International studio (55.1915)

The Passing Show


THE OLD MILL-POND

BY G. GLENN NEWELL

III. ALLIED ARTISTS OF AMERICA
Though the Conservatives and Progressives do
not employ the pristine vigour of the Guelphs and
Ghibellines in their conflicts, still the rope of art
receives occasional jolts from the one faction or
the other. Sometimes a more than ordinary
strain on the rope produces some little result, such
as the Allied Artists of America. The effect of
this product is so far short-reaching, for the reason
that amid the clash of cymbals heralding in the
new men, the public fails to see any fresh tendency
or anything in their exhibition which might not
hang with perfect propriety upon the walls of a
spring or winter exhibition of the Academy. What
the public did see and admire was a beautifully
hung exhibition in which the artists were allotted
certain wall space, for which they drew lots; the
elimination of the Bluebeard chamber, officially

known as the Academy room; and the use of the
Central Gallery for small material, sheltered by
the large canvases in the South and Vanderbilt
Galleries, a happy blend.
The Allied Artists are striving for the advance-
ment of American art, by opening new avenues of
opportunity for the exhibition of meritorious
works of art for which the Academy finds no space,
or else hangs so abominably that the artist would
derive as much benefit if his canvas were put on a
clothes-line in a back yard of Hoboken. All
honour to the Allied Artists, who are at least teach-
ing the lesson that artists must help themselves if
they wish to benefit others. Near a hundred
members, who have stood shoulder to shoulder for
sixteen months, can at least be sure that their pic-
tures will be shown in the best possible manner,
and it is now up to them to convince the public

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