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One of the biggest and best of the season’s art attractions is still to come—the 17th Annual Exhibition of the Art Directors Club! After years of dickering with the New York officials, Philadelphia has at last arranged for this, the most important annual advertising show in the world, to be shown at the Art Alliance,
Comprising almost three hundred items from every field of advertising art, in all media—oil, water color, etching, photography—this show will be a “must” not only for the advertising man and the advertising student, but for everyone interested in contemporary Americana.
Henry Pitz, who was largely responsible for the Show’s reaching Philadelphia, commented on its importance by saying: “It should open the eyes of the ‘fine art’ people for the simple reason that a lot of this is fine art, done by master craftsmen. It is American folk art at its best, and as such, perhaps our most vital art form. Not only has modern commercial art done much to popularize fine art movements, as seen by the designs of Covarrubias, Alexander Brook, Grant Wood, or Cassandre, but it has also stimulated in the average man a new appreciation of all art, since it is the most widely influential of all contemporary art.”
So encouraging has been the response among commercial art circles to the Exhibition—the Philadelphia Art Directors’ Club was re-united as an immediate result—that there is now some possibility of making if an annual affair in Philadelphia.
Two Philadelphians, Walter Reinsel and Paul Darrow, were honored with awards for distinctive merit. To Reinsel went the award for the best design of a complete advertisement in class magazines, while Darrow won the award for the best design for a complete advertisement in newspapers.
First Prize in the Sixth Annual Exhibition of the Germantown Art League, now being held at “Vernon” in Vernon Park, was awarded to L. A. D. Montgomery for “Girl in Landscape.” John B. Lear, Jr.’s “February Thaw,” and Jean Watson’s “Quarry” won honorable mentions.
Mary Louise Lawser, Dorothy Grafly, Walter Gardner, and S. Walter Norris comprised the Jury.
The three day Arts Festival, held at Bryn Mawr Art Center,
Saturday was devoted to special demonstrations, beginning with a talk, “A New Note in Garden Sculpture” by Clara Sorenson Dieman. Maulsby Kimball, Jr. spoke on “Painting Composition,” illustrating the composition he worked out by a flower painting done later in the afternoon. Margaret Rebmann demonstrated artistic flower arrangements. An exhibition and sale of arts and crafts, including garden sculpture by Clare Sorenson Dieman, Dorothy Ford Montgomery, and Wharton Esherick, was carried on throughout the day.
The festival was sponsored by the Arts and Interests Committee of the Junior League, with the cooperation of the Chester County Art Association.
George Grey Barnard, famous Pennsylvania born sculptor who died
At his own request, Barnard’s remains will rest in Harrisburg near his statues in the Pennsylvania State Capitol.
The architects chosen by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, to draw plans for its first low-rent dwelling project, are: W. Pope Barney, Frank R. Watson, Roy W Barnwell, Edmund B. Gilchrist, Harry Parker, and William H. Thompson.
One hundred and forty-one architects entered the competition. The winning plan calls for a series of two story dwellings surrounded by spacious recreation grounds containing a community center and ball diamond.
The Civic Club Garden Fete,
“Isn’t it remarkable,” said Nicolas Marsicano, President of the Philadelphia Artists Union, “that an organization of approximately one hundred members can put on an affair of this magnitude? It has been tried without success in New York and other cities.” And remarkable it was, with 2500 guests crowding the ball-room of the Penn A. C. on the night of
The theme of the Artists Union ball was “Americana.” A “Casey at the Bat” costume won first prize. Other awards went to “The Original Aztec,” a pulchritudinous maiden attired in a huge feathered headdress and little else; an “Early American Couple”; and “Kitty the Killer,” a new caricature of Katherine Littlefield by Lou Hirshman. Miss Littlefield publicly slapped Hirshman for his last caricature for her. His reward for this one was an original painting by A. Chanin. One of the most elaborate costumes, though not a prize winner, was Paul Shearer’s effective “American Eagle.”
A pox on those tourists who attend costume balls in street or conventional evening clothes, and on those who attend for the sole purpose of exhibiting the fact that they are of indeterminate sex.
The decor contained less acid satire than we expected from Hirshman and was very striking. Two gigantic white cut-out figures flanked the stage, which contained an American desert scene with tri-dimensional cacti, vulture, skeleton, and over it all a cloud mirage containing a haloed cowboy and his heavenly gal friend.
Around and above the dance floor were a series of illustrations from the sob ballad era, cleverly originated by Bernard Petlock. Assisting Hirshman and Petlock with the decor was Sandor Nagy.
The Philadelphia Artists Union deserves credit for its capable management of a brilliant affair, the success of which was due to the untiring concerted efforts of this active little organization.
The 7th Annual Rittenhouse Square Clothes Line Sale of oil paintings, water colors, and prints, under the auspices of the Art League of Philadelphia will be held in Rittenhouse Square,
All artists are invited to exhibit. Just bring your clothesline and clothespins. All sales will be conducted at the Art Alliance, 251 South 18th St.
As ill fortune will have it, there are many vicious situations confronting the artist over which he has no control. Here is one of them.
The school-children of today constitute the public of tomorrow. As they are taught, so will they, for the most part, develop. It is naturally unnecessary to emphasize the supreme importance of our educational system in strengthening the sinew of future America—culturally and otherwise.
We seem to be making a good job of it—in all ways except one. That is the teaching of art in public schools.
In this we have the most thoroughly pathetic system of education conceivable. Art, as important as it is in the making of an intelligent and well balanced nation is, in this connection, relegated to almost total obscurity. The Board of Public Education would not consider granting a chair in chemistry to a professor who had but a smattering of it, simply because he boasted ample teaching credits. However, that is precisely what is often done in relation to teachers of art.
By and large, art is dished out to public school pupils by individuals who have acquired one or two fundamentals in drawing and precious little, or no, knowledge of the essence of art—but are equipped with much useless psychology of teaching and what-not.
There is a gentleman of our acquaintance who, while possessed of a “talent” for drawing, privately admits complete lack of knowledge of or sympathy for art. Nevertheless he successfully completed one or two college courses which the Board of Public Education deemed necessary to an art teacher—and which, incidentally, have nothing whatever to do with art. Consequently, he is now qualified not only to teach art in the public schools, but, by reason of superior academic credits to become a supervisor.
How shall art in America thrive on such methods! We do not expect the student body of our nation to become artists en masse, but only intelligent art teaching shall create intelligent art response in the nation. And the artists shall suffer eventually, with this system.
No palpable improvement upon it can be hoped for until there comes realization of the fact that it is quite possible to find ARTISTS to teach art.
Is there a workable plan, for both artist and gallery, whereby each will be justly treated? Whereby each shall find it possible to work in harmony and to the eventual profit of both?
If so, what is it?
A more knotty problem is difficult to conceive, in view of the great number of plans, practical and otherwise, that have been unsuccessfully launched.
One thing we know: if artist and gallery are to succeed, a complete rehabilitation must occur.
We have discussed the rental charged to the artist by the gallery. Recently there has been manifest an inclination on the part of the artist to charge rental to the gallery. Both are sufficiently impractical, for neither can be paid with economic logic, in most cases.
Both artist and gallery must cast about for a better plan. In the light of this, we offer a few interesting comparisons.
A novel is written and accepted for publication. The publisher bears the cost of printing, advertising and distributing. The author is paid royalties from proceeds furnished by the public’s purchase of the book WITHOUT FIRST HAVING READ IT. The royalties of playwrights proceed from the same source—the public patronizes the theatre and cinema WITHOUT FIRST HAVING SEEN WHAT IT PAID FOR. In the case of books borrowed from libraries, they have, at any rate, been purchased by the libraries.
The only parallel situations in art are print-making, where possible duplication and distribution makes royalties possible, and bronzes, which likewise may be duplicated and approximate the situation.
But what about the painter, who cannot duplicate his originals? Royalties are unknown to him. He paints and, having painted must in most cases pay for the privilege of showing his wares to the public free of charge. If he sells, very well. If not, it is unfortunate. Having sold, should the premium on his painting rise, its present owner profits—not he, as he would were he a novelist. In other words, the painter’s profit ends with his first successful audience.
Last December, in an issue of the Art Digest we read, with deep concern no less than amusement, of “Stella”. She was a “buxom, young, and scantily dressed siren” immortalized in paint by one A. E. Hardy, of San Jose. It appears that during the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition one hundred thousand dollars in dimes was paid by the public for the delight of eyeing her charms. Furthermore, she will come forth from her obscurity for the same purpose at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.
We do not regard this as an indication of American art-mindedness. It has occurred to us, however, that a huge slice of American art lovers may find as great a thrill in viewing an exhibition of contemporary American paintings as the patrons of “Stella” enjoyed looking at her. They may pay, not only a dime, but a quarter.
Inasmuch as most visitors to galleries are there to look rather than buy, there is no logical reason why an admission should not be charged. This plan has been adopted by a few progressive galleries, and should be more widespread than it is, for without the cooperation of all galleries the plan would be impotent. And equally impotent if the artist does not share in it.
If put universally into effect, the revenue would doubtless be surprising, and contribute generously toward solving the practical problems of both artist and gallery.
In the best of all possible worlds there should be but two kinds of people: artists and those who understand them. While this view may be, at the moment, a bit too idealistic for practical purposes, its virtue is well illustrated by certain isolated examples in history. Michelangelo had his Lorenzo di Medici, Wagner his Mad King of Bavaria, Van Gogh his Theo. Likewise, many another painter or composer has profited by the sympathy of a layman.
Painting, that most incomprehensible of all arts, must have meant much to the late Maurice Gangnat. He was a friend of Renoir and an active purchaser of his canvases. From Philip, son of the collector, comes an assortment of fifty late Renoir oils to abide indefinitely in the Philadelphia Museum, where, we have reason to hope, it may be preserved from some future catastrophe of European war. Philip Gangnat has seen to it that El Greco’s fate shall not be Renoir’s. For this we are largely indebted to Henry P. Mcllhenny, assistant curator of the Museum, who was instrumental in having the collection housed in Philadelphia where it is now on display, augmented by drawings, lithographs, sculpture and oils from other sources.
Here one may find valuable data concerning the growth and development of the great French Painter. More than this, one finds ample evidence of the most important factor in the maturity of any painter—the cloak of individuality he places over all he sees.
One finds that with time Renoir’s vision tended to exclude purely textural and realistic considerations; the texture of his canvas and the beauty of his pigment were his all, and a glorious all they were. A tree, a rose, a strawberry, a bit of flesh—quite the same to Renoir: food for his eye, mind and hand, the result more vital than its inspiration.
We may feel infinite—and justifiable—pride in our ability, as a country, to offer sanctuary to such masterpieces when the threat of destruction hangs over them in the place of their birth.
Hobson Pittman, teacher of art at Friends’ Central School, deserves much commendation for the vitality and variety of work shown at the school’s Seventh Annual Exhibition of oils, water colors and sculpture by Philadelphia artists. Unfortunately, the show terminated
What impressed us particularly was that while most of the works were definitely progressive no one complexion was allowed to predominate—we were made to feel that Philadelphia has a number of painters possessed of independence and originality of vision, who do not tread upon each other’s toes, but progress side by side.
Leon Karp’s wide-eyed youth, handled with poetic softness of green and brown, was far away from Emlen Etting’s red house that peeked eerily from behind a bare tree. Yet these artists have a common goal: that of fine paintings. Carl Lindborg, Albert B. Serwazi, Grace Gemberling, Francis Speight and Virginia McCall are likewise moulding their artistic destinies in courageous manner. Walter Baum continued to look upon landscape with dramatic vigor. Antonio Martino saw the city with great strength and simplicity, and Hobson Pittman contributed a soft, sympathetic interior.
Outstanding among the water colorists were Earl Horter (a luminous “Misty Night”), Earle Miller (actively handled “Small Town Street”), Henry White Taylor (small vivid landscape) and Paul Gill (a sparkling “Mexican Funeral”).
Carl Shaffer outdid himself in a floral still life—one of his best to date—composed with delicate color and fortified with free black lines.
Space does not permit discussion of other gifted contributors of both oil and water color. Four sculptors were represented: Frederick Harer, Joseph Greenberg, Stanley Corneal and John Rockerfeller.
That John James Audubon was a gifted artist as well as a great ornithologist is revealed in the current exhibition of his work at the Academy of Natural Sciences. His feeling for decorative line and mass was almost as strong as that for scientific accuracy.
“Carolina Parrot,” a water color and crayon showing a brilliant blue, yellow and orange bird poised in a green vine, illustrates the artistic pattern that Audubon derived concurrently with scientific exactitude. As in this piece, the natural habitat was almost always made a decorative factor. Again, in “Trumpeter Swan,” one of the plates from the original folio, the naturally pronounced curves of the bird and the dead white of its plumage were made into a magnificent design.
The group show at the A. C. A. Galleries, oils, water colors, and gouaches by seven Philadelphians, provided variety and interest. In June Groff’s “Strings” the thick, raw color has a soaring quality emulating the music of the violins and cello it portrays. Philip Levone shows gouaches of a naive charm, “Fruit Cart,” vivid color areas bounded in black, being typical. In the water color “Shubert Burlesque: Front Row,” Abe Chanin catches the feverish closeness of the theatre; form, color and light are welded in a shimmering movement. An affinity with cubism is revealed in the geometric shapes that give Hubert Mesibov’s free water color, “Oil Refinery,” its pattern of force and depth. Physical and spiritual weariness are interpreted by angular monotony and grey-shot colors in Marsicano’s “Subway.” In “Old Woman,” Nat Koffman presents a study in solidity. Joe Presser’s powerfully blocked out head, “Miner,” is, with its suggestion of brooding strength, one of the most compelling pieces in the exhibition.
Created out of a love of the Radnor hunting country and the life it sponsors, the paintings and drawings by Charles Morris Young, at McClees, record something of an idyll in scenes of old taverns and farmhouses, and scarlet coated gentleman riding the hounds over the sloping country of Pennsylvania. In spring and in fall, Young depicts with sincerity the deep relationship between man and landscape.
Frequently employing the grotesque curve of the Victorian era, Wanda Gag, whose prints are to be seen at the Carlen Galleries, achieves the utmost in decorative quality from her method and her medium. In her work a feeling for complicated line is combined with a keen appreciation of tonal values.
Deep shadows and flaring lights, as in the pyramidal “Lantern and Fireplace” successfully exploit the possibilities of the black and white print. In “Spring in the Garden,” the twisting line embodies the movement of growth. Also included in this exhibit are a series of her characteristically engaging cat studies.
Blue tones of an always luminous but changing quality dominate Lucile Howard’s oils, the May exhibition at the Woman’s University Club. Slightly romantic in character, these paintings successfully evoke the atmosphere of blue cragged Grecian harbors, cathedrals in the Low Countries, and the low hills and peat fields of Ireland.
“Rain’s End: County Donegal” is typical of Lucile Howard’s response to the Irish landscape. A clearing, limitless sky stretches above blue mountains, while in the foreground lie two thatched, stone cottages that seem to have risen out of the earth itself. The real poverty of the country is transmuted. One senses not the barrenness of the land, but its stillness and peace.
The flower paintings and screens by M. Elizabeth Price, on view at the Women’s City Club, are distinguished by bright, flat color thinly applied to gold or silver backgrounds. Unconditionally decorative, these floral pieces are highly appealing within their limited field. The fragile exoticism of the orchid, the scarlet flamboyancy of the poppy—these are the sort of themes particularly suited to her technique.
The 74th Annual Exhibition of Small Oil Sketches at the Sketch Club is a good show. Yet, difficult as the judging must have been, one feels satisfied with the Jury’s decision to award Francis Speight the Sketch Club Medal for the strongly colored and designed “Street in Pottsville”. Combining a free use of architectural and natural forms with vivid and emotional color, Speight has constructed a powerful painting.
Both Albert Serwazi’s “Bather,” a figure study in luminous, though predominantly grey and brown color, and Frank Vanacore’s “Deserted Station,” solidly built in cold and sullen tones and employing a telling repetition of the line of the railroad tracks in the pattern of the sky, would likewise seem to merit the Honorable Mentions they received.
A belief in water color as a medium adapted to almost any type of subject marks Elizabeth S. Laverty’s exhibition at 1525 Locust St. Pleasing floral designs, solid portraiture, and sensitive rendering of old Pennsylvania farmhouses in summer sunlight make this group of water colors thoroughly enjoyable.
The Summer Show at the Warwick Galleries, paintings and drawings by Page Cary, John J. A. Dixon, Maxim Gottlieb, Vincent La Bodessa, Carl Lindborg, Justin Pardi, Josef Presser, Carl Shaffer, Henry White Taylor and Ben Wolf offers some excellent work by contemporary Philadelphians.
Outstanding are Henry White Taylor’s sensitive child portrait, “Lois,” which, in its indefinite violets and blues reflects the fragility and transiency of childhood, and Carl Shaffer’s “Chaos,” flowers loosely arranged with a Japanese feeling for line and mass. Page Carey’s emulation of the primitive, “Amish Evening,” is an amusing example of a consciously naive approach.
The 15th Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Etchers, at the Print Club, reveals few startling deviations from the traditional, but it does offer a collection of black and whites of fine craftsmanship and honest conception. “Along the Harlem” by Earle Horter, awarded the Charles M. Lea Prize, is a skillful composition of dock frames and the glimmering of oil-surfaced water. Martin Lewis’s “Day’s End,” workers streaming in depressing formation from a small town factory; E. H. Sherman’s “Great Moment,” the elephant act at a circus; and Roselle H. Osk’s rounded portrait of two Negro girls received Honorable Mentions.
Among those prints which did not receive prizes, but which seem especially interesting for their approach, is Hubert Mesibov’s “Homeless,” a return to the social comment of Goya. People run in a wind of terror, the general darkness being only occasionally broken by a fear-lit face.
The Annual Exhibition of the Philadelphia Water Color Club at the Art Alliance shows a broadening in the conception of water color. Most of the artists represented, while realizing and fully utilizing the peculiar limitations and opportunities of the medium, have discarded a restricting consciousness of technique for a free creation of works of art.
Especially outstanding for their originality of approach are the social comments of Edward Walton, “Connoisseurs and Critics” and “Pay Day,” Walter Loderback’s caricature “Capital and Labor Meet,” and Alexander Bower’s “Shore Pattern,” a dynamic, angular design of sea and rocks. Barse Miller, with great fluidity, suggests mist and evening light in “Sand Tower, San Bernado,” and “East Bay.”
THE CRAFT STUDIO of the Central Y.W.C.A., at 1800 Arch St., will hold its Annual Exhibition,
The Philadelphia Art News was born in the beginning of an exciting season in the art activities of Philadelphia. This was the year of the Cezanne purchase, the Barnes Battles, the Artists Union picketing of the Museum during the W.P.A. show, the Federal Arts Bill controversy which gave rise to the formation of the most representative art group in the town’s history—the Affiliated Art Heads of Philadelphia, and other dramatic events.
In the Philadelphia Art News, all of Philadelphia’s graphic and plastic art activities have been impartially described for the first time—beginning with the Fine Arts through Illustration, Commercial Art, Display, Architecture, Crafts, and Photography. Never before has art been so effectively reported in relation to the everyday life of a city. We have championed impartially all constructive art activities, and fearlessly opposed undesirable practices. We have been independent of any organization or group and have worked conscientiously for the common good of contemporary Philadelphia Art and Artists.
Your response has been encouraging. You have been friendly and cooperative and interested. Yet a huge part of the potentialities for art appreciation and patronage in Philadelphia is unawakened. It is absurd that this center of vast wealth should not be financially an especially happy setting for able professional artists, but such is the case.
The Philadelphia Art News is the likeliest means yet devised to correct this unfortunate condition. Our plans for the fall are for a sounder structure and greater scope. We count on you and all your friends to back us to the limit to help put over Philadelphia art.
Thirty-five members of the Philadelphia Artists’ Union are currently exhibiting at the New School for Social Research, 66 West 12th St., New York City. This, the first New York showing of twenty-five oils and twenty water colors and prints, was arranged by the Union’s Executive Committee, headed by Robert Gwathmey.
The members of the Philadelphia Group whose works are included in this exhibit are: Marcella Brudo, Norman Carton, Abe Chanin,, Charles Cockey, Ralston Crawford, Laura Delano, Franz DeMellier, Ann Eshner, Sam Fried, Robert Gwathmey, Robert Harlow, Sam Heller, Louis Hirshman, Joe Hirsch, Herbert Jennings, Nat Koffman, Lisa Langley, Roy Lehman, Hershel Levitt, Philip Levone, Nicholas Marsicano, Hubert Mesabov, Alex. Nagy, Jack Ovcharov, Isadore Posoff, Joseph Presser, Maggie Preston, Miriam Rosenbach, Marjorie Solomon, Harold Stevens, Nathan Stumacher, Joe Tonner, Robert Voltz, John Wilder.
The private view of the Black and White and Print Exhibition of the Plastic Club was held
Awards for work in the Annual Sketch Class Exhibition were made as follows: First Prize to Catherine Stewart Williams; Second Prize, Margaret J. Marshall; First Honorable Mention, Dorothy Henderson; Second Honorable Mention, Margaret M. Welsh.
At the Biennial Election of Officers on
On Friday evening,
Furman J. Finck’s first New York one-man show, held at MacBeth Galleries this month, was unusually well received by critics. To quote Royal Cortissoz of the New York Herald Tribune, “Not in a long time has a newcomer affirmed himself so satisfactorily.”
Finck is an instructor at the Tyler Fine Arts College and head of the Oak Lane Country Day School’s art department.
Peter Kerr speaks on “Raoul Dufy” at 8:00 P.M.,
There was a time when America’s minor statesmen were painted by private portrait painters on commission. Now W.P.A. offers to paint all public officials deemed worthy of representation in oil. This constitutes another inroad of government-paid relief workers on private enterprise W.P.A. has a distinguished record for the development and promotion of talented painters who might have gone under forever in the depression, and this is a fine thing. But every activity of W.P.A. which infringes on the narrow markets for private commissions is a blow to the profession as a whole. Professional portrait painters bitterly resent this new pinch to their currently slender chances of earning a livelihood.
G. CARTER MORNINGSTAR designed a bronze tablet which was recently dedicated and placed in the sidewalk at 135 Market Street, the site where Franklin’s printing shop once stood.
MAY GRAY, Philadelphia artist, is exhibiting water colors in the Stendhal Galleries, Los Angeles this month.
EARLE and PETER MILLER are remodeling an old house near Downingtown.
CELESTE HECKSCHER TROTH, during April, showed two paintings in downtown Philadelphia windows. Her head of Christ was exhibited in the Newman Galleries and the Baptist Book Shop, and her “Liebestodt” in Pressers.
WILLIAM W. SWALLOW exhibited water colors, wood sculpture and terra cotta at Temple University
MARY MULLINEUX, fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy and member of the Print Club and the Germantown Art League will be in charge, during July of a new Summer Art School at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The sponsoring group for this school was organized by an alumna of the School of Industrial Art, Mrs. W. S. Corkran (Mary Louise Chambers) who is now its Executive Secretary.
PHILADELPHIANS among the forty-two artists whose works will be included in an exhibition to be sent to the London branch of Wildenstein Galleries are: George Biddle, Arthur Carles, Carroll Tyson, and Franklin Watkins.
A Philadelphia Muralist visited the office of a public official in New England. It was a large room with many desks. Its long inner wall was informed with a mural purporting to represent the life of a Revolutionary War General. The artist had let himself go, esthetically. He had employed many known natural forms and colors and some unknown ones. The hero of the piece—the Revolutionary General—had never been south of the fortieth meridian. Nevertheless, in one panel the artist had introduced, under artistic compulsion no doubt, palm trees and other tropical growths. Another space needed an angular element to give it essence; this was ingeniously supplied by a certain view of a cow.
The public official pointed to this colossal work and explained to our colleague that it had been a W.P.A. project.
“We didn’t ask for it,” he added. “In fact, I tried to have it put somewhere else but I couldn’t arrange it. What do YOU think of it?”
The Philadelphian studied the painting for a moment.
“How do you find it to live with?” he asked.
“You’ll notice,” said the official, “that the desks are turned so that the clerks have their backs to the painting.”
“Yes?”
“They all began to have headaches, and the stenographers suffered from nausea. We finally had to face the light as the lesser evil.”
Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, eminent physician, research professor of physical education, and sculptor, died
We ran into “Mike” Angelo in a friend’s studio the other day, and he told us of one of those things that make life so miserable. Paramount Studios were quite taken with an idea of Mike’s to make a full-length animated cartoon feature of Don Quixote. Key drawings that he had prepared created quite a bit of interest in Hollywood, and it looked as though “Mike’s” idea would be headed for the silver screen. Then came the bitter pill. Paramount was relinquishing any desire to produce such a picture; they took too long to make, several years at least, and cost too much. And besides, they discovered that R.K.O. had a prior right to the story, and that they were distributors for all of Walt Disney’s outfit, and that Walt was going to do the picture himself in the future . . . Now all together . . . Whistle while you work!
Frank Stamato, sculptor and painter, has taken a studio at 1214 Walnut St.
Paul Froelich, after a long and profitable association, has left N. W. Ayer’s, and has taken a studio around the corner at 717 Walnut St. Froelich created many striking layouts for the French Line, Cannon Towels, and others.
Joe DiGitano is the new art director at the Benjamin Eshleman Agency, and we hope we’ve spelt his name right this time.
Al Paul Lefton & Co. are handling the Philadelphia Gas Works (nee U.G.I.) account.
Barry Thompson has a definite talent for buying the loudest shirts in existence. Keyed to screaming effulgence, the fabrics find a happy balance in the case hardened calm of the wearer. He still hopes someday to buy a shirt at Kayser & Allman’s.
Roland “Bud” Harper has just finished a thirty-two page booklet for Rohrabaugh-Gibson. The job included both layout and finished art work, an assignment which makes him the only busy artist we’ve encountered in some time.
Guy Fry gave us a preview of a series of striking posters for the Linton Restaurant account. They’re a silk screen job, created by Maurice Freed, and follow the happy adventures of a charming couple who have found the right place to eat. Freed, former art director of Esquire, has finished his assignment which will grace the fronts of P. R. T. conveyances throughout the year.
John Nagy, of New Hope and Chancellor Hall, has left McKee, Albright and Ivey. He’s freelancing from his place in Chancellor Hall, and reports that he’s been busily occupied every day. John recently designed several pages for the Wanamaker Store.
Richard Decker, of the New Yorker staff, and a former Philadelphian, has become a proud papa for the third time. Just Decker-ating the home, eh?
As a reminder, the F. Wallis Armstrong Company is now the Wheelock Co., with offices in the Lincoln-Liberty Bldg. And so, we’ll take leave until next fall when we’ll be back with more listings.
We dropped in on F. Sands Brunner last week, and got a good view of a big time illustrator in his native haunts. Busy but willing to talk, he told us all about his work . . . his start . . . his daughters . . . and a wooden horse standing in the middle of the floor.
He graduated from Industrial Art quite a while back (he forgets when), started out doing advertising down at Curtis; Ladies Home Journal employed him for fifteen years. During his decade and a half there, he sold them several covers, studied originals of artists who were at the top of the heap, worked hard nights on his own stuff, and emerged as a free lance poster artist and cover designer. Most recent work is a campaign for Canada Dry; Iron City Beer takes a lot of his work, and the Valley Forge Beer poster with the Washingtonish looking gentleman on it is a Brunner.
His two daughters, Sybil and Janet, pose for him almost exclusively; both are very pretty, intelligent, and embryonic artists themselves. Sybil attends Moore Institute; Janet spends most of her time posing, when she isn’t out arching. Sybil, as a result of the Christmas cover for “This Week,” for which she posed, was offered a screentest by Paramount, turned it down on the grounds that she’d rather be an artist. More power to Sybil.
Aside from his work, Brunner’s main interest is archery. Mountain climbing runs a close second, and every summer he packs the family off to the Adirondacks, turns them loose, including himself, and works all over the landscape climbing things.
The wooden horse we mentioned was built to hold a model to be used on a calendar painting. Ever since, it’s stood there proudly, but inertly.
YELLOWS. The yellow pigments in use at this time were:
Yellow ochres and natural Siennas, very permanent and durable pigments; like the natural red and brown ochres, they are found on the painter’s palette throughout the history of art.
The Yellow Oxide of Lead, known also as Massicot, is a soft, yellow powder obtained by heating White Lead at a high temperature. This pigment is permanent to light, but sensitive, like all lead pigments, to certain sulfurous gases, and has practically come into disuse. It was known in the time of Pliny, A. D. 677.
Orpiment, the very brilliant rich yellow sulphide of arsenic is mentioned by Pliny and was known to the early Egyptians. It is found native as a mineral and can be artificially prepared. It is now almost obsolete, although once used extensively.
There were also several organic lake pigments which were known even in the first century A. D. Italian Pink and Dutch Pink, which are really yellow pigments, Yellow Madder, and other Yellow Lakes prepared from extracts of the bark and berries of trees and plants, such as Quercitron bark, Turkish, or Avignon berries, species of buckthorn, dyers weed, etc. Since the development of synthetic dyestuffs, a larger selection of far more permanent and brilliant Yellow Lakes has displaced these on the modern palette.
Naples Yellow, which Michelangelo and succeeding painting schools employed quite extensively, was first mentioned by Cennino, 1437, as a natural earth of volcanic origin. Earlier evidence of its use is found as an enamel and on decorated pottery.
—To be continued—
For working flat with watercolor, or at a slight tilt with oil—an extremely rigid, compactly folding easel at $8.00. Or if you travel very light—a one-legged easel to steady your block in your lap—convenient adjustable clamp—folds to 18 inches—costs $1.75. Sketching stools 75c up. Umbrellas to control your light. Boxes of every size, style, and price.
There’s a special introductory offer of aqua-pastels in one art supply store. These easily used crayons are water soluble and permit considerable finish in quick notes. This is one of many bargains. Be on the look-out for Spring and Pre-inventory Sales.
Braquette, Adjustable-to-Size Picture Frames, are especially useful for the display of matted photographs, prints, and water colors. Three styles vary in dimension according to the following: 8¾ to 14 inches, 13¾ to 24 inches, 24 to 37 inches. Made of chromium or copper plated steel, sturdy and durable, Braquette may be used repeatedly. It consists of two simple metal-moulding clips which clamp on at top and bottom, holding mat and glass over the picture, which looks very smart. Hangs on stands. Priced from $2.00 to $3.00.
Snap-shots and prints may be beautifully mounted with Foto-Flat Membrane and an electrically heated Foto Welder. Foto-Flat Membrane is laid against the print, warmed by the Welder, becomes tacky as it cools, and is quickly pressed flat on the page of your album. Prints so mounted may be removed easily by again warming them with the welder. Foto-Flat Membrane comes in sheets 1 5/16 by 2 13/16 inches up to 16 by 20 inches, and in rolls 100 foot by 16 inches. Two sizes of Foto Welders, $1.50 and $6.50.
A white that works well and is non-poisonous is worth knowing about. Nonpareil now makes Nu-White, a zinc base compound for Photo-Retouchers and Engravers, 35c for a two ounce jar.
Head of Social Science Dept., Radnor High School
Social studies are frequently called the core of the curriculum. In most every cooperative unit we have used in Radnor’s Social science department in the last five years, the Art department has made many valuable contributions. In the event we studied World Culture units of any given chronological period or country, the Art instructor, Mr. Martin, showed how the spirit of the times was portrayed in an artistic way, or how the study of Art influenced that period of history.
Art students in the social studies classes found many different outlets for their abilities in doing project work. Oral reports, wood and soap carving, art themes, portrait painting, cartoons, caricatures, sign and program printing, wood cuts, jewelry making, and wood painting. All of these contributions served to enrich our program and give the group a better appreciation of the subject under consideration.
The following are some concrete examples of units we have done and how the Art department has been involved.
THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR—After the students had been given a socio-political-economic study in their class activities, Mr. Martin dwelt on Oriental art and the main differences from Occidental art. With the assistance of Mr. Riley, a collector of ceramic pottery, he gave a demonstration of this art in which the far east is unrivaled. The students grasped the importance of art in the propaganda now being used by the Chinese and Japanese which has played such an important role in moulding universal opinion. War propaganda led to other types found in newspapers, magazines and billboards. These in turn were discussed in the light of Art and we had many contributions from students publicizing War, Peace, Labor, Capital, American legislation, etc. by cartoons, banners, caricatures and slogans. Whenever political elections of any consequence are held, the students enter the fray with all seriousness and burst forth with banners, portraits, etc. in praise of or opposition to the candidates.
RUSSIA—We made a study of 19th and 20th century Russia showing life under the old regime and after the revolution.
Mr. Martin, with his extensive background in Ecclesiastical Art, showed the influence of the artists in the orthodox church. The students made a study of the Iconoclasts and made several Icons as well as other symbols characteristic of the Russian church.
CITY PLANNING AND THE F. H. A.—To the art department we gave the opportunity of laying out a city, determining the architecture of houses conforming with the traditions of that part of the country, drawing up plans for new housing to replace out-moded buildings in slum areas, and doing it according to a low budget.
VICTORIAN ENGLAND—Mr. Martin usually gives the trend of the various movements in art in the 19th century from the Romanticists thru the Post-Impressionists. The students read biographies on the masters of this period, draw sketches to illustrate the different schools, and at the same time show how their thinking was affected by the times.
These are just a few of the cooperative units where the art department is augmenting our course of social studies. This policy has been adopted not only to give those students interested in art an opportunity for project work, but also to develop a sense of appreciation for art in all members of the group, and make them cognizant of its importance and contribution to world movements and affairs.
SENIOR STUDENTS at Dixon House, 1920 So. 20th St., recently held an exhibition of water colors and oils. Several of the participants, after having attended Reber Hartman’s classes at Dixon House, have chosen art as a career and are now students at the School of Industrial Art.
Philadelphia doctors should be interested in the recently formed American Physician’s Art Association which is to hold its first exhibition this June at the San Francisco Museum of Art. A Jury of Selection, composed of non-members, will pass on all pieces submitted, while a Jury of Award will allot gold, silver, and bronze keys to the outstanding artists.
Types of work eligible for the show will include oils, water colors, pastels, sculpture, photography, etchings, crayons, pen-and-ink drawings (including cartoons), wood carvings, and book bindings. Further information may be obtained by writing to F. H. Redewill, M. D., secretary of the Association, at 521–536 Flood Building, San Francisco.
The picture’s the thing.
So many ambitious amateurs and striving professionals are overwhelmed with formulae, gadgets and Godknowswhatnots that the ultimate result does not even seem to matter.
Heads stuffed full of laboratory platitudes, obscure tricks, and play-toy stunts, these lost souls produce something that is nothing . . . neither fish, fowl, nor good red herring; photograph nor painting. Exposed to the mumbo-jumbo of myriad so-called photography magazines and the pernicious rigamarole of pamphlets designed solely for the purpose of selling thisa and thata to a gullible public, the mistaken neophyte falls into a photographic phrenzy . . . poor fellow.
Good photographers have forgotten all those things long ago, or better still, never did bother to thus clutter up their art.
Taste, composition, awareness and precision overbalance all the other trash. Personality and experience are the most potent ingredients. Stress pictorial content. Simplicity.
Any good camera will do.
The picture’s the thing . . . nothing else matters.
Don’t be a newt.*
*See “War With The Newts,” Karel Capek, G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
The gallery of N. W. Ayer and Son, from
An exhibition of photographs of children by Mary Louise Barrett was held at the Miquon School, near Conshohocken, the first week in May. Miss Barrett, who once did scientific photography at Harvard, is now a specialist in child photography and spends many hours with her subjects in order to catch a particular unselfconscious expression. While at Miquon she made photographic studies of the school life there.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPOSITION thought to be the first of its kind was held in Gimbel Brothers auditorium the first week in May. Addresses by authorities in the field, demonstrations, and “camera forums” were given and awards were made for outstanding pictures taken during the week.
MORRIS BLACKBURN was the speaker at a meeting of the Miniature Camera Club held
Virginia Pope, fashion editor of the New York Times, offered a survey of current clothes design to the Fashion Arts group of Moore Institute,
On
An alumni exhibition of paintings and black and whites by former students of Haverford College was held
The show was arranged under the auspices of the Haverford College Art Committee: J. Stodgell Stokes, chairman; Christian Brinton, Vice-Chairman; Richard Bernheimer, Vice-Chairman; Alexander J. Williamson, Vice-Chairman; Margaretta Hinchman, Mrs. M. Alexander Laverty, Alfred Percival Smith, Charles Wharton Stork, and Thomas Wistar.
First Prize in the Camera Contest of May Day at the Zoo was won by E. P. Baltz for “Hippocactus,” a study of the upper lip of the hippopotamus.
In the exhibition of paintings by school children which was hung in the lion house, first prize was awarded to seven year old Patsy Paul, of the Miquon School.
The April meeting of the Graphic Arts Forum, held
A few of the things members produced for discussion were: specimens of some fine old English and Dutch watermarks, discovered under unique conditions; a copy of “Journal of a Lady of Quality”; a copy of the “Essex House Bible”; and some English and German pamphlets.
Walter Pach has made a magnificent translation of the Journal of Eugene Delacroix (published by Covici Friede at $7.50) which atones for some of his too “popular” art books. It is the diary of a nineteenth century Frenchman which is much more than a record of his times. Here we find the man; his struggles; his hopes; his contempt for those of his artistic contemporaries who, to his way of thinking, lost their artistic integrity; and a humble realization of the inadequacy of his own work. He was an artist who always remained a student.
While he painted the then fashionable allegories almost exclusively, the work of Delacroix rose far above the banalities of a Cabanel or a Bougereau. His own personality in paint survived his prolonged studies of the old masters.
This is an important journal of a painter, a painter who is one of the most generously represented of all artists in the Louvre.
A career of great promise was brought to an untimely end last month with the death of Natol Sussanne, twenty-six year old Philadelphia painter. Sussanne’s New York debut at the Ferargil Galleries was reviewed in the
Once I got into England without using the proper landing card, but that was just one of those fantastic flukes. It was the time Irving Berlin and his bride escaped the photographers and interviewers when they boarded the Leviathan at New York for their honeymoon trip. Naturally all the news-hounds from Paris were on hand as the boat reached Cherbourg, first port of call. Not knowing whether the famous couple would disembark there or continue on to England we took no chances and boarded the Leviathan at once. The Berlins didn’t land there so we stayed aboard and went along across the Channel. The bridal pair stuck to their suite and their private deck and at first resisted all our efforts to get interviews and pictures. The winning argument seemed to be that they might as well get it over with now rather than dodge us all over Europe. They consented then to come out on an upper deck for five minutes to be photographed. Just as they came on deck the sun went down and a drizzle started. They shivered and we got what pictures we could in about a minute, as they hurriedly returned to their suite. Of course the sun, the old meanie, came out again as soon as they were gone. As we neared the shores of Britain a boat came alongside and a bevy of derby-hatted English photogs clambered up the side like monkeys, landing exactly, by luck or design, on the newlyweds’ private deck, where their quarry were comfortably ensconced in deck chairs enjoying the dazzling sunshine. Bang . . . bang . . . bang . . . and did they get pictures! Beautiful, spontaneous, and unposed. Were our faces red?
When the ship docked we were given our landing cards and everything was in order, but upon consulting railway schedules I found that if I waited for the usual landing formalities I would miss the London-bound train, and this train just made connections in London for the train for the channel boat. I had to catch that Channel boat to get back to Paris in time to cover the races next day. The bederbied English cameramen told me that it was all right just come along with them when they left ship and the port authorities would think I was one of them.
“. . . but don’t open your mouth—your American accent would betray you,” they told me. I kept it shut and made the train. I still have that landing card among my souvenirs.
THE PROCEEDS OF THE ARCHITECTS BALL, of the University of Pennsylvania, held Friday,
We’ve recently had the opportunity of examining work executed under one of the W.P.A. projects: the “Index of American Design in Pennsylvania.”
When completed, this will constitute a comprehensive survey of what happened when the hands of our quaint antecedents turned to the production of utilitarian things. The “Index” includes not only paintings but drawings and photographs, each item augmented by all historical data available. Thus it becomes as educational as it is artistic.
Ten Philadelphia artists and an equal number from Pittsburgh have been given employment on this project.
Travelling in surrounding country they garner the quaintest antiquities available and record them with complete fidelity. The Philadelphia Museum and Memorial Hall have likewise contributed to their fund of material.
In themselves most of the paintings are brilliant technical works and the completed portfolio should prove indispensable to the antiquarian. The material is almost exclusively Pennsylvania-German. In addition to paintings of glassware, quilts and coverlets, towels, plates, butter molds, cooking utensils, tiles and chests, there are dolls dressed in the fashion of the time, and many fascinating toys.
Aside from Pennsylvania-German material, the artists have created visual records of old Philadelphia fire-fighting equipment. An exhibit of this work is planned in the Fall.
W. B.