DOI Heft:
No. 192 (February, 1913)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Christian: Standardized sentiment in current art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43451#0450
Standardized Sentiment in Current Art
The Winter Academy
PORTRAIT OF
LOUISE
BY MARY GREENE
BLUMENSCHEIN
their grasp of scene and character or in their
inherent chromatic appeal. It is impossible not
to recognize the fact that the locks of our young
Samsons become clipped in the space of a few
brief years. They not infrequently start upon
their careers with a splendid burst of zeal and
enthusiasm. They continue for a time to remain
reasonably personal in their output, but in the
end most of them succumb to the inevitable pro-
cess of standardization. It is this situation which
gives such a display as the Philadelphia Water
Color Exhibition its special significance, for here
there is visible a definite desire to unbend, to
strike out for one’s self and achieve something free
and unstudied. Were we able to get together
a representative collection of oil paintings with
something of this delightfully informal and experi-
mental spirit, it might go far toward redeeming our
early promises and, incidentally, proving that in
art at least we are a young, rather than a prema-
turely aged nation.
III. THE CORCORAN GALLERY
EXHIBITION
The first thing which strikes the metropolitan
visitor to the Fourth Exhibition of the Corcoran
Gallery is the fact that here everything has been
done to beautify and dignify contemporary artis-
tic production. The wall coverings are light and
harmonious in tone, the pictures are hung with
scrupulous taste and balance, and the requisite
amount of space has been left between each can-
vas and its nearest neighbor. Considering the
wide and deserved popularity of these admirable
biennial exhibitions, and the large quantity of
works at the disposal of the jury, it would have
been an easy matter to have increased the numeri-
cal strength of the display. And yet rigorous ex-
clusion rather than indiscriminate inclusion as
practised at the New York Academy of Design
has kept the list down to 246 canvases, whereas
the Academy, with infinitely less space at its com-
mand, has had the temerity to hang no less than
345. To be sure, the character of the two displays
is different. The Academy show is frankly local
and personal in its appeal. The Washington exhi-
bition is distinctly more national in scope and pur-
pose, and yet the fact remains that whatever be
the motive in placing pictures before the public it
must be done in approximately the same manner.
We must be attracted, not repelled, by the appear-
ance of the galleries. We must be stimulated and
inspired, not crushed beneath a solid mass of
mediocrity and rendered incapable of disengaging
good from bad.
On studying in detail and with something more
The Corcoran Gallery Exhibition
Awarded the Fourth W. A. Clark Prize and the
Corcoran Honorable Mention Certificate
A NUDE
BY CARL J. NORDELL
LXXXVI
The Winter Academy
PORTRAIT OF
LOUISE
BY MARY GREENE
BLUMENSCHEIN
their grasp of scene and character or in their
inherent chromatic appeal. It is impossible not
to recognize the fact that the locks of our young
Samsons become clipped in the space of a few
brief years. They not infrequently start upon
their careers with a splendid burst of zeal and
enthusiasm. They continue for a time to remain
reasonably personal in their output, but in the
end most of them succumb to the inevitable pro-
cess of standardization. It is this situation which
gives such a display as the Philadelphia Water
Color Exhibition its special significance, for here
there is visible a definite desire to unbend, to
strike out for one’s self and achieve something free
and unstudied. Were we able to get together
a representative collection of oil paintings with
something of this delightfully informal and experi-
mental spirit, it might go far toward redeeming our
early promises and, incidentally, proving that in
art at least we are a young, rather than a prema-
turely aged nation.
III. THE CORCORAN GALLERY
EXHIBITION
The first thing which strikes the metropolitan
visitor to the Fourth Exhibition of the Corcoran
Gallery is the fact that here everything has been
done to beautify and dignify contemporary artis-
tic production. The wall coverings are light and
harmonious in tone, the pictures are hung with
scrupulous taste and balance, and the requisite
amount of space has been left between each can-
vas and its nearest neighbor. Considering the
wide and deserved popularity of these admirable
biennial exhibitions, and the large quantity of
works at the disposal of the jury, it would have
been an easy matter to have increased the numeri-
cal strength of the display. And yet rigorous ex-
clusion rather than indiscriminate inclusion as
practised at the New York Academy of Design
has kept the list down to 246 canvases, whereas
the Academy, with infinitely less space at its com-
mand, has had the temerity to hang no less than
345. To be sure, the character of the two displays
is different. The Academy show is frankly local
and personal in its appeal. The Washington exhi-
bition is distinctly more national in scope and pur-
pose, and yet the fact remains that whatever be
the motive in placing pictures before the public it
must be done in approximately the same manner.
We must be attracted, not repelled, by the appear-
ance of the galleries. We must be stimulated and
inspired, not crushed beneath a solid mass of
mediocrity and rendered incapable of disengaging
good from bad.
On studying in detail and with something more
The Corcoran Gallery Exhibition
Awarded the Fourth W. A. Clark Prize and the
Corcoran Honorable Mention Certificate
A NUDE
BY CARL J. NORDELL
LXXXVI