DOI issue:
No. 374 (May 1924)
DOI article:[Notes: two hundred and twenty-one illustrations]
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21399#0313
CHICAGO
CHICAGO.—An interesting innovation
in the winter exhibitions is found at
the Art Institute of Chicago, where the new
east wing has been partially given over to a
series of one-man shows. There are to be
a dozen or more of these shows, seven of
which are already hung and open to the
public. Showing the pictures in this way
gives a comprehensive view of the indivi-
dual artists which is sometimes lost in the
International or all American exhibitions.
The artists represented in the exhibi-
tions now on view are in no way
members of the same school. They present
radical contrasts, both in attitude and tech-
nique. Of the seven artists represented,
four are Americans. Victor Higgins, repre-
senting that group of artists which has
found its Mecca in the desert ranchos, the
canyons, the adobes and the aspen trees, of
Taos and of Sante Fe, brings us into an
atmosphere of high clear air and vivid sun-
light. He has caught the savour of New
Mexico in the brilliant landscapes, and has
twisted it into allegory in his Adam and
Eve, The Man in the Garden, and The Ser-
mon on the Mount. 0000
Winslow Homer, whose water-colours of
the rocky coast of New England present a
“ LADY IN PINK.” BY
NICHOLAI FECHIN
(By courtesy of the Art
Institute of Chicago)
very different aspect of America, is another
of the artists included. His marines, his
barren seaweed - covered boulders, his
studies in greys and browns, contrast
keenly with the clear colours of Oliver
Dennet Grover’s mountains and lakes and
sketches of Venice, which are shown in the
next gallery. It is of interest to go from
Grover, an American who has done so
much of his best work in Italy, to Ettore
Caser, a Venetian who has come from Italy
to America. Some of the subject matter
used by the two men is almost identical,
but they differ radically in method and
attitude. Caser, like Grover, used clear,
bright colour, but unlike Grover, he has
a marked tendency towards a highly decor-
ative treatment, and the conventionaliz-
ation of his subjects. Caser, too, has more
of the spirit of romance, though perhaps
less of the ability to reproduce the atmos-
pheric charm which is particularly to be
noticed in Grover’s Lake Louise and La
Solente in the Moonlight. 000
The fourth American is Louis Ritman,
whose paintings, unlike the other three, do
not show the influence of certain locality.
He is chiefly concerned with studies of
light, especially dappled sunlight, sifting
through leaves or through windows. Some
of his paintings are reminiscent of Frieske,
with whom he has frequently been com-
pared, but he has more animation, more
brilliancy of hue, than most of the Frieske's.
The other two artists represented are
Nicholai Fechin, whose exhibition is shown
for the first time in America, and Axel
Gallen-Kallela, a Finn, who has of late
years been painting splendid pictures of
the African deserts and jungles. Fechin's
work represents the opposite side of the
Russian character from that which we have
come to know through Anisfeld and
Roerich. He is sombre, matter-of-fact,
avoiding the vivid reds and blues and
yellows, as he avoids the fantastic paintings
of emotions, and painting sympathetically
and realistically the objective as well as the
subjective, considering matter, as well as
mind. He shows us the same type of
Slavonic attitude which we found last fall
when Hans Larwin's paintings of Hun-
garian gypsies were first shown in Chicago
but he is a keener psychologist than
Larwin. Lucy H. Sturges.
294
CHICAGO.—An interesting innovation
in the winter exhibitions is found at
the Art Institute of Chicago, where the new
east wing has been partially given over to a
series of one-man shows. There are to be
a dozen or more of these shows, seven of
which are already hung and open to the
public. Showing the pictures in this way
gives a comprehensive view of the indivi-
dual artists which is sometimes lost in the
International or all American exhibitions.
The artists represented in the exhibi-
tions now on view are in no way
members of the same school. They present
radical contrasts, both in attitude and tech-
nique. Of the seven artists represented,
four are Americans. Victor Higgins, repre-
senting that group of artists which has
found its Mecca in the desert ranchos, the
canyons, the adobes and the aspen trees, of
Taos and of Sante Fe, brings us into an
atmosphere of high clear air and vivid sun-
light. He has caught the savour of New
Mexico in the brilliant landscapes, and has
twisted it into allegory in his Adam and
Eve, The Man in the Garden, and The Ser-
mon on the Mount. 0000
Winslow Homer, whose water-colours of
the rocky coast of New England present a
“ LADY IN PINK.” BY
NICHOLAI FECHIN
(By courtesy of the Art
Institute of Chicago)
very different aspect of America, is another
of the artists included. His marines, his
barren seaweed - covered boulders, his
studies in greys and browns, contrast
keenly with the clear colours of Oliver
Dennet Grover’s mountains and lakes and
sketches of Venice, which are shown in the
next gallery. It is of interest to go from
Grover, an American who has done so
much of his best work in Italy, to Ettore
Caser, a Venetian who has come from Italy
to America. Some of the subject matter
used by the two men is almost identical,
but they differ radically in method and
attitude. Caser, like Grover, used clear,
bright colour, but unlike Grover, he has
a marked tendency towards a highly decor-
ative treatment, and the conventionaliz-
ation of his subjects. Caser, too, has more
of the spirit of romance, though perhaps
less of the ability to reproduce the atmos-
pheric charm which is particularly to be
noticed in Grover’s Lake Louise and La
Solente in the Moonlight. 000
The fourth American is Louis Ritman,
whose paintings, unlike the other three, do
not show the influence of certain locality.
He is chiefly concerned with studies of
light, especially dappled sunlight, sifting
through leaves or through windows. Some
of his paintings are reminiscent of Frieske,
with whom he has frequently been com-
pared, but he has more animation, more
brilliancy of hue, than most of the Frieske's.
The other two artists represented are
Nicholai Fechin, whose exhibition is shown
for the first time in America, and Axel
Gallen-Kallela, a Finn, who has of late
years been painting splendid pictures of
the African deserts and jungles. Fechin's
work represents the opposite side of the
Russian character from that which we have
come to know through Anisfeld and
Roerich. He is sombre, matter-of-fact,
avoiding the vivid reds and blues and
yellows, as he avoids the fantastic paintings
of emotions, and painting sympathetically
and realistically the objective as well as the
subjective, considering matter, as well as
mind. He shows us the same type of
Slavonic attitude which we found last fall
when Hans Larwin's paintings of Hun-
garian gypsies were first shown in Chicago
but he is a keener psychologist than
Larwin. Lucy H. Sturges.
294