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<title>Philadelphia Art News: Vol. 1 No. 8</title>
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<bibl>Volume 1, Issue 8 of Philadelphia Art News, a bi-weekly arts journal in the 1930s</bibl>
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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="1938-02-14">FEBRUARY 14, 1938</date></docDate>
<docEdition>Vol. 1 - - - No. 8</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>
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<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 xml:id="volume01-issue08-01" type="sidebar">
<p>SUBSCRIPTIONS PLEASE</p>
<p>The income of the Philadelphia Art News is inevitably much smaller than its expenses. Building a satisfactory organization for the editorial production of a periodical and for its business management takes time. Heavy publication costs continue while we are improving our results and while the community is beginning to credit our efforts.</p>
<p>A few have scoffed, but many have encouraged us with friendly and enthusiastic comment and cooperation. Most gratifying of all has been a recent spontaneous expression of good will from some of the leaders in the field of art. Individuals possessed of broad experience and perspective in art matters have voluntarily become patron-subscribers, at self-imposed rates, to help us over this difficult period of early growth. To these we are especially grateful.</p>
<p>We believe we perform a valuable service to art in Philadelphia; that we help to stimulate a spirit which is helpful to all the diversified interests of art groups in this city—the organizations, galleries, and schools—with partiality towards none.</p>
<p>We are grateful for any help we receive to firmly establish the Philadelphia Art News as an organ for the constructive advancement of art.</p>
<p>We now ask every reader to make a serious effort to secure at least one additional subscription.</p>
</div>
</div>
</front>
<body>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-01">
<head>B.M.A.C. EXHIBIT</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> J<hi rend="small-caps">ANE</hi> R<hi rend="small-caps">ICHTER</hi></byline>
<p>The Sketch Club Galleries have sheltered many exhibitions, but this past week, <date when="--02-07">February 7</date> to 12, they have displayed one of the most unusual and most encouraging. The pictures on view formed the 11th Annual Exhibition of the Business Men’s Art Club, a group who devote their spare time to art, working under the direction of some eminent Philadelphia artist, this year Justin Pardi.</p>
<p>To criticize a group of such definitely amateur work is somewhat dangerous. One can either praise it extravagantly, thinking only that it is remarkably good work for a mere hobby; or one can be unduly censorious, judging the pictures solely on their immediate merit, without taking any of the rather peculiar circumstances into consideration. Fortunately, in this exhibition, neither extreme viewpoint had to be taken. The show stood on its own merits.</p>
<p>It had, as do all exhibitions, a varied range of achievement, but the average level was that of good, honest painting. Working in charcoal, oil, water color, and pastel, the fourteen men participating in the show recorded their feelings about events, scenes, and people with a variety of manner. The nature of the individual artist came out in subject and treatment. Francis B. Hall substantiated his interest in sporting life with a series of riding and fishing scenes. Again, the personal vision of each artist was demonstrated by comparing P. R. Loos’ “Classwork” and Carl Hassold’s “Nude”, both based on the same model, attaining very different results.</p>
<p>It is always difficult to select any one “best” picture. A number in this exhibit were outstanding, among them: Wm. P. Lear’s group of four water colors, distinguished by their sensitivity for place atmosphere; the portraits by Charles W. Bentz, particularly that of “Miss McCauley”, finely designed both as to color and mass; David Faxon’s charcoal studios; Oswald Chew’s water color, “Landscape”, a clear, simplified treatment in which one feels an essential understanding of the medium. On the genre side, Carl Hassold’s study in stylized forms and shadows “P.W.A.”, and H. Evan Taylor’s amusing caricature “The Bishop” should have been noted.</p>
<p>Other members of the Club who took part in this show were Karl Savard, M. Katzman, Theodore K Gramm, George Lear, Wm. J. Henderson, and R. Bruce Miller.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-02">
<head>NEW PRINT PROCESS DEVELOPED</head>
<head type="sub">W. P. A. ARTISTS ORIGINATE CARBORUNDUM TINTS</head>
<p>The Federal Art Project is exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Museum in its print group several carborundum tints. These prints were made by a new process which came out of experiments of artists working in the Exhibition Print department only last month. This group is under the direction of Richard Hood who offers the following explanation of the process.</p>
<p>“The Carborundum Tint is a copper plate process having, I believe, all the advantages of the mezzotint with few of its disadvantages. Although there are still many collectors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century schools, few artists today are interested in the mezzotint as a print medium, probably because the process is so laborious that few artists can summon the great amount of time necessary to work the plate before the design can even be started.</p>
<p>It is possible to prepare a plate through the Carborundum process in a very short time and to achieve blacks of greater richness and luminosity than those of the mezzotint, producing a surface of an infinite number of minute pits and points which catch and hold the ink when applied.</p>
<p>The shiny copper plate is surfaced with carborundum and water by the use of a levigator. The value of the tone desired can be controlled by the grade of carborundum used, No. 80 grain being used for rich deep blacks while the finer grades of No. 120, No. 180, No. 220 or F can be used for plates requiring a more delicate tint. When the design has been placed on the plate all the areas required to print lighter than the black have to be scraped more or less strongly until, in order to produce a pure white, the original surface has been regained. When complete, the plate is inked in the same manner as an etching. This process produces a very durable plate which does not break down in a large edition as the hard carborundum grains become embedded in the copper and tend to strengthen the surface. This is not the case with the mezzotint where the burr often starts to wear off after a small edition, unless the plate is steel faced. Most print makers prefer printing from the copper surface rather than the less receptive steel plating.</p>
<p>The carborundum tint permits this and, I believe, also affords a surface allowing a greater range of tone than the mezzotint. The interesting results which have been achieved with the Carborundum Tint should lead to further exploration in this print field.”</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig206.jpg"/>
<head>W.P.A.</head>
<figDesc>Exhibition Print Shop where the Carborundum Tint was developed.</figDesc>
</figure>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-03">
<head>GEORGE WALTER DAWSON DIES</head>
<head type="sub">FAMOUS WATER COLORIST PASSES SUDDENLY</head>
<p>George Walter Dawson, for many years professor of freehand drawing and water color at the University of Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts and director of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, died suddenly <date when="--02-05">February 5</date>, at Framingham, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>An expert on water color, Mr. Dawson, painted gardens, landscapes, and flowers throughout Europe and America. He was a member of the American Federation of Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Water Color Club of Philadelphia, the New York and Chicago Water Color Clubs, and the T-Square Club of Philadelphia.</p>
<p>He received one of his final recognitions as an artist here last October, when he was awarded the Charles Dana prize at the Water Color Club exhibit. At a dinner which followed, two of his paintings were presented to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and one to the School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-04">
<head>MARGULIES EXHIBITING HERE</head>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig207.jpg"/>
<head>“Gloucester Fisherman with Pipe”</head>
<figDesc>Etching by Joseph Margulies</figDesc>
</figure>
<p>Joseph Margulies, who is now exhibiting a group of prints at the Carlen Galleries, <date when="--02-10">February 10</date>–26, is painter of and for people. With subjects ranging from such celebrities as Herbert Hoover, Joseph Pennell, Lord Marley, and Jo Davidson, to Gloucester fishermen and Ghetto tradesmen, his work carries much popular appeal.</p>
<p>Born in Austria in 1896, Margulies came to this country as a small boy. When he was only fifteen he was already studying at the National Academy of Design during the day and at Cooper Union at night. Later he worked under Joseph Pennell at the Art Students’ League. At one time he was recipient of a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship.</p>
<p>Margulies believes that in order to make the American public art appreciative, art should be based on human understanding as well as on intellectual creation.</p>
<p>Proficient in oil, water color, etching and aquatint, Margulies has participated in many group shows and held various one man exhibits both here and on the Pacific Coast. At present he has been invited to hold a one man exhibition at the Corcoran Galleries, Washington, D. C.</p>
<p>Among institutions owning examples of his work are the Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Library of Congress.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig208.jpg"/>
</figure>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-05">
<head>CRAFTSMEN’S EXHIBITION</head>
<p>The Philadelphia Craftsmens Exhibition, on view at the Art Alliance until <date when="--02-20">February 20</date>, is the answer to the long recurrent plea that native workers supply us with gifts and novelties instead of forcing us to rely on foreign importations. Here are grouped representative pieces from the studios of local glaziers, cabinet-makers, jewelers, weavers, potters, wood-carvers, for the most part within the price-range of the average person.</p>
<p>The excuse that beauty is always too costly is not valid here.</p>
<p>Stained glass is represented by a number of small plaques, based on both secular and religious subjects. The techniques used have been as various as the subject matter. Lawrence Saint, for “the Lord is My Shepherd” worked with Medieval colors, vibrant reds, blues, and greens, in glass relatively thin; P. H. Balano composed his designs, as “The Ram” or “Butterfly” in small, chunky pieces of almost pastel color. The D’Ascenzo Studios, the Oliver Smith Studios, George W. Sotter, Duncan Niles Terry, and Henry Lee Willet have also entered stained-glass.</p>
<p>The display of ceramics is large, with most of the prominent Philadelphia potters represented. A white plate by Emily Swift, decorated with a simple, incised design of conventionalized birds and a gun-metal lustre bowl by Caroline Granger are particularly fine. Other potters include Mary Belle Barlow, Edmund de Forest Curtis, Emilie Zeckwer Dooner, Prue M. Harris, Eleanor Pierce and Frances Serber.</p>
<p>The Oliver Smith Studios exhibit a quantity of fragile glassware in rainbow colors. Some of the loveliest pieces are those done in light amethyst. To this section, Richard Bishop has contributed a clear glass cocktail shaker etched with a characteristic wild fowl scene.</p>
<p>Modern weaving and embroidery are illustrated in the rugs, scarves, and bags made by The Davenports; the hand worked linens from the College Settlement Handicraft Shop; and a rug by Cynthia Iliff. There are brilliant, hand-dyed batiks by Freda Macadam.</p>
<p>Woodcarving is divided between the grotesque little figures of William Lodge and the elaborate, Renaissance type carving of A. Van Roelen. Mr. Lodge has used tree roots of fantastic shape, allowing the nature of his material to determine the form of his design, as in the highly amusing “frog”.</p>
<p>Jewellers showing their work are Harriette Lyon, Edmund M. Poppe, and Lucy Twyman Rockwell. Furniture by Saybolt, Cleland & Alexander includes a “Harrow” coffee table, two “Trent” end tables, and two delightfully simple “Regency” chairs. Margaret Mellor Gill exhibits several characteristic painted trays, while Henry Hagert has sent a forcefully designed lighting fixture in silver and glass.</p>
<p>J. R.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-06">
<head>FRESH PAINT</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> W<hi rend="small-caps">ELDON</hi> B<hi rend="small-caps">AILEY</hi></byline>
<p>Having considered the vagaries surrounding the word “artist” in the minds of the public, let us note certain misconceptions of the word “public” in the minds of artists.</p>
<p>“Public” has almost as many meanings as there are those who use the term. To a politician the public is a thing to be swayed—to the evangelist a thing to be saved. To the artist it is too frequently a thing to be scorned.</p>
<p>The “scorning” type of artist is, in fact, too numerous. He is too well known a type to merit much special discussion—his ivory tower is impenetrable, and there he dwells as blissfully as possible.</p>
<p>He fails to realize that, whether he be composer, writer, or artist, one of his primary functions is to be articulate. And that this entails the presence of an audience—as sympathetic as possible.</p>
<p>To be sure, he is always human enough to enjoy favorable comment. This usually proceeds from critics or fellow artists, and that, in his mind, is as it should be. As for the public—well, who cares?</p>
<p>When he deigns to mention the public, which is generally only under pressure, it is with an eyebrow superciliously arched and a lip curled. This unfortunately, without realizing that there has never existed a public more susceptible, potentially, to fine things—if properly presented.</p>
<p>The American people, taken en masse, have more native equipment to understand, and more sympathy for the fundamental aspects of art than many artists, taken as individuals. There is scarcely an enthusiasm they have that cannot be traced (sometimes obscurely) to aesthetic impulses. Sports, motors and the movies are definite stepping stones to pure aesthetic pleasure.</p>
<p>Consequently, it is the artist’s duty to iron out the supercilious arch of the eyebrow no less than the curl of the lip, and get down to the serious business of reaching his most worthy audience: the people of his own country.</p>
<p>Naturally, this shall require more than a bit of facial laundering—a great deal of patience will be necessary. The artist must be “big” enough to meet his audience half way. The horse, being led to water, may not drink immediately, but he will eventually, if one bears with him, for he must inevitably become thirsty.</p>
<p>For that matter, the inevitable may not be so far away as is generally conceived, providing the artist is willing to enlarge the windows of his ivory tower, to let himself out and the public in.</p>
<p>This public fellow is rather sensitive himself, at the moment. He has so frequently been “put in his place” by artists that he is a little timid. And in many instances the ill will occasioned in this manner has kept him from the galleries. And when it has, the artist is by no means free from blame.</p>
<p>So, Mr. Artist, get together with your potential friend Mr. Public, and before you know it you’ll find that he’s more like yourself than you imagined. You’ll find much in common with each other, and possibly before long he’ll be visiting galleries just as he visits the movies.</p>
<p>In a word, Mr. Public,—most of him, at any rate—is eager to accept Mr. Artist. He instinctively likes to feel himself a part of the cultural life of his community, if his friend Mr. Artist permits. Just give him a chance.</p>
<p>Now in progress at the Art Club is the Annual Exhibition of Oils and Sculpture by members of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. The show indicates that a lot of active, colorful work is being accomplished by the artists of this organization.</p>
<p>Walter Emerson Baum shows one of his smaller, but quite satisfying, winter landscapes; Walter Gardner, in “Itinerary Incident”, waxes humorous with boys stealing a free ride on the back of a truck; Grace Gemberling’s “The Barn” is a quiet, rural composition with a well placed grazing horse; and Pemberton Ginther, in “The Convalescent”, has created an expressive study of an emaciated youngster.</p>
<p>“Sunday Morning”, by William Goodell, has made striking use of unusual perspective—looking down upon a youth who lies on the floor reading the “funnies”—a remarkable piece of realism considering its not too realistic treatment. Margaretta S. Hinchman’s “Dryad” is the most inventive canvas here, both composition and use of color line equally fine; on the whole a stimulating canvas.</p>
<p>Francis Speight’s “Cotton Field” is replete with red-blooded color, and has fine compositional completeness; Henry White Taylor contributes “Moving Light”, a poetic canvas in which golden wheat-stacks sing against iridescent hills, with the conviction of space and form paramount.</p>
<p>“Model’s Lunch”, by Dorothy Van Loan, is good painting, not sweet, but strong in its own angular way. Fred Wagner’s “Low Tide” is a large canvas of figures upon a beach, devoid of detail, but of subtle, iridescent color. Charles W. Ward’s “Hod Carriers” is one of the strongest pigmental comments in the show—it has enormous breadth and lusty handling of paint. Edith Longstreth Wood shows a “Colorado Barnyard” light in touch, pictorially effective.</p>
<p>Other notable canvases have been contributed by Yarnall Abbott, Mary Butler, Fern I. Coppedge, John J. Dull, Furman J. Finck, Paul Gill, Sue May Gill, Caroline Gibbons Granger, Carl Lindborg, Virginia Armitage McCall, and Frederic Nunn.</p>
<p>The finest sculpture comes from Aurelius Renzetti: “Negresco” and “Wisdom”; they are rough in texture, simple in design and of exceptional strength. George H. Borst’s “Boxer”, while of technical excellence, could be more dynamically expressive; William M. Krusen’s best contribution is a “Boy’s Head” in which realistic character has been achieved in a clean but not classic manner. Clara Bratt, Beatrice Fenton, Elizabeth R. Pollock, Gladys Tuke and Adam Pietz complete the sculpture group.</p>
<p>Three exhibitions are running concurrently at the Philadelphia Art Alliance: oils by Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, the Second Annual Water Color Exhibition, and etchings by George Constant.</p>
<p>The Sparhawk-Jones canvases take their place among the most remarkable that we have seen recently.</p>
<p>One’s first impression, upon entering the first floor gallery, where these oils are hung, is that of a highly individual color organization, remotely suggestive of Tintoretto. In composition they are free almost to a fault, and, in draughtsmanship, given to unusual accuracy. Upon close examination, however, they appear to be ruggedly accomplished and have much tonal variety that is lost at a distance.</p>
<p>There is little that is idealic—mostly they are dramatic, as witness “The Big Catch”, “Wild Animal Act”, “Circus Lady” and “Disaster”, all with a wealth of color masses that move rapidly. Here is really a painter of academic tradition, but one who almost bursts with a verve the moderns should like.</p>
<p>The Second Annual Water Color Exhibition, on the second floor, is quite a sparkling one. There is a lot of dash and juiciness in many of the contributions. Paul C. Burns, J. Frank Copeland, Florence V. Cannon, Virginia Bates Dillmore, Salvatore Pinto and Paul Gill show works that are fresh in color, free in handling and thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of the medium. Particularly distinctive water colors come from Mabel B. Hall, Carl Lindborg and Isabelle L. Miller.</p>
<p>Likewise, a number of paintings may be found that have worked out their own salvation without bending to the dictates of either technical or compositional convention. Carl Shaffer, for example, shows an “Oedipus Complex”, spicily patterned and various materials glued to the surface of the paper. “The Sailor’s Wife” by Emlen Etting, is most informal in its handling and effective in composition. Kathleen Reilly has achieved free, dramatic pattern in “Fishing Boats, Gloucester”; shades of Nicholas Roerich haunt the “Old Mission Church at Talpa” by Katherine L. Farrell, and fantasy is rife in the “Rehearsal” of Henry C. Pitz. Earle Miller, in “Back Stretch”, shows as great a flair for water color as he has in the lithographic medium.</p>
<p>Other contributors include Edith Longstreth Wood, Paul Froelich, Andrew Wyeth, Margaret Gest, Thornton Oakley, Vera White, Biagio and Angelo Pinto, Thomas Flavell, Giovanni and Antonio Martino, Katherine Schlater and Helen Lloyd.</p>
<p>The second floor print gallery is hung with etchings by George Constant who possesses one of the most unusual pictorial idioms we have seen for quite a while. In point of composition the artist has a rhythmic sense somewhat akin to that of Jean Charlot—a way of simplifying forms and making them quite dynamic. Texturally they are most expressive and, in a number of plates, the vignette principle has been used amusingly.</p>
<p>Three well known local painters are showing their work at Philadelphia Women’s Clubs. Nancy Ferguson holds forth at the Women’s University Club, while the Philomusian Club and Women’s City Club are showing the work of Pearl Van Sciver and Gladys M. G. West, respectively.</p>
<figure>
<graphic url="upl-philaartnews-fig209.jpg"/>
<head>“The Big Catch” by Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones</head>
</figure>
<p>We remember, several years ago reviewing an exhibit of Miss Ferguson’s paintings in which we declared the painter’s most prominent characteristic to be an “antiquity of effect”. That cannot be said of this group. We sense, from these paintings, which we hope are recent, a decided growth in the artist—greater tonal variety, more general zest, color and surfaces that are not too “precious”; withal, more compelling paintings. Compositionally, the painter has changed little—roofs and roads still cluster themselves, sometimes too luxuriantly, within the canvases. But we have, nevertheless, a generous quantity of strong painting.</p>
<p>The canvases of Pearl Van Sciver and Gladys M. G. West have considerably more in common with each other than with the Ferguson works. Both possess a palette grayish in key and a compositional sense that is conventional but mature. Miss West leans more decidedly in the direction of the decorative. Pearl Van Sciver’s most effective offerings are quaint European towns, delicately and rather dramatically handled.</p>
<p>Two artists are currently represented at the Print Club—Henry C. Pitz and Paul Cushing Child. The former shows lithographs and etchings together with a number of preliminary drawings for some of the prints; from the latter come lithographs and wood cuts, some in color.</p>
<p>A decided contrast is furnished by the two personalities. Pitz is eternally active and dramatic, concentrating generally upon rugged characterization of men of the great out-of-doors and accomplishing his effect with an abundance of verve. It is likewise of great interest to compare his sketches with the finished prints.</p>
<p>Child, who, in addition to landscape and architectural subjects, frequently eyes his fellow man, is invariably the decorative, rather than emotional artist. Textures of surfaces and shadows are delicately wrought composition static but well balanced.</p>
<p>Conrad Roland is showing water colors of American birds at Charles Sessler’s.</p>
<p>Roland obviously loves his birds, for not a detail concerning them has escaped him. He lingers most affectionately over the finesse of their feathers, and interprets beautifully the feel and character of them no less than their delicate hues, which have been matched with great care.</p>
<p>Pictorially they vary, in a remarkable way, from simple delineation of the bird upon white paper, with no background, to elaborate compositions of trees and foliage, wherein as much attention has been lavished upon the background as upon the picture’s winged subject.</p>
<p>Roland has a definite flair for small surfaces and delicate textures, and in these studies he has been happily in his element.</p>
<p>An engaging exhibit of the work of Nicola D’Ascenzo is to be found at the Fine Arts Building of the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Included are oils, pastels and drawings, plus a number of cartoons for stained glass and some of the finished products of his studio.</p>
<p>In his figure work D’Ascenzo reveals a direct affinity with the Golden Age of Italian painting, but the finished work has a greater superficial resemblance to that produced by the late Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The spirit of Dante Gabriel Rosetti drifts through a number of these.</p>
<p>When creating landscape or studies of water, this influence gives way to a soft, iridescent sort of impressionism, much freer in treatment. The stained glass designs should be of great interest to the layman.</p>
<p>Hirshman, whose caricatures are to be seen at the A. C. A. Gallery, has wedded his genuine ability in this direction to another: that of taking one object and making another out of it.</p>
<p>As a result of this clever process a slice of toast, for instance, combined with a fried egg, a piece of bacon, a pretzel and some spinach becomes a delightful caricature of the Duke of Windsor. The Duchess is with him—made of beads and whatnot. Leon Trotsky’s hair is nothing more than a mop, Joseph Stalin is uniformed with dresser drawers, has a brush for hair, a comb for a mustache, etc., while John D. Rockefeller, Sr. has a dime for an eye. So it goes, and they are all ingenious. Other caricatures fashioned in this way include Hitler, Mussolini, Harpo, Groucho and Salassie.</p>
<p>There are likewise a number of caricatures accomplished only by painting, in which no “properties” are used.</p>
<p>The exhibition of prints by Joseph Margulies, now at the Carlen Galleries, includes etchings, aquatints and one lithograph.</p>
<p>They are mostly heads, rather dramatically—sometimes romantically—handled. While some of these prints are quite fine, they do not, on the whole, share equal excellence.</p>
<p>The best of the group are “Meditation No. II”, “From the Ghetto”, “Reb-Schmeal”, “Resignation”, “Homeless Philospher”, and “Gloucester Fisherman”. In each of the plates there is a broad, eloquent vision and sympathetic portrayal of mankind.</p>
<p>There are a number of landscapes and harbor studies, the best of which are “Windblow Tree”, decorative in a Japanesque way, and rather simple in composition; and “Sospel Bridge”, an effective vignette.</p>
<p>The solitary lithograph is one of the best of the portraits: “Over a Glass of Tea”. One wonders why this artist has not turned more frequently to lithography, in view of the merit of this print.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-07">
<head><pb n="2" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-2.jpg"/>“CHARLIE ERVINE”</head>
<p>Andrew Wyeth, whose portrait “Charlie Ervine” is reproduced as the insert for this issue, was born in Chadds Ford in 1917. Son of the well-known painter, N. C. Wyeth, young Andrew did his first drawings at the age of four. He has worked chiefly in black and white, oil, and water color.</p>
<p>Of “Charlie Ervine,” he says: “This picture is my first attempt at portraiture in egg tempera, although I have done quite a few landscapes in this medium. I painted this portrait from life and out of doors, in Port Clyde, Maine. While I was working on it, the fishermen going by would see me mixing the egg to paint with, and ask me whether I was making a cake.”</p>
<p>Mr. Wyeth has exhibited at the Art Alliance, the Chicago Art Centre, and last fall held a very successful one-man show at the Macbeth Gallery, New York City. He has recently been invited to show at the Whitney Museum.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-08">
<pb n="3" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-3.jpg"/>
<head>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">AGNES IRWIN SCHOOL</item>
<item>Wynnewood</item>
<item>Water Colors of Greece by Edith Emerson.</item>
<item rend="list-head">ART CLUB</item>
<item>220 South Broad Street</item>
<item>Annual Exhibition of the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to <date when="--03-02">March 2</date>.</item>
<item rend="list-head">CARLEN GALLERIES</item>
<item>323 South 16th Street</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">HARCUM JUNIOR COLLEGE</item>
<item>Oils by Walter Emerson Baum. Through February.</item>
<item rend="list-head">McCLEES GALLERIES</item>
<item>1615 Walnut Street</item>
<item>18th Century Portraiture. Contemporary American Painting.</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>51 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>Prints and Water Colors by Art Alliance Members to <date when="--02-25">February 25</date>.</item>
<item>Designs for Mass Production, <date when="--02-23">February 23</date> to <date when="--03-11">March 11</date>.</item>
<item>Oils by Art Alliance Members, <date when="--02-26">February 26</date> to <date when="--03-11">March 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>Exhibition of Book, Magazine and Advertising Illustration, <date when="--02-14">February 14</date> to <date when="--03-05">March 5</date></item>
<item>Lithographs and etchings by Henry C. Pitz.</item>
<item>Lithographs and wood cuts by Paul Cushing Child.</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">SESSLER’S</item>
<item>1310 Walnut St.</item>
<item>An exhibition of Original Water Colors of American Birds by Conrad Roland. <date when="--02-10">February 10</date> to 26.</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>Paintings by Roberta Burbridge. <date when="--02-21">February 21</date> to <date when="--03-12">March 12</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>Prints from J. Leonard Sessler, Collection.</item>
</list>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-09">
<head>WE DISPLACE A CHIP</head>
<head type="sub">CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. ALBERT C. BARNES</head>
<byline><date when="--01-24">January 24</date>.</byline>
<p>Dear Dr. Barnes:</p>
<p>The Barnes Foundation possesses perhaps the most important accumulation of Modern Art in the world. Furthermore it was assembled by the discriminating taste of an individual,—yourself. This latter fact is as significant as the Barnes Foundation itself, for without the element of personal selection, it is doubtful whether the collection would be vital.</p>
<p>William H. Vanderbilt demonstrated the foolhardiness of following the advice of dealers, critics, and connoisseurs rather than using intelligent personal taste in the formation of a collection fifty years ago. It is now recognized that the fashionable “masterpieces” chosen by his advisers have little aesthetic worth.</p>
<p>The collections of Huntingdon, Mellon, and Bache do not enter into this thought inasmuch as they have assembled chiefly historic examples by long recognized masters or schools. Hence their collections are reference libraries of art, more useful as cultural stimuli than as generators of contemporary creative expression.</p>
<p>Because of the unique character and potential value of your collection as a stimulation for contemporary production of art, it could render enormous service to the art community if it were open to the public. Artists who now find it impossible to gain access to the Barnes Foundation would come to be inspired. Potential collectors would be encouraged to follow your example in fearlessly purchasing contemporary art, thus providing a badly needed support to the art industry which totters feebly in the strong tide of depression.</p>
<p>On behalf of all those painters who are sincerely trying to create works of art, and of those laymen who are endeavoring to enrich their appreciation of art. I urge you to open the doors of the Foundation to the public for at least one-half day a week.</p>
<p>Won’t you give this your most thoughtful consideration?</p>
<p>Sincerely yours,</p>
<p>Ben Wolf.</p>
<p><date when="--01-26">January 26</date>.</p>
<p>Dear Sir:</p>
<p>Your letter of <date when="--01-25">January 25</date> confirms the opinion I formed of you by reading the stupid, ignorant, gossipy, sensation-hunting “tripe” published in your paper; in other words, you hope to climb out of the intellectual and commercial slums by pandering to the ignorant, uninformed tribe that infests the fringe of art. If, in that adventure, you think you can make use of me or the institution which I founded, “go to it” and do your damnedest.</p>
<p>So much for what I believe you represent, and so much also for what I think you mean, but have neither the honesty nor the guts to say, by your effusions. Now, I’ll answer what you do say in your letter, ignoring the maudlin bootlicking you give me in the fourth paragraph. . .</p>
<p>Your statement that you write “on behalf of all those painters who are sincerely trying to create works of art, and of those laymen who are endeavoring to enrich their appreciation of art”—all that, viewed in the light of actual facts, makes it pretty clear that you are either a colossal ignoramus or a demonstrable liar.</p>
<p>Your plea that our gallery be opened even once a week to your hypothetical group, displays gross ignorance of the purposes of our project, of the decisions of the Courts that it is not a public gallery but an educational institution, that every day from sunrise to sunset the gallery is occupied in carrying out a systematic educational program, that every class is filled to capacity, and that we have a waiting list of several hundred desirable students who cannot be accommodated because every available place is occupied by earnest, intelligent persons.</p>
<p>Furthermore, your stupid plea to have casual visitors interrupt an already over-crowded program that has been endorsed as uniquely valuable by the leading authorities in education, was faced and answered many years ago: you can find a record of it on page 191 et seq. of a volume entitled “Art and Education,” published by the Barnes Foundation Press, price $2. And the validity of that answer you will find confirmed by the decision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, dated <date when="1934-01-30">January 30, 1934</date>.</p>
<p>In short, from any rational standpoint you are barking up the wrong tree; but if you want a fight, this reply is a good opening. At any rate, your letter furnished justifiable grounds for expressing the utter contempt I have for everything that you and your journal represent and to issue a challenge to you and your fellow mental and artistic cripples to carry the matter further.</p>
<p>Yours</p>
<p>Albert C. Barnes</p>
<p>St. Valentine’s Day</p>
<p>Dear Dr. Barnes:</p>
<p>Your accusations imply that we have exaggerated both the value of the collection controlled by the Barnes Foundation and your importance as a collector. If, not having seen your complete collection, we have so exaggerated, then we grant that we are an ignoramus (as, indeed, who is not!) It cannot truthfully be said, however, that we are a liar unless this should be demonstrated by the physical results over a reasonable period, say fifteen years, of having the Barnes Foundation opened to the public as per our suggestion.</p>
<p>In spite of your modest disclaimers, stated or implied, we still feel that the collection of the Barnes Foundation could render enormous service to the art community precisely as outlined to you in our first letter.</p>
<p>We recognize that the purposes of your project are private and we do not feel that it is pertinent to inform ourselves as to what those aims are. We were not aware, however, of any court decision which compels the Barnes Foundation to remain closed to the public. We believe that a study of the court decisions will inform you that you have a legal right to open the Foundation to the public for brief periods at stated intervals, if you so choose to do.</p>
<p>This course is suggested to you, not as an interruption of “an already overcrowded program,” but as a supplement thereto. Its accomplishment would require administrative capacity which we trust you possess.</p>
<p>Our opinion and interest could be stated in greater detail and greater length but we believe we have said enough to make ourself clear. We should be very happy indeed “to carry the matter further” with the full cooperation of the Barnes Foundation.</p>
<p>Sincerely yours,</p>
<p>Ed.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-10">
<head>GUINEA PIGS SQUEAK</head>
<p>On Sunday, <date when="--02-06">February 6</date>, Dr. Albert C. Barnes spoke at the People’s Forum on “Opportunities for Art Education in Philadelphia”. The following letter gives one hearer’s reaction to this talk.</p>
<p>Dear Doctor Barnes:</p>
<p>I paid to hear your talk and I’m not bound to be polite, but may follow your advice and examine what I buy. I find I rather like your platform manner as the people’s friend. I am very interested in your statements and their range and am also impressed with the free floating emotional response of your audience. I sniffed a revival atmosphere recalling to mind that other famous ball tosser Mr. Sunday, until I was quite sure you must have read “How to Make Friends and Influence People.”</p>
<p>That is very unlikely. With the rudimentary tact of Carnegie, you would find yourself unable to attack Miss Curran, as your pickets do.</p>
<p>I like all you said about tradition which is anyhow one thing we share; but your moving talk did not get me going, not after you explained about the guinea pigs. I have been called an ass by a man who is now dead; but if I am a guinea pig, you are another, and I must look at you as (let us assume) one guinea pig sizes up another. First off, you are older, and retired; with what for a lower animal would be some very odd possessions. Next, now that you are a guinea pig hors de combat life has for you the simpler pleasure of leisure activity. That is why you exaggerate the game of base ball into an art form. You annoy all guinea pigs who are too busy as guinea pigs trying to remain alive when you direct our attention to Connie Mack, who is a publicly supported institution though not tax free.</p>
<p>Do you know you quite stuck your neck out when you defined art. Traditionally one can’t get away with it and no more can you. The limit you imposed excluded (as no exact definition may) the recognized artistic qualities implicit in the words “Imitation,” “Artifice,” “Creation,” banned most of “abstraction” and all of “iconography,” and hardly left a leg for all the poets to stand on. Is it scientific to discard so much related matter because you, like many another aesthetic, have a “tic”?</p>
<p>No scientist would criticize another for preparing his material to report it exactly. I did not make notes of your stimulating speech, but as I remember it, your definition of Art, if tried like a coat on Thomas Craven, would make him look very much like an artist, and be most becoming to his type of Beauty.</p>
<p>Extemporaneous remarks on any subject are a display of skill in speech called by some the art of oratory, and by others, gushing.</p>
<p>Perhaps I learned to run after I learned to walk, for, my dear fellow guinea pig, sometimes I find I am way ahead of you, though I do agree with much you say. “Bergson once said that one moment of intuition preceded twelve volumes of philosophy.” You make no room for intuition in your way of life. Is it because your flow of analysis before your paintings does not equal twelve volumes of philosophy?</p>
<p>At any rate, art may be defined as “a product exhibiting the qualities of the mind that made it.” This I submit as better than your definition, since it includes yours along with moustache cups.</p>
<p>I have run on like you do; but if you protest I shall plead that all this is a noisy affair between two guinea pigs, requiring you to prove I am one, or you are not.</p>
<p>Carl Shaffer.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-11">
<head>THE OLD CYNIC</head>
<p>Two prominent Philadelphia artists who had met frequently, but who, out of mutual distaste, invariably failed to recognize each other, were introduced at a large afternoon tea. One is a bachelor; the other was accompanied by his lovely wife.</p>
<p>The benedict acknowledged the introduction with a sharp glance at the other’s neatly trimmed Van Dyck. “Are you a Frenchman?” “No,” responded the bachelor. “Are you an aviator?”</p>
<p>“No,” repeated his rival. “What is YOUR business?”</p>
<p>Number two drew himself up to his full, round height. “I am an artist, sir!”</p>
<p>“How odd. I’ve never heard of you, although I, too, am an artist.”</p>
<p>The wife had not as yet been included in the introductions. Her husband took her arm to turn away.</p>
<p>The rude man interrupted the gesture. “Pardon me,” said he, with a deep bow. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your mother?”</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-12">
<head>COLLECTORS OF AMERICAN ART</head>
<p>The Collectors of American Art, Inc., 38 West 57th Street, New York City, announces the opening of its first monthly exhibition on Wednesday, <date when="--02-02">February 2nd</date>, following a preview for the press on Tuesday afternoon, <date when="--02-01">February 1st</date>.</p>
<p>About 300 works of art by 107 artists were submitted to the Collectors of American Art for inclusion in the first exhibition, and from this number 32 paintings, drawings and water colors, and 17 prints were chosen for hanging.</p>
<p>This exhibition will be current until <date when="--02-24">February 24th</date>, and some of the works included will be purchased for the annual distribution.</p>
<p>The original American Art Union originated in 1839 with Dr. John W. Francis as the guiding spirit. The present group, led by Miss Emily A. Francis (no relation), has incorporated under the same type of charter and, having the same end in view, propose to govern themselves in the same manner as the original society—which undoubtedly achieved the acme of art encouragement in an earlier America.</p>
<p>Art history has draped a mantle of romance about the original American Art Union.</p>
<p>As exciting as watching the finish of a race at Saratoga was the drawing of numbers allotting works of art to the members of the Art Union, on Friday evening, <date when="1849-12-21">December 21, 1849</date>. The event marked the close of a decade of activities designed to further the cause of art in America. Skirts billowing top-hats set at a rakish angle, men and women eagerly scrutinized slips of paper on which were recorded membership numbers. “Does the number called off from the platform for the painting on view, correspond with the one in my hand? Is this painting to be mine?” was the question in every mind.</p>
<p>Amazing was the speedy development of the original visionary plan. From a membership of 686 in 1840, it grew to the astonishing number of 18,960 by 1849, receipts in that year amounting to $96,300. Conceived in the mind of John W. Francis to “bring to the aid of struggling art, the advantages of associated effort,” it allotted a grand total of 36 paintings valued at $3000 at the end of its first year. The successful expansion of the organization was credited to the large and active group of honorary secretaries, which embraced in its number of over 600 (in 1849), “some of the most intelligent, refined, and active spirits of our country.” These secretaries were scattered over a wide area, and represented such distant states as Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Mississippi, and Texas, the latter having been annexed to the United States only four years before.</p>
<p>The first quarters “in a small, dark apartment in the rear of a bookstore” were soon found to be inadequate, and spacious galleries vere added to property secured on Mercer Street. An account of the opening of one of the new galleries on the <date when="1849-10-17">17th of October, 1849</date>, appeared in the newspaper “N. Y. Courier and Enquirer”, which reported that a large party of artists, amateurs and gentlemen of the press, as well as such distinguished guests as the Minister of the French Republic, Major Poussin attended. On the walls were displayed the recent purchases of the Art Union, soon to be allocated at the annual drawing. They included one which had received top price ($1500) “The Wages of War”, also one by George Inness ($600) which showed “marked improvement” over previous work.</p>
<p>The new society hopes to approximate the benefits which the Art Union rendered to native art expression.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-13">
<head><pb n="4" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-4.jpg"/>FELLOWSHIP NOTES</head>
<p>The Fellowship Annual Exhibition of oil painting and sculpture, now current at The Art Club, was opened by a private view <date when="--02-10">February 10</date> from four to six o’clock. Hostesses on this occasion were: Mrs. A. Lewis Burnham, Mrs. Nicola D’Ascenzo, Mrs. George H. Earle, 3rd, Mrs. Joseph T. Fraser, Jr., Mrs. Thomas S. Gates, Miss Mary K. Gibson, Mrs. E. Royal Hasserick, Mrs. George H. Houston, Mrs. George S. Koyl, Mrs. John S. Lloyd Mrs. R. Tait McKenzie, and Mrs. Alfred G. B. Steel.</p>
<p><date when="--02-11">February 11</date> was designated as Pennsylvania Day. Roy C. Nuse gave a gallery talk on the exhibition at three o’clock, while a reception was held by State and County Officers of Women’s Clubs from four to six. Those receiving were: Mrs. John M. Phillips, Mrs. Edgar Marburg, Mrs. Alfred A. Crooks, Mrs. Charles Long, Mrs. J. Bertram Hervey, Dr. Anna Lane Linglebach, Mrs. Gustav Ketterer, Mrs. H. Childs Hodgens, Mrs. Stacy E. Peters, Mrs. Arthur W. Warner, Mrs. J. LeRoy Smith, Mrs. James A. Shook, Mrs. Calvin S. Boyer, Mrs. Roland S. Sharpless, Mrs. Harold R. Bodtke, Mrs. Edward Lodholz, and Mrs. Charles S. Musser.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-14">
<head>QUAKER MURALS</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> J<hi rend="small-caps">ANE</hi> R<hi rend="small-caps">ICHTER</hi></byline>
<p>During the winter and spring of 1937, the senior art class at Friends’ Central School made a highly successful artistic experiment, by designing and executing a series of murals illustrating “Quaker History”. Eight in number, the panels represent various phases of the Quaker movement from the life of its seventeenth century founder, George Fox, to the establishment of the American Friends’ Service Committee in 1917. The work was done under the supervision of Hobson Pittman, instructor in art, but the actual planning and painting was done by the students.</p>
<p>The murals were done on composition board, each panel having to be twice painted in opaque color to ensure adequate covering of the rough surface of the board. As they stand now, the general impression of the color is of decisiveness without harshness. As befits the essentially functional nature of mural painting, the design of the panels is pre-eminently architectural. Almost exact symmetry is frequently used, as in the first, “George Fox, The Founder of Friends”. Great simplification of both figures and color is another characteristic.</p>
<p>A great deal of the research necessary for historical accuracy was done by the students themselves. However, inasmuch as the time spent on the murals was comparatively short, additional information was given by a committee of parents and faculty, headed by Esther C. Jones. The material thus obtained, though, was completely assimilated by the students and was incorporated in their work in a vital manner. An example of this can be seen in the panel “Period of Quietism, 1725–1825”. A certain lecturer had spoken of the Quakers’ hedging themselves in from the rest of the world; the student responsible for the composition of this panel has used a symbolic rectangular hedge as the principle agent in the design.</p>
<p>The original impetus for the murals was the decision made by the Philadelphia Friends for each Quaker school in this vicinity to contribute some exhibit to be shown at the Germantown Friends’ Conference. The murals were the project assigned to Friends’ Central. So successful was it, that two of the panels, “Separation”, largely done by Virginia Stoll and Virginia Griscom, and “The American Friends’ Service Committee”, the work of John F. Kleinz, Jr., Katherine J. Howell, and Ruth Massey, were reproduced in the London Friends’ Magazine.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-15">
<head>ACADEMY PRIZE</head>
<p>The Stimson Prize of $100. at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has been awarded this year to Elmore Cave with honorable mention going to Georgia Shearer. This prize is given annually to that student in the Life Modeling Class who does the best full-length figure from life during the class. The work was submitted anonymously to a jury composed, this year, of John Gregory and Lee Lawrie.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-16">
<head>POSTER CONTEST</head>
<p>A nation-wide poster contest on the “Drive Safely” theme is being conducted by the Devoe & Raynolds Company. It is open to all amateur and professional artists in this country. First prize will be $1,000., second, $250., third, $100., fourth, $50., fifth, $20. There will also be ten other prizes of $10. each. Judges for the competition will be Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt, W. H. Cameron, Managing Director of the National Safety Council, Inc., C. B. Falls, poster artist and designer, Jonas Lie, President of the National Academy of Design, and Everett V. Meeks, Dean of the School of Fine Arts, Yale University.</p>
<p>The contest is non-commercial in that entrants will not be required to use Devoe Art Materials or specify what materials they have used. Contest Forms, containing complete instructions, may be obtained from your local dealer in Devoe Art Materials, or by writing to Harold Raynolds, Fine Arts Division, Devoe & Raynolds Company, 580 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-17">
<head>CULTURAL OLYMPICS</head>
<p>Harriet Sartain, Paul Domville, and Edward Warwick formed the jury for the recent Cultural Olympics exhibit of Applied Design and Crafts done by pupils of senior high school age.</p>
<p>The following selections were made for the final show:</p>
<p>Mask of Greta Garbo by Charlotte Groner.</p>
<p>Wall Hanging (South Seas) by Nancy Blumberg.</p>
<p>Original Wall Hanging of Persian Inspiration by Betty Triol.</p>
<p>Block Print Design by Page Cook.</p>
<p>Batik by Renate Richter.</p>
<p>Batik by Mildred Greaves.</p>
<p>Batik by Harriet Forman.</p>
<p>Peasant Belt and Handbag by Mildred Dunn.</p>
<p>Peasant Pillow Top by Gertrude Treyz.</p>
<p>Peasant Pillow Top by Frances Miller.</p>
<p>Wrapping Paper by Doris Thomas.</p>
<p>Wrapping Paper by Virginia McDowell.</p>
<p>Pottery by Jennie Finelli.</p>
<p>Two Pieces of Pottery by Anna Pirone.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-18">
<head>PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION</head>
<head type="sub">CLASSROOM DECORATION</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> W<hi rend="small-caps">AYNE</hi> M<hi rend="small-caps">ARTIN</hi></byline>
<p>We’re starting on a program to redecorate our buildings. Some of us in the art department felt the need, so we spoke to the science department, and gradually we got under way. We made a few rules which we all agreed to adhere to.</p>
<list>
<item>1. Let the decoration be consistent with the subject taught in the particular room.</item>
<item>2. Let as much of the decoration as possible be student work or student choice.</item>
<item>3. Arrange the decoration so a part of it can be changed as the unit, season, or occasion demand.</item>
</list>
<p>To the modern school with unlimited funds to spend on decoration or furnishings, these three rules will seem old stuff, but there are plenty of our schools which could use them well. The grand part of this program is that a wonderful amount can be accomplished for very little money.</p>
<p>We’ve only started in a small way, but already we’ve done two three foot maps for the astronomy room and are working on an eight foot square zodiac for a ceiling picture in the same room. For the geology room next door we’ve started a series of panels showing the various geologic ages to supplement the specimen cases.</p>
<p>We plan to refurnish all the class rooms in such a way that each room will become not only a place to recite one’s lesson but also a place where one can study comfortably. We’ve installed in some of the rooms comfortable chairs, library tables, and bookshelves. There are to be cases for travelling exhibits, and, if possible, curtains at the windows. We believe that if the student is placed in such surroundings he will not only take advantage of what is there but will do all in his power to improve it.</p>
<p>After the class rooms are taken care of, the halls are to be decorated with paintings directly on the walls. We’ve one 10 by 12 foot world map started outside the geography room and if it proves successful from both pupil’s and instructor’s standpoints, we plan to do more.</p>
<p>What I wish to stress in all this is that the work is student work and the exhibits are either student made or student loaned. As I said, it’s only a start, but we feel it’s one in the right direction.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-19">
<head>ART CLASSES AT SETTLEMENT MUSIC SCHOOL</head>
<p>Art classes where pupils pay according to their means; where self-expression is accomplished through complete liberty of subject and material; where the technique attains Academy standards—such classes sound utopian, but as a matter of fact they are realities. The children’s and adults’ art classes at the Settlement Music School are based upon these ideas.</p>
<p>The primary objective of the Settlement Music School has, as the very name indicates, been the teaching of music. But some eight years ago, it was decided to start a children’s art class on Saturday morning, principally to keep the children busy while waiting for their various music classes. Antonio Cortizas, then a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, volunteered to teach the class. It occupied two small rooms at the back of a vacant house next door. Since that time, the number of classes has been multiplied by five—there are three children’s classes on Saturday mornings and classes for adults Monday and Friday evenings—and in place of the two small rooms, the art students now have the large basement studio of the School building.</p>
<p>Classes for children include instruction in sketching, water color, modelling, and, this year, for the first time, oils. The results of this most recent innovation have been more than successful. The children are using oils with originality and vitality. One little boy in particular, evidently an ardent admirer of horses, has done several oil sketches of horses in a broad, form-achieving manner that shows unusual understanding of the medium in which he is working. Sculpture, for the younger groups, is confined to modelling small figures and groups in clay—washerwomen, Goldilocks at her table, strange and familiar animals—These are then colored and shellacked to simulate pottery.</p>
<p>The older students do a great deal of sketching, occasionally in the newly-formed life classes, clay modelling and direct stone carving, and murals.</p>
<p>All of the art work done at the school is primarily of an experimental nature. The greatest possible freedom is given to the student, the main idea being to bring out a living quality. Technique comes later. But the School wishes to avoid any charge of fostering dilettantism. The students are given thorough training. Three of this year’s class have been admitted to the Academy.</p>
<p>Once every year an exhibition of the School’s work is held at Broad and Spruce Streets, and has always aroused interest and enthusiasm among the public. Last year between twelve and thirteen thousand people visited the show.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-20">
<head><pb n="5" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-5.jpg"/>PRISMS. AN ARCHITECTURAL COLUMN</head>
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<head>Photographs by Richard T. Dooner</head>
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<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">LYDE</hi> S<hi rend="small-caps">HULER</hi></byline>
<p>“Not yet Mass Production”.</p>
<p>John Harbeson of Mr. Cret’s office writes—</p>
<p>“The new Reading train on the outside is one continuous streak of stainless with a blue head, a streak which slips through space without apparent effort—the very epitome of power and speed. The continuous horizontal channels, the neat trim metallic surface emphasize the impression of utter trustworthiness while doing ninety miles an hour, a dynamic exterior, ready to move and to move swiftly, quite different from the architecture of buildings which is, and from its very nature must be, static in design to give the impression of endurance in one place.”</p>
<p>Here is the emotion of motion</p>
<p>Here is packaging in a sublime fashion.</p>
<p>The smooth sleekness of materials fashioned with precision by a giant machine to fulfill man’s desire for the appearance of speed. The old engine spoke power, but a power that came through snorts and gasps and the turnings of a multiplicity of huge wheels and shafts—a sense of power that was obvious by reason of the very bigness of the thing.</p>
<p>An elephant might crash through the jungle with strength and speed but beauty is in the gliding leap of a sleek panther. The bulging muscles of the huge workhorse might fill us with a sense of great power but the effortless rhythmic strides of a fleet racehorse is an aesthetic joy to behold.</p>
<p>And so with these new trains.</p>
<p>Up to now they are a little like an old knight with his beautiful suit of polished armor, a rather dull unimpressive man clothed in burnished glory, but a glory that serves its wearer well. Remember that—a glory that serves its wearer well.</p>
<p>If this package gives to a train the beauty of a panther’s leap, the rhythm of a racer’s stride, is that not bestowing upon it a sublime function?</p>
<p>When I speak of packaging a train, I do not do it with a sense of depreciation. I do it with a feeling of understanding.</p>
<p>I think we might truthfully say an airplane is an almost perfect example of functional development. This has been brought about through a necessity for safety leading to a slow accumulative knowledge through experimentation. The result of all this is a form of great beauty. It is almost perfect functional design. This has been not quite so true in the development of the train. Overnight a complicity of wheels and stacks has been housed in shining simplicity. It is true that this simplicity gave to the train greater speed with less power. It is true that the “airflow” resulting from this design gave a greater actual as well as apparent safety. But all of this was not so much a matter of slow functional growth as in the airplane. It was more a matter of aesthetics.</p>
<p>Aesthetics—, that has been developing through reason of a growing “airflow” consciousness, a consciousness made active in us because of a sense of rightness and fitness in the form of an airplane.</p>
<p>We might truthfully say our new aesthetics is simplicity—a desire for a simple statement.</p>
<p>In the case of a train we craved a beauty that reflected a simple function—the function of passing through space with sense of swiftness and of safety.</p>
<p>Through an error, the name of Harry Sternfeld was placed above Clyde Shuler’s article “Greater and Lesser Light”, in the <date when="--01-31">January 31</date> issue. Mr. Sternfeld was in no way connected with the article, so to him, to the Misses Monaghan, and to Mr. Shuler, we offer our apologies.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-21">
<head>PAINT-CRAFT</head>
<head type="sub">CRAFTSMANSHIP OF FINE ARTS PAINTING</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> F. W. W<hi rend="small-caps">EBER</hi></byline>
<div>
<head>II</head>
<p>Let us now briefly review the history of art through the various periods in relation to craftsmanship. In doing this we can observe how, from the primitive period there gradually evolved different techniques whose influence and quick acceptance actually created schools of painting. The four main periods of art might be classified as follows:</p>
<p>1st. The early orientals, Egyptians, Incas, and Mayas in which we find “Truth of Contour”.</p>
<p>2nd. Classical and Medieval Epochs, up to the beginning of the 15th C. To the 12th C., Germany is the chief European center. From 1150 to 1300, Central France with the Gothic movement, takes the lead. Italy remains in the background until 1250. Here, as in the next period, we find “Truth of Form”.</p>
<p>3rd. The 15th and 16th centuries, The High Renaissance.</p>
<p>4th. Beginning of the 17th C., in Flanders, Holland, Spain, France, England and America. We now have “Truth of Space”. We may even, perhaps, add a fifth period, beginning with the exhibition in Paris in 1871 where the moderns first disturbed art’s serene tranquillity and have, ever since, caused gnashing of teeth, furor and excitement. Like a quickly growing tree, from the original school of Impressionism rapidly branched the Post Impressionists, these again dividing into groups of Futurists, Sur-Realists, Dadaists, Les Fauves, who then give us the Ecole de Paris and Expressionism.</p>
<p>In discussing the various schools of painting, we will not adhere to chronological sequence but rather to the influences of the evolving techniques. We will, therefore, omit references to painting before that of the Florentines, as the craftsmanship was not developed to a degree of sufficient importance, with the exception, however, of some of the early Grecian and Roman frescoes. This technique we will discuss briefly when considering the Buon Fresco of the High Renaissance.</p>
<p>Giotto (b. 1267—d. 1337) may be considered as the father of modern painting. Using the new technique, which his master Cimabue had brought from Greece, namely, tempera, Giotto becomes a powerful influence. Shaking off the shackles of Byzantinism, he inspires a new movement, introducing more freedom of treatment luminosity, and greater realism. We still, however, recognize the influence of fresco on the early Florentine easel paintings. The picture, as a whole, is light in key, with the shadows lacking the deep values so characteristic of the later schools.</p>
<p>It may be of interest to pause here and explain just what is meant when the word “tempera” is so frequently used in connection with the Florentine and later periods. Tempera is the name given that technique in which, at first, the egg was used as the active principle in binding the pigments as a paint on the surface to be decorated. Vasani about 1550 and Cennino Cennini about 1442 give us a detailed description of this method. Generally, the yolk was employed together with water as a medium. Pigments ground in this solution yielded colors of a very short, buttery consistency, drying quickly with a mat, opaque finish. In this medium, it is possible to paint in extremely fine and accurate detail. Water is used as a vehicle to thin the colors while painting Panels were prepared with a white, so-called, Gesso ground, composed of mixtures of glue size and precipitated chalk, gypsum, china clay or plaster of Paris. On these white, absorbent grounds, the painting was first drawn or painted in “grisaille”, a grey monochrome, and further painted and modelled in white and colors over an underpainting in which Terre Verte (a green earth pigment) and verdaccio (a green mixed tone prepared of Black, White, Ochre or Light Sienna) was used. Sometimes, the entire egg content was used, the white of the egg also being employed in the laying of gold leaf, which was in many instances laid over large areas, backgrounds or entire skies.</p>
<p>The finished paintings were then given an application of a varnish, the hand sometimes being used to rub on the varnish in place of a brush. Cennini mentions the use of bodied Linseed Oil, (sun thickened and heat tested) and a liquid varnish prepared of linseed oil and resin. With the typical warm reddish tone of their varnishes, the effect of a warm glaze over the otherwise rather cool tempera painting was obtained.</p>
<p>(To be continued)</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-22">
<head>T SQUARE CORNER</head>
<p>The T Square Club held its annual business meeting Tuesday, <date when="--01-25">January 25th</date>. The club has grown in size and strength since its reorganization in 1935 and is about to embark on a program of new activities. First on the agenda is housing research.</p>
<p>Retiring president, John Carver, who is largely responsible for the success of the reorganization, yielded the chair to newly elected Walter Poole. Other officers elected were Herman Shuh, Vice-President, Ernest Johnson, Treas., Thomas Michener, Treasurer.</p>
<p>Three newly elected Directors, John Carver, Lloyd Malkus and J. Joshua Fish will serve with the two incumbents Lincoln Plumly and Leon Julius. A special membership committee will be headed by H. Louis Duhring.</p>
<p>Malarkey is once more with Harry Sternfeld.</p>
<p>James Andrews is with Heacock and Hokanson.</p>
<p>Walter Poole is at present designing for Max Bernhardt.</p>
<p>Bill Rankin has left Ritter’s and gone with the Housing Authority.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-23">
<head>PLASTIC CLUB</head>
<p>Current Events Day at the Plastic Club, <date when="--02-16">February 16</date>, will feature a Round Table discussion on “The Academy Annual”. Hostesses for the day will be Irene Denney, Rachel Bulley Trump, Jean Watson, Florence S. Whiting, and Emma Warfield Thomas, Chairman.</p>
<p>The Annual Plastic Club Rabbit this year will be “A Night on the Air,” to be held <date when="--02-19">February 19</date>. The activities will begin with a supper at 6 P.M.</p>
<p><date when="--02-23">February 23</date>, the Reception Committee, headed by Mrs. Harry K. Carey, will present Mrs. Gideon Boericke, who will speak on “Angkor”, Her talk will be illustrated by motion pictures. Other hostesses will be Mrs. Nicola D’Ascenzo, Miss Johanna Boericke, Miss Edith McMurtrie, Miss Cornelia Greenough, and Miss Anna West Strawbridge.</p>
<p>The traveling exhibitions sponsored by the Plastic Club, are one of the state’s progressive art forces. For two years now, the Club has selected paintings from its Annual Show, and sent them on a state-wide tour.</p>
<p>This year the group of paintings has already been shown at Rutgers College, Wilkes-Barre, and Oil City. On <date when="--02-05">February 5</date> they will begin a two-week show at the State Teachers’ College, Indiana, Pa. The wind-up of the current travelling exhibition will be a stay in Harrisburg, at the end of May.</p>
<p>Among painters represented in this year’s exhibit are Mary Butler, showing “Cathedral Crag”; Marion Harris, “Still Life”; Katherine Farrell, “Guinney Rocks, Gloucester”; Ella Boocosk Hoedt, “Afterglow”; Edith McMurtrie, “Lone Fish House”; Mildred Miller, “Painter’s Farm, Chester Springs”; Elizabeth Washington, “The New Boulevard.”</p>
<p>WANTED: Young woman of pleasing personality to sell subscriptions for the Philadelphia Art News. Liberal commission. Call at 2022 Walnut St., Friday, from 10 to 12.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-24">
<head><pb n="6" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-6.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>Clayton Whitehill has joined Lambdin Associates.</p>
<p>Norman Guthrie Rudolph, former Philadelphian, took a trip over from New York last week-end. He reports business as good in New York, with an unexpected, but pleasant impetus given the artist by the projected World’s Fair. Art work contingent upon this forthcoming exposition is being ordered this far in advance, and if you’ll pardon the pun, that’s Fair enough.</p>
<p>The February issue of Art Instruction lists Freda Leibovitz as winner of third prize in its Pencil Competition. Her prize winner is reproduced on page 26 of that issue. Three hundred drawings were submitted, which makes the award something of which this local artist should be justly proud.</p>
<p>While we’re on the subject, Art Instruction, published monthly, (35 cents) should be on every artist’s required reading list. The current issue has swell articles on Wallace Morgan and Stow Wengenroth.</p>
<p>The Alumni of the School of Industrial Art have chosen the following committee to formulate plans for their annual ball: Lela Morton, Elizabeth Godfrey, John Obold, Rupert Much, Edward Barrows, and Charles Boland.</p>
<p>SHUBERT SERENADE</p>
<p>We are pained to inform our readers that a number of local artists have been patronizing burlesque shows. Granted that Reginald Marsh and others have delved pictorially in this theatrical throwback to Hogarth, we view with alarm the trend to carrying opera glasses instead of sketch books into such places.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-25">
<head>DESIGN FOR MASS PRODUCTION</head>
<p>“Design for Mass Production”, forthcoming exhibit at the Art Alliance, should arouse a great deal of interest among many groups, so varied is its appeal.</p>
<p>Stressing a cooperative relationship between designer and producer, “Design for Mass Production” will present in striking manner the processes and functions of metals, glass, ceramics, synthetics, paper, fabrics, and woods.</p>
<p>Prominent among the features will be the story of the clock, showing the various stages of development and design from the water clock of ancient times to the modern electric clock in common use today.</p>
<p>A display of living, virile art, “Design for Mass Production” is an exhibition of art in daily life. It wil open on <date when="--02-23">February 23</date> with a talk by Russel Wright, internationally known designer. Other well known authorities in the field will speak at later times.</p>
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<p>Sid Quinn, a recent Industrial Art graduate, took several friends on a junket to New York to visit Nicholas Riley, illustrator who has a studio in Tudor City. Riley, who has crashed the big time in the past year, has had an interesting upward march. Trained as a painter, he developed a flair for eating three times a day. For a while he indulged in drawing still lifes for a plumbing concern, and that as you may know, is pretty still. He gradually worked up to illustrating for pulps of the hectic bang-bang school, and varied this with work from advertising agencies. The final achievement was a series of illustrations for The Woman’s Home Companion, which proved that all those years of workful waiting were not in vain. Riley, a gracious host, yarned with his young friends for a whole afternoon and the tyros returned home with the look of men who mean business.</p>
<p>Betty Godfrey and Robert Patterson have cracked the Big Town with their highly individual ideas for window dressing. You’ve seen some of their effective eye-catchers in Blum’s locally and now Bonwit Teller, New York, has taken them into the fold. Miss Godfrey has also sold advertising ideas to Macy’s.</p>
<p>Stuart Graves, who copped an award in the last Art Directors’ Annual Show in New York, has been contributing some very lively art work to Stage Magazine, the pages of which are convincing evidence of Nelson Gruppo’s tasteful layout sense. Gruppo, a former layout man at N. W. Ayer, has done a masterful job as Art Editor of this magazine, which is keyed solely as a footnote to footlights and what goes on on either side of them.</p>
<p>Would you be surprised to know that Elks Magazine pays better prices for its art work than Collier’s?</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-26">
<head>AGENCY LISTINGS</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> M. B<hi rend="small-caps">OLAND</hi></byline>
<p>Conversations with both art students and some professionals around town led us to believe that there are more people engaged in art work who are not informed on sources of work than we had imagined. There are of course two places where these sources are listed. The publication which lists advertising agency personnels, is not so easily obtained, and the subscription price is prohibitive to the average art student. To put it more bluntly, the price probably has the same effect on lots of professionals. The one source that is readily accessible and which is used by everyone, is the old reliable handbook put out by Mr. Bell Telephone and his gang. But here again we run up against difficulties. One finds that he or she is constantly running into duds. The term “dud” is not used disparagingly; we simply mean that said duds are places not to go. (Typical dud; a publisher’s representative who is listed under “Advertising” in the directory, but who is not authorized by his employer to buy art-work. Of course there is always the chance that he may want a monogram designed for his own handkerchief, so suit yourself.)</p>
<p>The second reason for this column is that while many of you may know the places to go, you are in a complete fog as to the name of the art directors at these places. There’s some sort of psychological effect on yourself that rises from being able to walk into an agency and nonchalantly reel off the art director’s name. Besides giving you self-confidence, it sometimes impresses the girl at the switchboard. At any rate, mentioning the A. D.’s name immediately enlightens her as to your mission and eliminates the awkward explanation of why you’re there.</p>
<p>So much for the why and wherefore of this column. This issue, we’ll simply pick a few at random, to illustrate our purpose. We’ll start combing them out more thoroughly next issue, starting with the agencies and pursuing a direct course through to the trade journals and concluding with the miscellaneous.</p>
<p>Starting alphabetically, we find among the first:</p>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">THE ATLANTIC AGENCY</item>
<item>Located on the ninth floor of the Drexel Building, 5th and Chestnut Sts. The Art Director is Mr. Strasberger.</item>
<item rend="list-head">F. WALLIS ARMSTRONG</item>
<item>Southwest corner, 17th and Locust Sts. Mr. Booth is the gentleman to ask for.</item>
<item rend="list-head">HARRY P. BRIDGE AGENCY</item>
<item>1324 Walnut St. Mr. Gregg is the Art Director.</item>
<item rend="list-head">CHARLES BLUM AGENCY</item>
<item>Located on the second floor of 1120 Spruce St. Mr. Holland sees artists.</item>
<item rend="list-head">EARL BUCKLEY AGENCY</item>
<item>Pennsylvania Suburban Building houses this one, and Miss Keefer will see you. It’s on the 6th floor.</item>
<item rend="list-head">E. A. CLARKE AGENCY</item>
<item>Down at 505 Chestnut St. Mr. Coleman is the Art Director.</item>
<item rend="list-head">DONOVAN ARMSTRONG</item>
<item>You’ll find this one in the Girard Trust Co. Building, and Mr. Marshaleck is the gentleman to ask for.</item>
</list>
<p>This will give you an idea of our subsequent listings; next issue we will cut down on the incidentals and get down to facts.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-27">
<head>DISPLAY</head>
<p>Among interesting window effects was that designed by John W. Hathaway for the German-American-North German Lloyd Lines, at 1711 Walnut St., to promote West Indies Cruises. Mr. Hathaway made the central motif a West Indies scene as viewed through a porthole. This was done on a circle of celluloid in transparent oils, much the same process as that used by stained glassmen for submitting models of their work.</p>
<p>Flanking this main design were two show-card vignettes, one showing the winter you are glad to leave behind, and on the other side the enchantments of the tropics.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-28">
<head>TRICKS OF THE TRADE</head>
<p>Described as a “dry painting medium”, colored chalks called Excello, in 24 colors, have been developed which are convenient for classroom use. Use of Excello chalks is so easy and direct that they are especially good for kindergarten and lower grade groups, hastening childrens’ grasp of creative graphic expression.</p>
<p>Chalks and Pastels have developed tremendously during the past few years. You can get an infinite variety of colors, degrees of hardness and qualities. Stumps for special effects are worth a look.</p>
<p>Replace your battered old taboret with a new one, 27 inches high, top 16 x 16 inches, two drawers, sliding ledge, roomy cupboard, maple or walnut finish,—$9.00.</p>
<p>There are two good brands of cutting boards ranging in size from 6 inches x 6 inches to heavy duty 32 inch mounted on table with folding catch-all leaves and shelf. Prices from $2.25 to $36.00. While these look dangerous, they operate on the scizzors principle which make it difficult for the user to inflict serious personal injury. When you get a cutting board be sure it has a metal cutting edge against which the knife-lever works.</p>
<p>Rich effects can be achieved with Windex Display Leatherette which comes in 7 colors in the texture of Crushed Raw Hide, and 6 colors each in Levant Grain, Walrus Grain and Baby Buffalo Grain. This material is made up in widths 30 inches and 43 inches, in 25 foot rolls, at $1.25 to $1.50 per roll.</p>
<p>You can apply Ben Day effects direct to your line drawings with a Shading Screen called Zip-A-Tone which goes on like Frisket Paper. More than 200 varieties of screen for line reproduction are to be had. Use of Zip-A-Tone where practicable would materially reduce the cost of plates in which Ben Day is ordinarily used.</p>
<p>There are many adjustable triangles available. The “Simplon” sets to any degree and with it you can make any division of angles.</p>
<p>Please mention his advertisement in the Philadelphia Art News when you buy from your dealer. It helps both advertiser and paper to check results.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-29">
<head><pb n="7" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-7.jpg"/>ART IN PHOTOGRAPHY</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> O<hi rend="small-caps">GLE</hi></byline>
<head type="sub">WHEN IS A CAMERA CANDID?</head>
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<head>“Choir Boy” Photograph by Martin Hyman</head>
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<p>There is no Santa Claus.</p>
<p>There is no candid camera.</p>
<p>Expressing expression is not achieved by any special photographic equipment designed for that fell purpose. It’s the man behind the box that does the trick, plus opportunity and the given moment.</p>
<p>The label of candid camera applied indiscriminately to all those cute little minnies is a misnomer. They have their points, and are handy little gadgets to have around all right, but their big brothers are just as good at swiping that fleeting expression. It’s up to the boss.</p>
<p>Many pictures are sniped when the sniped are unaware of the sniping. The size of the camera is immaterial. The popular belief that the victim is blissfully ignorant of the proximity of a small camera pointed directly at him is a fallacy. Big or little he knows it’s no machine gun.</p>
<p>On the other hand numerous successful candid camera pictures have been obtained from unposed shots. While aware of the lurking camera, the subject doesn’t know just when the shot did or shall occur. This sort of candid photography permits effecting effective lighting. The accompanying picture is an example.</p>
<p>The Miniature Camera Club of Philadelphia held one of its regular meetings, <date when="--02-03">February 3</date>, at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel at 8 P.M. Following dinner at 6:30, Mr. Roscoe H. Sawyer of the DuPont Company, spoke on “Photomicrography.”</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-30">
<head>CAMERA CONTEST</head>
<p>An unusual camera contest was that recently sponsored by the News Theatre. All candid camera enthusiasts were invited to submit a “shot” of either the show or any part of the new, ultra-modern theatre. The two photographers submitting the most unusual pictures will be awarded silver loving cups, accompanied by personal letters from Mr. Pete Smith, Hollywood historian of photography. Prize winners are not yet announced.</p>
<p>Judges for the contest are: Henry Plate, President of the Photographic Group of Philadelphia; Charles Heller, an officer of the Miniature Camera Club of Philadelphia; and H. Crowell Pepper, noted author and authority on candid camera photography.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-31">
<head>ON THE SPOT</head>
<head type="sub">THE SAGA OF A CAMERATEER</head>
<byline><emph>By</emph> C<hi rend="small-caps">HARLES</hi> O<hi rend="small-caps">GLE</hi></byline>
<div>
<head>IV</head>
<p>After the games were over I returned to America for a while, but the nostalgia for the boulevards lined with shady horse chestnut trees and cozy sidewalk cafes, spring in the Bois, leisurely bookstalls fledging the indolent Seine and the lure of Adventure in foreign lands soon proved too much for me. I just grabbed a handful of boat and landed at Bordeaux with a roving commission to open a Paris bureau for the Acme Newspictures.</p>
<p>France at that time was in a political turmoil and cabinets were falling and reforming and falling again with unflagging regularity. I instructed my “femme de menage” to awaken me each morning with my breakfast tray, mail, the information as to what day it was, the weather, and did France have a new Cabinet? Because if France did have a new over-night cabinet I had to do something about getting their pictures. Arrangements had been made with a well known French photographic service to supplement the supply of pictures for my bureau. They had a staff of ten or twelve cameramen that I utilized and assigned whenever necessary and I generally depended on them to cover such routine matters as pictures political. They hadn’t the faintest idea of the importance of speedy transportation and would stare at me in amazement when I appeared at their office at eight o’clock in the morning demanding pictures they had shot the day before. I just Simon Legree’d ’em until I got pictures in time for the nine o’clock boat train, translating their French captions into English while taxiing to the Gare St. Lazare. But they soon learned. The French government, on the other hand, was well aware of our methods of rapid transportation as they demonstrated when they seized the pictures of the fatal Eiffel Tower airplane flight.</p>
<p>A French army officer went the rounds of the moving picture companies in Paris offering to fly through the Eiffel Tower for a few thousand francs as a picture stunt. The American movie companies refused to touch it as they knew the flight was against the law and that the pilot could not get a permit for such a risky venture. The idea was intriguing, nevertheless, and finally a prominent French cinema company offered to go halves with an American syndicate and they decided to go ahead with it with the greatest of secrecy. The Americans planned to have one of their cameramen in the plane turning out film as the ship swooped through the base of the tower. They also placed cameras on the ground to cover all angles. Fortunately for the photographer who was to fly, the French pilot vetoed that part of it at the last minute as he feared the risk of discovery if army officials saw him entering a plane with a cameraman and his apparatus at the army field.</p>
<p>Everything was ideal for the flight as the morning selected dawned clear and mild. A minute or so before the scheduled time cameras appeared from nowhere in particular and were soon in position as the plane droned leisurely in the sky and circled above the tower. Presently it dipped and came down in a beautiful dive, roaring triumphantly through the steel ribbed arch with plenty of space to clear while the cameras ground out pictures. Then sudden tragedy. As the plane emerged from the other side a wing caught in some unperceived radio wires and the ship whirled and crashed to the pavement. In a fraction of a second it was such a roaring mass of flames no one dared approach to attempt a rescue. The pilot perished as the photographers automatically cranked and clicked away.</p>
<p>The first fast boat leaving then was the Paris, and the films were rushed aboard only to be confiscated at sea by orders of the French government. Had they been placed on any other boat but a French liner the officials would have been powerless to seize the films, but the Paris was the first to sail.</p>
<p>Being more or less a lone wolf, so to speak, I would never leave Paris to cover a story until the last minute. My assistant remained behind to keep an eye on things in general and expedite the transportation of pictures relayed to him. On the occasion of the funeral of the famous war-time prelate, Cardinal Mercier, I arrived in Brussels the night before, too late to get a press pass from the Burgomeister. I was not particularly worried about that, however, as I knew that the first to get on the spot always wangled a few extra passes—just in case. So when I arrived at the Hotel Metropole I found the crowd foregathered in the cafe and after the usual kidding and numerous Belgian beers I soon found myself in possession of the coveted bit of cardboard. Noblesse oblige.</p>
<p>I instructed the night clerk to ring me at nine the next morning as the funeral started at ten at the Gare du Nord. He neglected to do so, and upon awakening myself and consulting my watch I found it was just ten o’clock. Helas! I flung myself into my clothes and realizing it was too late to shoot the start of the procession at the Gard du Nord I grabbed a taxi and told the chauffeur to take me to the cathedral. The closest we could possibly get to if was three blocks away from it, so clutching my camera and waving my pass I tried desperately to push through the solid crowd of spectators thronging the street. I have fought my way successfully through New York crowds, Paris crowds and London crowds, but this mass of stolid Belgians had me licked. It was no go. Three blocks of massed humanity wedged cheek by jowl between me and the cathedral, held in check there by rows of troops, their bayonettes gleaming in the sun. Lampposts, balconies, yes—and chimneypots too, cluttered with human freight. The cathedral flowing lacily into the sky. A magnificent sight. I decided that this was the picture after all. I saw the movie men run to the steps of the cathedral and set up their tripods. Royalty and Diplomacy, whose gorgeous uniforms vied with the splendor of ecclesiastical robes mounted the long flight of steps and were engulfed in the sable draped doorway. The catafalque arrived and as the casket was carried slowly and reverently up the steps, I raised my camera high above my head and standing on tiptoe made five shots. Here was the picture that told the whole story. Here all the color and pageantry, the cathedral, the casket, troops and crowds. The other pictures I had missed, of the procession, the Prince of Wales and King Leopold in line of march, meant nothing compared with this. I bought all those pictures anyway for a song one hour later at the local newspapers. Syndicates don’t care who click the pictures just so they get them. One man can’t be in two places at once.</p>
<p>Along with the rest of the boys I got my pictures off next morning from Paris on the Albert Ballin boat train. Putting pictures aboard a boat is easy if you know how. Just be at the station a few minutes before the train pulls out and watch the crowds of homeward-bound Americans. Pick out one who is not worried about his baggage and you have a seasoned traveler who will willingly take your small package of pictures. Tell him all he has to do is take it with him aboard ship and leave it in a prominent place in his cabin. Then note his name and cabin number and cable that together with the name of the ship to the New York office, and that’s that. The package is picked up at Quarantine direct from his cabin, without the necessity of searching all over the ship. A large red label on each of my packages made them easy for the messenger to spot in the most cluttered cabin. Most travelers are glad to oblige, and few if any packages have missed their destinations.</p>
<p>—To be continued—</p>
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</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-32">
<head>LECTURES</head>
<p>At the <date when="--02-16">February 16</date> meeting of the Philadelphia Graphic Arts Forum, W. Thornton Martin, Art Editor of “The Saturday Evening Post”, is going to describe “Putting Together an Issue of The Saturday Evening Post”. Like other P.G.A. Forums, this meeting will be held in the Hotel Rittenhouse at 8 P.M., and will be open to all who are interested.</p>
<p>Speakers at the two o’clock Gallery Talks of the Academy of Fine Arts will be Walter Emerson Baum, well known painter, <date when="--02-17">February 17</date>, and Dr. Tait Mackenzie, Philadelphia sculptor, <date when="--02-24">February 24</date>.</p>
<p>Joseph Margulies, current exhibitor at the Carlen Galleries, lectured to an invited group at the Galleries, Sunday, <date when="--02-13">February 13</date>.</p>
<p><date when="--02-15">February 15</date>, and again <date when="--02-22">February 22</date>, at 8:30 P.M., Elusha Strong will speak to groups at the Roerich Center, 2016 Walnut St., on “Contemporary Art in America”.</p>
<p>Herman Bloch will discuss “Fine Prints”, <date when="--02-16">February 16</date>, at 8:30 P.M. at the Y. M. H. A., Broad and Pine Streets.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-33">
<head><pb n="8" facs="http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/teibp/content/images/upl-scan-issue-08-8.jpg"/>RE: COFFEE BILL</head>
<p>“I believe there are excellent chances that we can work together for the common cause under discussion. . . This whole issue is of the greatest importance.”</p>
<p>F. Ballard Williams</p>
<p>The American Artists Professional League.</p>
<p>Dear Mr. Taylor:</p>
<p>First of all I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on the fine appearance and meaty content of your <date when="--01-31">January 31</date> issue. There is plenty of life and fire in the Philadelphia Art News—especially noticeable in your clean-cut editorial on the Coffee bill and Weldon Bailey’s realistic and intelligent view of what ails American art patronage.</p>
<p>You will notice by my <date when="--02-01">February 1st</date> leading editorial that I agree with you on the defects of the Coffee bill. You and I evidently concur in wanting the greatest betterment for ALL American artists—not one particular minority that happens to shout their demands from a paternal government. After careful examination, the unfortunate Coffee bill impresses me as an unholy alliance between Fascism and Communism. Personally, I feed at neither trough.</p>
<p>Peyton Boswell, Jr.</p>
<p>Editor, The Art Digest.</p>
<p>Dear Mr. Taylor:</p>
<p>“I am heartily in accord with your suggestions—which seem by comparison to reach the crux of a serious matter.</p>
<p>“It seems to me, especially in a National Bureau, the basis for selection should depend on art and artists, not their economic circumstances nor any other personal affiliations. The artist, as a person, an individual, and a citizen, as in every other phase of human endeavour, should enjoy the rights and privileges of his chosen profession. Let us be done with sentimental rights, and false ideas of patronage and kindness. In the name of humanity, feed, clothe, and house all who need it; that is only decent and right. But don’t confuse that necessity and make it an issue of art, medicine or any other work.”</p>
<p>Edythe Ferris.</p>
<p>With one exception all of the five proposals in Mr. Taylor’s editorial are provided for in the latest revised form of the Coffee Bill. The only one not included is the selection of regional administrators by the vote of all practising artists in the region. Artists would have no constitutional right to select Government officials by vote. The bill provides their selection from a panel of names submitted by representatives of the artists employed under the Bureau in order to assure employees a voice in their own administration, a practise long in use in industry. There seems no reason for artists not under the jurisdiction of the Bureau to have desire or permission to select its administrators.</p>
<p>Bureaus of Fine Arts exist in most other nations and have been proposed for the United States throughout its history, as far back as Washington and Jefferson. Not until W.P.A. Federal Projects had shown concretely the benefits of such a program and how it should function could it be considered practical. It is logical that the first bill should have been drafted with the existant projects as a pattern but both project and non-project artists are well aware of the limitations of the W.P.A. and eager to rid a permanent Bureau of them.</p>
<p>Since the first introduction of the Coffee Bill a Federal Arts Committee has been formed for the purpose of conferring with Mr. Coffee to perfect and support a bill to meet the needs of the greatest number of artists and the general public all over the country. This committee with central headquarters in the Murray Hill Hotel, New York City has a nation-wide membership with Lawrence Tibbet as its chairman. Burgess Meredith is chairman of its executive board and sub-committees for various arts are headed by Leopold Stokowski, Lillian Gish, Ruth St. Denis, Donald Ogden Stewart and Max Weber. Local committees are being organized in cities throughout the country and all interested in a Bureau of Fine Arts are urged to join one of these groups.</p>
<p>JOY PRIDE,</p>
<p>Federal Arts Committee.</p>
<p>The representatives of American citizens are selected by the vote of citizens. I believe that representatives of American culture as proposed in a Federal Arts Bureau should be elected by the vote of ALL persons professionally engaged in that culture. I do not see why the bill cannot be set up in such a way as to make this procedure constitutional.</p>
<p>H. W. T.</p>
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<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-34">
<head>ART IN PRINT</head>
<p>Harper’s Encyclopedia of Art, in two volumes, should prove a boon to all those art students who at some time or other find themselves wondering just what “plateresque” or “xoanon” means. The answer for these questions and literally thousands like them can be found in this new encyclopedia. The two volumes cover the field of art terms, art activities, and art personalities from Yen Li-Pen (“Chinese painter of the 7th century”) to Eugene Speicher, from the caves of Altamira to the Escurial, by means of clear, if necessarily brief definitions.</p>
<p>Originally compiled by Louis Hourticq, Member of the Institute of France, the encyclopedia has been translated under the supervision of Tancred Borencus of the University of London. Numerous modernizations and revisions have been made by J. Leroy Davidson and Philippa Gerry, assisted by a staff of experts in various fields.</p>
<p>This edition of Hourticq’s work has been very finely gotten up. The type, though not large, is preeminently readable. There are a multitude of illustrations, including two full color plates, one hundred and twenty-five groups of half-tone reproductions, and innumerable black and white drawings scattered through the text.</p>
<p>The price, $30.00 for the two volumes, may be out of the reach of most individuals, but surely there must be many groups or clubs which could afford to obtain this very valuable publication. Indeed, it would almost seem indispensable to any “art library”. The wealth of clear, concise information it contains, will more than repay the original purchase price.</p>
<p>J. R.</p>
</div>
<div xml:id="issue-08-chapter-35">
<head>COMING SHOWS</head>
<list>
<item rend="list-head">New York, N. Y.</item>
<item>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>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.</item>
<item>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>
</list>
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