International studio (49.1913)

Contemporary Art and the Carnegie Institute

tional taste and approval is an issue fraught
with peculiar delicacy.
In as far as native production is concerned,
judgment may well be suspended, for modernism
is so recent an acquisition with us, and our apos-
tles of advanced ideas and practice are so mani-
festly derivative, not to say imitative, that it is
perhaps wiser to await further developments.
When it comes however to contemporary Euro-
pean art, the situation is different, for here the
Institute has already won substantial laurels, and
with courage and insight will doubtless add to
their number. It must never be forgotten that
Pittsburgh enjoys the distinction of having intro-
duced Segantini to America, that it was the first
organization to extend welcome to Cottet, Blanche,
Menard, Simon, and other members of the Societe
Nouvelle, that the Englishmen Shannon and
Nicholson, the Irishmen Lavery and Orpen, the
Glasgow School, and the modern Germans, Scandi-
navians, and Russians each found their first regular
transatlantic representation upon these same
walls. In addition to this the current one-man
displays have established a standard difficult to
parallel, beside which the Permanent Collection is
constantly acquiring choice canvases culled from
the annual shows, among which may be instanced
Whistler’s Sarasate, Menard’s Judgment of Paris,
and Simon’s Evening in the Studio.
There have of course been omissions and lapses

now and again in the generally well-sustained ex-
cellence of this programme. As a pathfinder pure
and simple Segantini, who may be classed as the
founder of the Italian Divisionist school, looms in
majestic isolation, for his fellow-workers along
kindred lines, Cezanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh—-
that veritable trinity of the modern movement—
do not figure on the books of the Institute. There
are certain Belgians, Austrians, Poles, and
Czechs who might with advantage have been
added to the list, and one would also like to en-
counter more often the masterly characterizations
of Zuloaga, the sumptuous chromatic improvisa-
tions of Anglada, and the joyous pantheism of
Leo Putz and the Munich Scholle. Still, viewed
in perspective there are few organizations which
can boast a better record than that established by
our friends in Pittsburgh. A particular advan-
tage which the Carnegie Institute possesses is that
of judicious concentration. It is possible to do
justice to these exhibitions without undue fatigue
of body or confusion of mind. They fall within
the limits of ordinary mortal endurance, and for
this all thanks are due.
Without succumbing to sensationalism it may
in conclusion be added that these are critical times
in the development of native taste. A spirit of
unrest is unmistakably in the air. The enormous
consideration accorded the work of certain radi-
cals both past and present, the currency given the
Nietzschean dic-
tum that in order
to build up it is
first necessary to
destroy, and the
resultant ques-
tioning of acad-
emic precedent
and authority all
make it difficult
to determine upon
just what lines ex-
hibitions should
be planned. It is
clearly not enough
that the mere ma-
chinery of an in-
stitution possess-
ing the power and
prestige of the
Carnegie should
run smoothly—-
automatically, al-
most. It must

Carnegie Institute, 1913
A FETE DAY BY VALENTIN DE ZUBIAURRE


LXXV1