Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly (1914 (Heft 47))

would be approximately 20%, yet this man has patiently listened to the
other 80% with courtesy. Such is real fortitude, and one cannot help won-
dering how many times this Man has conquered his temper.
The utter lack of commercial taint has been this gallery’s habit. And
now as we see the commercial efforts of other galleries to harvest “ Cubic
Art,” the integrity of 291 is verified.
The scavengers that always follow the pioneer are at work, and they
ply their vulture craft, offering their imitation wares with all the effrontery
of trade. And the artists who are supplying their needs, got their ideas
from “291”; but realizing that the usual commercial methods could not be
supplied here they sought the “gilded portals” and in these “houses of art
prostitution” they are now reaping the usual reward.
With the demolition of this little gallery, amid the debris of brick and
mortar, lath and plaster, there will lurk the spirit of truth. Truth such as
Zola loved, the truth of the true artist. Let us conjure fate to build again
a new home for this truth, and build it upon the old foundations designed by
this Man.
Ernest Haskell

I came into a small room. Not a soul was there. Empty walls. A
few autumn leaves in a great brass bowl. I felt like sitting down. I sat
on a box which was standing about. And I thought: this place needs no
pictures. I staid there a long while—alone. No one disturbed me. Inspira-
tion was in the atmosphere—and so was rest.
And when I returned to the street it seemed more beautiful than before.
Frank Fleming

“291” is a man who lives through a company, a crowd busy expressing
a man; a room and a shrine; an adventure and a dream; a pageant of critics,
prophets and fools; a drama of creators; the lure of yesterday, the menace
of tomorrow.
Lee Simonson

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