DOI Heft:
Nr. 229 (March 1916)
DOI Artikel:A modernizer of the greek ideal: J. H. Fry
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43461#0015
A Modernizer of the Greek Ideal: J. H. Fry
A CORNER OF THE FRY STUDIO IN NEW YORK
A MODERNIZER OF THE GREEK
IDEAL: J. H. FRY
BY W. H. de B. NELSON
The most impartial survey of the
field of art in America will of necessity conduct
to a few very definite conclusions. For instance,
it is very obvious that the highest expression is
to be found amongst the landscapists; also that
very, very few portraitists emerge from medi-
ocrity. Sargent and Mary Cassatt are only
American in point of birth, their training, resi-
dence and interests lie overseas. Furthermore,
it is obvious that the spirit of restlessness, con-
sidered quite apart from the wars of nations,
has assailed the ranks of the artists to such an
extent that many of them are mirroring others
than themselves, and in the effort to play safe
are hunting simultaneously with the hound and
with the hare. The modern movement circling
around the achievements of Cezanne has given
birth to a new Frankenstein that is disconcerting
the minds of artists and calling into question
established ideals and procedures. There has
developed in many quarters a slipshod habit of
painting which in aiming at extreme character-
ization as its goal fails to observe constructive
and organic principles of painting, without which
no work of art can exist. Violent colour, frantic
technique, eccentric forms, are employed pour
epater messieurs les americains and to command a
hearing at all costs. Figure painters in the real
sense are scarce.
There are artists, however, who keep themselves
untainted and who plough their furrows each in
his own individual manner, indifferent to the
disturbing “isms” of the day and working out
their artistic salvation along sane and well con-
sidered lines of action. To these may be counted
John Hemming Fry, who for years has sought
and found his happiness in serene representa-
tion of the nude as embodying truth and beauty,
the precious heritage of Greek culture. The
eternal verities hidden or apparent in ancient
myth furnish material for his imagination and
attack. Landscape except as a natural setting or
background is to him valueless; a proces verbal of
field or forest may safely be entrusted to the pho-
tographer. It is the figure that counts. And
here again it must be a special type that conforms
XI
A CORNER OF THE FRY STUDIO IN NEW YORK
A MODERNIZER OF THE GREEK
IDEAL: J. H. FRY
BY W. H. de B. NELSON
The most impartial survey of the
field of art in America will of necessity conduct
to a few very definite conclusions. For instance,
it is very obvious that the highest expression is
to be found amongst the landscapists; also that
very, very few portraitists emerge from medi-
ocrity. Sargent and Mary Cassatt are only
American in point of birth, their training, resi-
dence and interests lie overseas. Furthermore,
it is obvious that the spirit of restlessness, con-
sidered quite apart from the wars of nations,
has assailed the ranks of the artists to such an
extent that many of them are mirroring others
than themselves, and in the effort to play safe
are hunting simultaneously with the hound and
with the hare. The modern movement circling
around the achievements of Cezanne has given
birth to a new Frankenstein that is disconcerting
the minds of artists and calling into question
established ideals and procedures. There has
developed in many quarters a slipshod habit of
painting which in aiming at extreme character-
ization as its goal fails to observe constructive
and organic principles of painting, without which
no work of art can exist. Violent colour, frantic
technique, eccentric forms, are employed pour
epater messieurs les americains and to command a
hearing at all costs. Figure painters in the real
sense are scarce.
There are artists, however, who keep themselves
untainted and who plough their furrows each in
his own individual manner, indifferent to the
disturbing “isms” of the day and working out
their artistic salvation along sane and well con-
sidered lines of action. To these may be counted
John Hemming Fry, who for years has sought
and found his happiness in serene representa-
tion of the nude as embodying truth and beauty,
the precious heritage of Greek culture. The
eternal verities hidden or apparent in ancient
myth furnish material for his imagination and
attack. Landscape except as a natural setting or
background is to him valueless; a proces verbal of
field or forest may safely be entrusted to the pho-
tographer. It is the figure that counts. And
here again it must be a special type that conforms
XI