International studio (48.1913)

Standardized Sentiment in Current Art

The Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition
JAIPUR MARKET BY THORNTON OAKLEY


than casual curiosity such an exhibition as that
which at present brightens the walls of the Cor-
coran Gallery, there seems to be little question in
the minds of serious folk but that American paint-
ing has arrived at the historic parting of the ways.
Are we going to carry any further this uniformly
felicitous handling, this fondness for sweet, clear,
purity of tone and, above all, this unfailing discre-
tion in choice of theme. Are we, in short, going to
remain precisely where we are and where we have
been for close upon a generation, or are we going
to attack newer problems and confront fresher
issues. The resistless currents which are at
present sweeping back and forth across the face of
Europe have as yet barely reached our shores, and
find no echo whatever in the work of the main
body of American artists. That sovereign search
for simplification of line and color, and that quest
of a sturdily individualistic and autonomous point
of view which are yearly making their presence
more felt in Continental painting—almost every
principle, in effect, that latter-day art is so valiantly
battling for, seem one and all to count for nought
in the eyes of the average American painter.
The majority of our successful prize winners are
men who returned from Paris or Munich during
the early ’eighties and are at present utterly out of
sympathy with the aspirations and ideals of the

younger generation. It is, of course, presump-
tuous to expect certain of these essentially sta-
tionary and self-satisfied figures to embrace the
new and virile gospel of modernity, yet it is wholly
within the province of legitimate criticism to in-
quire as to whether their art, as they themselves
conceive and practise it, expresses in any degree
the fulness of life and nature, as we find it on every
side. Do they not for the most part give us an
esthetic convention in place of direct, first-hand
observation, and is their feeling for integrity of
form, color, and surface not more of a standardized
studio product than a vital and vivifying response
to the ever-changing vesture of actuality. Looked
at in this light they seem to be relying consider-
ably more upon sentiment than upon strength,
and, possibly in a spirit of self-defence, the linger-
ing evanescence of an oft-diluted Impressionism is
held as vastly superior to the restless ardor of a
wholly misunderstood Expressionism.
While it is an easy matter to condemn what one
does not comprehend, there are nevertheless signs
of an impending change. From overseas are com-
ing with increasing frequency hints of what Europe
is accomplishing, and before long the beautiful,
symmetrical mould into which so much contempo-
rary American work is cast, may be rudely shat-
tered. And it is then that we shall doubtless
recall such an exhibition of native artistic accom-
plishment as is now on view in Washington with
an increased measure of that same fragrant and
affectionate regard which it to-day so unequivo-
cally inspires.

The Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition
THE GRANDFATHER’S CLOCK BY WALTER GAY


LXXXVIII