Studio: international art (82.1921)

AN AMERICAN SCULPTOR : PAUL
MANSHIP, BY A. E. GALLATIN.

I.

THE almost complete ignorance found in
Paris of contemporary American and
British painting is always a matter of amaze-
ment to the American. A close and intelli-
gent student of the movements going on in
France, and deeply versed in the traditions
of French art, the French connoisseur,
whether he be critic, collector or dealer,
apparently does not consider the art of
England and America quite worthy of his
attention. Admitting that the arts in
modern times, and for the sake of argu-
ment, even to-day, have flourished in
France to a greater degree than anywhere
else, it is nevertheless curious that such a
highly intelligent and cultivated people as

the French should have been indifferent
towards the work of the many gifted artists
that Great Britain and America have pro-
duced in the past twenty or thirty years.
This lack of knowledge is of course partly
explained by the fact that the work of these
men has never been adequately shown in
Paris; many of the most important Ameri-
can painters have never exhibited in Paris at
all, and much of the blame therefore lies
with America. In New York, on the other
hand, the studentof contemporarypainting,
both of France and England, is able to keep
fairly well abreast with the main currents.
For example, many of the most discussed
painters of France were represented in the
remarkable assemblage of French paintings
shown during the spring and summer of
this year at the Metropolitan Museum.
This exhibition, which had such men as

" SPEAR THROWER "
BY PAUL MANSHIP
137