ART AS A SOCIAL SUBJECT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20669, 6 March 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

ART AS A SOCIAL SUBJECT

NEW APPEAL TO PAINTERS NATIONAL PRINT DISPLAY The persistence of social subject matter in American prints is again demonstrated in the tenth annual exhitition staged by the Philadelphia Society of Etchers and Graphic Artists at the Newman Galleries. Coming as it did third in a sequence of national print displays starting with the annual print salon at the Art Alliance, the trend of which was repeated in “America To-day," sponsored by the American Artists Congress and shown at the Artists Union, this tenth with no axe to grind, political or otheraggregate of the Philadelphia Society, wise, confirms one in the opinion that the American artist is thinking in terms of living conditions. Interesting, also, is the fact that, although it makes its appearance third in the show sequence, it repeats very little the prints exhibited in its sister exhibitions. It is, of course, a jury show, and one suspects that it has levied more upon the studios than upon the dealers for its material.

A third trend, that away from the etching toward other forms of print expression, notably the lithograph, is even more evident this year than in the past. Reasons are not far to seek. Etchings are being sold so cheaply to-day that artists prefer less difficult, more productive media, the freest of which is, undoubtedly, the lithograph. So strong has the trend grown that the Philadelphia Society of Etchers, as it was originally termed, added “Graphic Artists” to its name genuinely representative of native in order to Insure annual exhibitions print endeavour. Contrasting this display with similar exhibitions held not five years ago the change is marked. Emotion has crept into the print world of America, a humanized emotion. Landscape and architectural transcriptions of the merely reminiscent or reproductive type are almost disappearing, being upheld by a few staunch adherents like R. W. Woiceske, John Taylor Arms and Ernest D. Roth, who are admirable craftsmen.

That many of the artists exploring the new trend are less well equipped technically is often self-evi-dent, but there is a freshness and enthusiasm about their attack that counterbalances the weaker craft. Once

the technique of the rising generation equals its creative activity America should find itself possessed of a truly distinguished art. The hold of New York on the creation as well as the distribution of American art has been definitely broken. Here one finds prints taking for subject material all sections of the country, and providing a many-faceted picture of America The South is to the fore in prints by Elizabeth O’Neill Verner, Alfred Hutty, Richard B. Coe, Earle Horter and George Jo Mess. Doel Reed offers distinctively patterned prints of Oklahoma and the Cimarron country. A newcomer to Philadelphia, he is also one of the strongest of the contributors, all three of his prints, “Oklahoma Barn,” "The Cimarron” and “Awakening Earth,” meriting attention. Strong, also, is Stow Wengenroth. who interprets New England and the northeastern coast with as much design intensity as Reed lavishes upon the Middle West. Intense as social documents are prints dealing with the coal country, depicting gleaners, collieries, etc., and

coming from such artists as Anton Refregler, Eugene Morley and N Bervinchak. The march of power lines across fertile farms finds expression in “Connecticut Light and Power,” by Prentiss Taylor. Hitherto little art frequented sections of the Far West make their appearance. Philip Cheney offers “Main Street, Eldora” and “Bad Lands” (North Dakota), two foreful prints. Indians, adobes and encircling mountains lend pattern to prints by Gene Kloss. Levon West and Frank Callcott deal with horses and riders across the deserts and with the ruins of Mission civilization. The great cities claim their adherents. New York provides material for Frederick K. Detwiller, Dorothy Lubell Feigin, Alexander Kachinsky and Harry Leroy Taskey; Detroit for N. Hornyansky; Chicago for James Swan, and Philadelphia for Dorothy Morrison and James H. Fincken. The Philadelphia Society’s Annual has introduced many new print personalities, and this year’s exhibition is no exception, with significant work by Paula Eliasoph, Dorothy Lubell Feigin and Doel Reed.