Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1908 (Heft 22))

These examples of the work of the Photo-Secessionists furnished a
continual surprise to all who visited the exhibition, and not a few remarked
the superiority in quality of the portraits by Steichen and White to many of
the canvases shown, which led one art critic into the error of calling them
reproductions of paintings, evidently on the presumption that nothing like
Steichen's striking portrait of Maeterlinck or White’s fine, sympathetic por-
trait of Mrs. White, could possibly be done with a camera; while Coburn's
print, called “ The Bridge—Venice,” was mistaken for an etching and a
mezzotint. One thing was demonstrated beyond dispute—that the work of
these men reflected their personality with no less certainty than did the
paintings of Luks, Henri or Dabo, and in certain instances with a more
potent charm—one of the finest bits of Impressionism in the whole exhibi-
tion was Joseph T. Keiley’s “ A Bit of Paris,” and the “Snapshot—Berlin ,"
by Alfred Stieglitz.
Next to the photographs by the Photo-Secessionists, the paintings by
Luks, Dabo, and Steichen, attracted the most attention. Luks, the very
mention of whose name is panicky to art-officialdom, was represented by
eight canvases—practically his best work. Luks is of the race of Manet, a
simple, unphilosophical nature, who is never bothered by any kind of artistic
abstractions, who paints the life about him with a naturalness and an abandon
unpreoccupied by precedents or traditions. Luks is neither moral nor
immoral, neither literary nor religious. Luks paints as Velasquez painted,
because the subject is a painter's subject. Luks is one of the glories of
American art, and probably our greatest figure painter.
Robert Henri, son of Manet and Whistler, a link between the formal-
ists and the methodists and the free expression of Luks, was represented by
several canvases. His immediate adherents—Glackens, Sloan, Shinn,
Lawson, whose artistic antecedents are the same as Henri's—were also well
represented here, together with others of the same general tendency, all
related and harking back to Manet.
Eduard Steichen, one of our most interesting and able painters, was
represented by several canvases which reflected a refined sense of color
combined with a poetic temperament. His painting of Beethoven , hanging
between his subtle landscapes, was one of the most impressive canvases in
the whole exhibition.
Of peculiar and historic interest, because of his constant rejection by
all our official art bodies, was the six landscapes shown by Leon Dabo, who
is to-day the most discussed and best hated painter in America. He, like
Steichen, has been compared with Whistler and accused of aping that master’s
manner, a contention based on a superficial knowledge of the work of both
of these painters. Dabo is, above all, a painter of light effects ; he sacrifices
form for light and atmosphere; Whistler sacrifices form for tone, which is
quite a different matter.
On the whole, this exhibition was one of the most interesting and vital
that has been held in this country, and marks the beginning of a new move-
ment in our art life.
J. Nilsen Laurvik.

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