Studio: international art (89.1925)

BERLIN—DURBAN

"STILL LIFE." BY
ALFRED R. MARTIN

bareness, in which human beings pass
each other like mysteries. The portrait
of The Painter Kath is striking in its
almost merciless characterisation. It is a
commentary on the artist's saying that his
sitters must be somehow congenial to
him. Birkle is a child of Berlin and has
studied in the academy under Arthur
Kampf. He has inherited the artistic
blood from his parents, his father being a
well-known decorative painter, and his
mother's father court painter to the
Roumanian King. He has been able to
follow his way to art quite unhampered,
has travelled much and is now starting
to study in Italy. It will be interesting to
watch whether the southern sky will
prove, as with Dtirer and many German
masters, a softening and widening in-
fluence on the crystalline nature of this
young artist. Jarno Jessen.

DURBAN.—We reproduce an example
of the work of Mr. Alfred R. Martin,
now senior lecturer in the Durban School
of Art. Mr. Martin's training was begun
at the Liverpool School in the days of
Mr. F. V. Burridge's principalship, and
at the University in that city he also studied
under Mr. Augustus John and Mr.
Anning Bell. Later, he worked under
Professor Gerald Moira, and has had
experience in many forms of art-work.
His sculptured work is decidedly out of
the ordinary, and his bronze bas-relief for
the Durban Post Office war memorial is
excellently arranged and carried out. The
African scene has appealed to Mr. Martin's
imagination, and he has painted some
spirited episodes from native life, notably
Tales from the Kraal, wherein are mani-
fested considerable humour and insight
into character. a a a a

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