DOI Heft:
Nr. 222 (August, 1915)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Christian: American painting at the Panama-Pacific exposition
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43459#0109
American Painting at the Panama-Pacific Exposition
public is, alas, seldom recognizant in such cases,
Frank Duveneck has of late years been merely a
respected and honoured memory. The present
exhibition has served to rehabilitate his name and
ensure for him that position in the development of
American painting which he so rightfully merits.
While adequately presented, less interest at-
taches to the work of our periodic prize winners
than to certain more individual talents. In the
company of such men as Tarbell, Hassam, Met-
calf, and Redfield, one experiences a sense of quo-
tidian familiarity. They are specialists, and may
always be counted upon to maintain established
standards. Their production reveals few de-
partures and no surprises. It is consequently to
the younger element that we must turn in order to
gather a less perfunctory impression of contempo-
rary painting, and in this connexion may be cited
the names of Frederick C. Frieseke, Hayley Lever,
Max Bohm, Walter Griffin, and Howard Gardiner
Cushing. Mr. Frieseke is the official as well as
popular success of the exhibition. By no means
profound, or divulging any disquieting depth of
feeling, his canvases are nevertheless captivating
in their sheer, bright-toned beauty, their luminous
iridescence, whether of boudoir or sun-flecked river
bank. In Mr. Lever we discern a more sturdy
achievement, and note a special gift for colour
draughtsmanship and a sense of rhythm as rare as
it is welcome.
There can be no doubt but that the complexion
of current art is fast changing. To these changes
the public is rapidly becoming accustomed, more
rapidly, perhaps, than exposition promoters and
museum officials realize. We are casting off our
congenital conservatism and dependence. The
Fontainebleau-Barbizon tradition which so long
darkened and sentimentalized native landscape,
and the aesthetic anaemia that emanated from the
delicate organism of Whistler have been succeeded
by fresher, more invigorating tendencies. It was
Manet who, in 1870, began posing figures in the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
ST. IVES FISHING BOATS
BY HAYLEY LEVER
XXXI
public is, alas, seldom recognizant in such cases,
Frank Duveneck has of late years been merely a
respected and honoured memory. The present
exhibition has served to rehabilitate his name and
ensure for him that position in the development of
American painting which he so rightfully merits.
While adequately presented, less interest at-
taches to the work of our periodic prize winners
than to certain more individual talents. In the
company of such men as Tarbell, Hassam, Met-
calf, and Redfield, one experiences a sense of quo-
tidian familiarity. They are specialists, and may
always be counted upon to maintain established
standards. Their production reveals few de-
partures and no surprises. It is consequently to
the younger element that we must turn in order to
gather a less perfunctory impression of contempo-
rary painting, and in this connexion may be cited
the names of Frederick C. Frieseke, Hayley Lever,
Max Bohm, Walter Griffin, and Howard Gardiner
Cushing. Mr. Frieseke is the official as well as
popular success of the exhibition. By no means
profound, or divulging any disquieting depth of
feeling, his canvases are nevertheless captivating
in their sheer, bright-toned beauty, their luminous
iridescence, whether of boudoir or sun-flecked river
bank. In Mr. Lever we discern a more sturdy
achievement, and note a special gift for colour
draughtsmanship and a sense of rhythm as rare as
it is welcome.
There can be no doubt but that the complexion
of current art is fast changing. To these changes
the public is rapidly becoming accustomed, more
rapidly, perhaps, than exposition promoters and
museum officials realize. We are casting off our
congenital conservatism and dependence. The
Fontainebleau-Barbizon tradition which so long
darkened and sentimentalized native landscape,
and the aesthetic anaemia that emanated from the
delicate organism of Whistler have been succeeded
by fresher, more invigorating tendencies. It was
Manet who, in 1870, began posing figures in the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition
ST. IVES FISHING BOATS
BY HAYLEY LEVER
XXXI