT-CRAFT is presenting a series of articles on “The Craftsmanship of Fine Arts Painting” by F. W. Weber, technical director of F. Weber Co. Mr. Weber, who is lecturer on the Chemistry and Physics of Fine Arts Painting at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, New York, the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts, is well known in this city for his activity in furthering the appreciation of fine arts painting. He has done much to stimulate interest in exhibitions, to encourage private ownership of works of art and to properly preserve and regenerate aged paintings.</p>
<div>
<head>THE CRAFTSMANSHIP OF FINE ARTS PAINTING</head>
<p>The history of art has been directly influenced throughout the various schools of painting by the materials available to the artist. During each period, we find the artist keenly feeling the limitation of his materials and, in striving to give expression to his artistic creations, seeking and developing new media. Even today, with the more or less rapid advance of chemistry and physics as sciences during the last hundred years, it has not been possible to develop an ideal medium serving the emotional demands of the painter. Today we are indebted to the industrial paint chemist for a selection of brilliant, permanent and durable color pigments, far exceeding in numbers the palette of the painter at any other time. In fact, it is just this, which causes the artist to have technical difficulties. If he is not somewhat acquainted with the properties of the pigments he uses, he runs into trouble. Pigments, chemically unalterable, but improperly used cause loss of color, cracking, lower tones; luminosity, tonal values and glazes are disturbed or entirely lost. Frequently we find the artist condemning the materials he used; but only seldom, today, is this the true cause. Lack of even elemental knowledge of the craftsmanship and technique of painting is causing more damage in modern pictures than use of faulty materials. Modern pigments, oils and varnishes, if used properly, will yield works of art equal in every respect, in color, brilliancy and permanency, to those of any other earlier period. With the very extended selection of materials at the artist’s command today he may paint in any of the methods of the early schools. If the Florentine, Venetian, Flemish, and Early Dutch Masters had had available the rich, strong, and bright colors recently introduced, undoubtedly their art would have been appreciably influenced.</p>
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<head>YOUR CATALOGUE WAITING</head>
</figure>
<p>As we advance through the history of painting, from the very earliest evidences of art—namely the wall paintings of paleolithic man in Altamira, Spain through the early Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Mycenean and later Grecian painting—we recognize not only an exceedingly limited palette of colors, but also a very elementary or primitive craftsmanship. At first we find glue size, later eggs and wax, used as a painting medium. Later, the Byzantines used oil and bitumen as varnish over glue, egg and wax paintings. It was this practice which caused the darkening and destruction of so many of these paintings.</p>
<p>Throughout the four main periods of art, we find the artist’s implements, painting grounds, pigments and mediums, evolving from such primitive types to such sound techniques as the tempera and true Buon Fresco established by the Florentines and to the mixed oil-emulsion employed by the Flemish. The influence of this latter technique is evident even in modern painting. The study of the chemistry, physics of light and color of these early methods shows what remarkable craftsmen these painters were, particularly if one considers that chemistry and physics had not as yet been highly developed. And yet, we often hear the contemporary painter excusing his own technical deficiencies by stating that the Old Masters had better materials with which to paint. The Old Masters did not have the largely augmented selection of durable products which are at the disposal of the modern painter. Neither did he have chemistry and physics to help him solve his studio problems. It was, perhaps, his salvation that he had only such a restricted palette; his factor of safety was greater.</p>
<p>Any modern deficiencies of technique should be rather laid to lack of training. The Medieval or Renaissance artist had first to serve an apprenticeship in the painter’s guild. He underwent several years of rigid training, having assigned to him the duties of preparing and refining the pigments, oils, mediums, and varnishes. The apprentice was then gradually entrusted with more advanced work, becoming a Master only after years of intensive work. It was during the last half of the nineteenth century that we find the artist beginning to run into technical difficulties. The preparation of his materials had become by then a separate industry. Industrial chemistry began to develop and introduce a wide range of very brilliant, tempting colors with fanciful names that sometimes hid the true identity of dangerous, fugitive colors. The artist rather welcomed the severance of this, to him, uninspirational phase of his traditions, but at the cost, unfortunately, of placing the durability of his efforts at the mercy of frequently untried, new and recently developed products. No longer being intimately acquainted with his materials, be became an emotional painter. We have glaring examples of late nineteenth century paintings changed and degenerated. Men like Sargent, Whistler, Eakins, who are representative of their period, have left some paintings the souls of which departed not long after those of their creators. Laboratory research has definitely shown that only in a few isolated instances are the changes so rife in recent painting—darkening, cracking, yellowing, peeling, blistering and loss of glazes—caused by faulty materials. They are directly traceable to faulty craftsmanship and lack of technical knowledge. There is absolutely no reason why pictures today cannot be painted equalling or surpassing in brilliancy, permanency, and durability those of any other period.</p>
<p>Personal to Dr. Barnes: Your interesting communication has been received. Unfortunately more important matters make it impossible for us to give space to a reply in this issue. Rest assured, however, that your letter will have courteous attention in a subsequent issue of the Philadelphia Art News.—Ed.</p>
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<head>TRICKS OF THE TRADE</head>
<p>An Englishman named Saunderon has developed an adjustable able easel which fits on any desk, table, or other flat surface. It may be tilted at any angle, raised or owered, or revolved, making it convenient for the artist to work on any part of his drawing without removing it from his drawing board.</p>
<p>If you are one who litters his surroundings with brushes, pencils, pens, instruments, ink bottles, sponges, and scraps of this or that, you need an auxiliary table. One comes with a 22x28 inch composition top suitable for use as a palette. This table has three drawers divided into neat compartments to hold the odds and ends with which you work, sliding tray for pencils, brushes, etc., a place for 19x24 inch layout pads and one for reference file.</p>
<p>If you find it difficult to draw rectangles quickly with your T-square and drawing board, you can get a Metal Tru-edge at 90c per foot and an adjustable T-square of airplane aluminum which will make perfect rectangles easy. The T-square costs $3.60 for 24 inches and 50c for each additional 6 inches. Its adjustable head can be removed and slid into the blade for travelling.</p>
<p>Weber Tempera Colors work on all surfaces intended for watercolor and on artists’ canvas with Tempera ground. 45 colors, 25c to 75c each. Malfa Gesso Board is suitable for tempera painting. 18 x 24 inches, 75c.</p>
<p>A Philadelphia house publishes a circular multiple-purpose slide rule for the phenomenally low price of 25c. It’s called the Kal-Q-Measure and is printed on very tough white cardboard. Some sort of proportional slide rule is almost indispensable to the artist who works to scale,—and this is the lowest price for one we have seen.</p>
<p>The display man can get a cheaper cut-out machine than that previously mentioned in this column. The Martin Display Cutter weighs about 10 pounds; will do 3/32 inch circles; will cut 12 ply show card board or Presdwood, light gauge metal, or plywood up to ¾ inch cardboard and beaver-board; is guaranteed against all defects for one year; costs $59.00.</p>
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<head><pb n="7" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-7.jpg"/>PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> W<hi rend="small-caps">AYNE</hi> M<hi rend="small-caps">ARTIN</hi></byline>
<head type="sub">WE HAVE A DUTY TO PERFORM</head>
<p>I have a feeling that there are entirely too many people teaching art in our public and private schools who should not be there, and two reasons present themselves: 1—inadequate preparation and 2—lack of ability to perform creatively in their own right.</p>
<p>I grant you that it is impossible to teach in the public schools without some sort of academic degree or state certificate. Those diplomas and certificates, however, cover a multitude of sins of omission as any holder of one would tell you if he spoke truthfully. Somehow requirements must be raised and courses offered changed so that people graduating from such institutions will go forth into the teaching field better equipped to cope with the complex situation that presents itself today to the sincere art teachers.</p>
<p>One of the major difficulties art education encounters in the small community or the city system can be eliminated when the instructor and the supervisor of that same subject is qualified not only to teach but also to inspire creation in the minds and hearts of his students by his own creative example.</p>
<p>There must be some inducement offered by the art schools to the prospective art teacher. Let his chosen field be one with the other courses offered. We lose too many potentially fine teachers because of the stigma “school teacher.” We can’t afford to pretend to laugh this off. There is a blot, and you know it! You feel like I do, I know, that that fundamental wrong must be righted.</p>
<p>The Art Education movement was started by men whose vision was clear. While we have made great strides we have not come far enough. That is our fault and those of us in the field today are not the salesmen and the diplomats and the artists that our pioneers were. We hold the common denominator in the hollow of our hands and as a group we refuse to make it manifest. There can be only one answer—we do not because we dare not.</p>
<p>The right persons could, and I am not asking for the impossible. We must send forth into the teaching field, supplanting dead wood with live, that combination of artist and teacher that can and will inspire confidence in the movement.</p>
<p>We can do that by offering adequately prepared art teachers and administrators, and by organizing all of us into a functioning group.</p>
<p>Dare we deny the child we teach in school the experiences that will in time serve to make this a nation of art lovers and consumers?</p>
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<head>CULTURAL OLYMPICS</head>
<p>The prize winners in the Cultural Olympics exhibition of prints, water colors and pen and pencil drawings have recently been announced. Those receiving awards were: Hannah M. Christie, Marie Egner, Marjorie Solomon, Thelma Stevens, Elizabeth Hall, Margaret Nefferdorf, R. Q. MacDowell, Jean Francksen, David Cobb, Edna Mellinger, Nathan Margolis, George Quintus, Emilie M. Smith, Dorothy Morrison, and Lillian Moscovitch.</p>
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<head>ONAGA COMPLETES SCULPTURE</head>
<p>Unfortunate is the situation through which Hokasai Onaga, Japanese born sculptor, was found to be ineligible for employment on W.P.A. after he had devoted four years to a sculptural work for the Project. Onaga, a United States resident for twenty-five years and former Academy Cresson scholarship winner, carried his work to completion at his own expense after being dropped from the Federal Art Project last August because it was discovered only citizens are allowed to work on the Project. His heroic figure of American youth, cut direct from a block of stone which weighed more than three tons before carving, is now on view in connection with the Museum’s W.P.A. show.</p>
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<head>CARICATURES BY HIRSHMAN</head>
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<p>Lou Hirshman, Artist Union member, who exhibited his caricatures at the Europa Theatre last year, will have a one man show at the ACA Galleries from <date when="--02-01">February first</date> to twentieth. The private view will be held Monday, <date when="--01-31">January 31st</date>, from three to six.</p>
<p>Hirshman’s background is strictly—Art and Philadelphia, beginning with the Graphic Sketch Club. He gave up painting several years ago and made three films with Jo Gerson and Lewis Jacobs, the latter founder and editor of “Experimental Cinema”. From the film, Hirshman turned to the use of cartoon and gradually worked out his present individual method of three-dimensional caricature, an example of which is reproduced here in the portrait of Harpo Marx. When he did “Haille Selassie”, Vanity Fair bought it and used it in its last issue. The Associated and United Press flashed reproductions of it from coast to coast by wirephoto for use in all its newspapers and Hirshman posed for a clip in the newsreels.</p>
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<head>PURCHASED BY ART ALLIANCE</head>
<p>Paintings purchased for the permanent collection of the Art Alliance from last month’s Circulating Picture Club Exhibition are “Roses and Delphinium” by Florence V. Cannon, “Anchorage” by Martin Gambee, “Woods Hole Dry Dock” by Gertrude Greenblatt, “Rockport Fishing Boats”, by Earle Horter, “Top of the Moor” by John B. Lear, Jr., “Harbor in Winter” by Vollian B. Rann, and “Still Life” by Marian D. Harris.</p>
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<head><pb n="8" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-07-8.jpg"/>ART IN PRINT</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> B<hi rend="small-caps">EN</hi> W<hi rend="small-caps">OLF</hi></byline>
<p>You will feel that you have known Adolph Borie well, when you have read George Biddle’s book, “Adolph Borie”, published by the American Federation of Arts, Washington, D. C.</p>
<p>Borie was born in Philadelphia in 1877, received his education at the University of Pennsylvania; in 1896 he studied at The Academy under William M. Chase and Thomas Anshutz. In 1899 Borie studied in Munich where he remained until his return to Philadelphia in 1902. The remainder of his life was spent in Philadelphia and New York, punctuated by travel.</p>
<p>To list the prizes and medals awarded the man Borie during his full and vigorous life would more than fill this column. It is curious however in the light of public recognition of his work how exceedingly little seems to have been known concerning his most pertinent art experiments. His portraits, for which he is known chiefly, represent only a fraction of his artistic expression. As is so frequently the case the conservative in Borie profited from the work of the radicals, but the radical painters were inclined to disdain his work.</p>
<p>Mr. Biddle tells us that Borie was subjected to three deep influences, the Munich School, French Impressionism, and Paris Modernism. “Through his eclectic sensitivity sometimes one, sometimes another of these influences was dominant. But throughout and from the earliest days he was always a colorist, individual, sensitive, rich.”</p>
<p>“In estimating Borie’s importance, many friends and critics have tried to separate the portraitist from the artist, usually depreciating one side of him at the expense of the other. I believe we should think of both expressions as equally important parts of the man”.</p>
<p>It is this extreme versatility that makes Borie such an astounding personality. It was not until after his death in 1934, however, that the general public had an adequate opportunity to appreciate the artist’s experiments outside the realm of portraiture. That opportunity was in the form of a memorial exhibition at the Pennsylvania Museum of Art.</p>
<p>There is a profusion of fine black and white reproductions of Adolph Borie’s work in Mr. Biddle’s book that, while they undoubtedly lose much because of the absence of color, give a splendid resumé of the artist’s ventures in the field of Modernism.</p>
<p>This reviewer has acquired unto himself a considerable reputation as a “Doodler”. In case there be any benighted readers among us who are not acquainted with doodling, it is the practice of nervously scribbling with pen or pencil upon paper, desk tops, telephone booth walls, etc. Seriously, doodling as it has come to be called, is something of a psychic phenomenon. It finds its origin in the subconscious mind. When you talk on the telephone your conscious mind is completely absorbed in understanding and being understood, yet all the while your subconscious mind is making graphic notes on the handiest material.</p>
<p>That is why we are so interested in “Art and the Subconscious” published by the Research Studio, Maitland, Florida with thirty-eight reproductions of water colors by Andre Smith. Mr. Smith tells us that they are totally unconscious reproductions, being recordings of his subconscious, and not “drawings”. The book contains an explanation by Mr. Smith which seemed quite clear and logical to this reader. Let me quote:</p>
<p>“What happened was simple enough. I took a blank sheet of drawing paper, the kind that I use for water colors, thumb-tacked it to the board, and, with pencil in hand, proclaimed (inwardly, of course) my readiness and willingness to proceed and then I waited.”</p>
<p>“Later I realized that I had quite unconsciously hit upon the right approach to this method of ‘Automatic’ drawing; I had expressed a readiness, willingness, and ‘Waitingness’. I put myself at once in a mood halfway between passive indifference and hopeful expectancy. And so when, after a short pause, it ‘came to me’ to draw a gothic arch, I followed this suggestion in faint pencil line on the blank sheet before me.” This marked the beginning of a truly remarkable experiment. We find Gothic arches, American flags, snakes, skeletons, stars suspended by balloons, all united in curiously unified compositions. The pictures all have titles which, Mr. Smith explains, he gave them primarily for exhibition purposes after the entire group was completed. However, these titles too, he explains, were the result of “passive waiting”.</p>
<p>This art might be placed somewhere between Goya and surrealism. The picture entitled, “What makes you think you can take it with you”, showing a skeleton lying with its head on a tomb stone in a boat filled with gold, reminded us particularly of Goya’s famous plate in which the finger writes upon the tomb stone the word “Naja” (nothing).</p>
<p>Printed in a limited edition of five hundred copies, this book, we venture to predict, will take its place among the important creations of our time.</p>
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