Studio: international art (89.1925)

BERLIN

" THE PAINTER KATH "
BY ALBERT BIRKLE

verniciata," and Maternitd (1920) was the
original cast for the work in " pietra
serena " in the Gallery of Modern Art in
Rome. Sig. Maraini showed here also
some nude studies, several of which I had
seen in his own home : drawn quite large
with Chinese ink, and keeping to pure out-
line they are most effective in rendering a
quick pose or figure in movement. a

Born in 1886 at Rome, Antonio Maraini
has followed his own line in art; and I
believe his pursuit of sculpture dates from
after the war. A man of general culture,
he is a critic of standing and repute in
Italy, where he contributes to the pages of
the " Tribuna." In his work in art we can
trace a profound sensibility to beauty, and
a keen interest in technical problems and
achievement, a a a a a

I hear from Venice, through the Director
of the recent International Exhibition of
Art, that the sales for this 1924 Biennial
have proved very successful, amounting
to Lire 2,400,000: among these were
several paintings and drawings sold, as I
have noted, in our British Pavilion. S. B.

54

F)ERLIN.— Among important recent
D exhibitions, paintings and drawings
by Alfred Birkle compelled particular
attention. Amid the chaotic crowd of
painter-experimenters, this rising young
artist stubbornly held up his profound
respect before nature and his principles
of thorough draughtsmanship and reserved
colourism. He is the legal heir of the old
German masters and yet quite a child of
modern times. Whatever attracted the
eye of the painter, or arose from his
vision, bears the stamp of a rigid, lofty,
occasionally sarcastic mind. The socialis-
tic age and the experiences of the war have
left their traces in his art; cubism taught
him precision in form, and expressionism
intensification of feeling. Birkle has
painted religious pictures of peculiar
depth and decorativeness, weirdly gro-
tesque scenes from town-life, pathetic
landscapes and wittily penetrating por-
traiture. He can remind one of Altdorfer, of
Casper David Friedrich, or of the contem-
porary Claus Richter. Our On the Out-
skirts of the Town is a corner from reality
filled with the spirit of loneliness and

" ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE
TOWN." BY ALBERT BIRKLE