Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1913 (Heft 41))

PHOTO-SECESSION NOTES

EXHIBITION OF CARICATURES BY ALFRED J. FRUEH
THE Little Galleries at “291 ” opened in December with an exhibition of
caricatures by Alfred J. Frueh, an American artist. Our most popular
stage folks were represented in an individual and characteristic manner,
and while Frueh’s work is not to be considered as a contribution to the ad-
vancement of modern art; it reveals a fresh and independent point of view.
His show afforded a refreshing relaxation, in its sympathetic humor, from the
tension of New York life. Frueh is to be congratulated for the delightful
manner in which he has depicted his impressions of our popular entertainers,
displaying a pictorial sense of line and color, an ability to seize the significant
characteristics of each individual, and emphasizing them with a gentle, if
sometimes mordant, irony. His show was a stimulating introduction to the
season.
EXHIBITION OF DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS BY WALKOWITZ
The drawings of A. Walkowitz, of New York, which followed the Frueh
Exhibition introduced to the New York public the work of an artist in
close contact with the social movement of the day. The spirit which
urges men to free themselves from the bonds of obsolete laws and conventions
permeates his work. But the orderly and dignified tone of his drawings and
paintings prove that anarchy does not mean license, but means the right
of man to absolute freedom in his life and in his expression, not as a birth-
right, but as a privilege earned by proving oneself worthy of it. Art in its
evolution is closely allied to social evolution. Walkowitz’s work is especially
interesting as the manifestation of a man who has given expression to a spirit
of freedom which he has found in his contact with society and has felt the
need of expressing through his art.

We reprint according to our custom and for the sake of record the reviews
published in the press on the Frueh and Walkowitz exhibitions:
Samuel Swift in the “N. Y. Sun”:
There was once a young man at work making pictures and tying them together with
strings of words for a New York newspaper. What he did was willingly paid for, but the work
was not that which accurately expressed the personality of the young man himself. In his
hours of leisure (this phrase will sound strange to many a newspaper man) the artist made
pictures and drawings that were only to please himself. It happened that one of his colleagues
saw some of these drawings, chiefly caricatures, and he brought news of them to the unique
man at the head of the Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession, Alfred Stieglitz.
Of course Mr. Stieglitz, after seeing the modest youth and his work, said, “Come.” That
is a way he has when he believes in anything. Said Mr. Stieglitz to the newspaper man: “You
have done these drawings in order to sell them?” “No.” “Do you want them to be pub-
lished?” “No.” “You did them only for your own interest and satisfaction?” “Yes.” “Good,”
said Stieglitz, for his gallery, as you may know, is the one show-place in New York where the
matter of selling what is exhibited is of less importance than anything else connected with the
enterprise.

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