Notes On Painting and Sculpture

Comments on the Current Exhibitions in New York

PEYTON BOSWELL

JOHN F. FOLINSBEE, who has established a record by winning a prize in every show in which he has participated this season, is exhibiting his recent work at the Ferargil Galleries during March. His canvas, High River, won the J. Francis Murphy memorial prize at the National Academy in November, and he was awarded third prize at the Corcoran Gallery's last biennial. Other prizes came from the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Arts Club.

It is appropriate that this artist should have won the Murphy prize, for without in the slightest sense being his imitator, Mr. Folinsbee's art is similar in spirit, showing the same earnest and faithful observation of nature, and possessing an elusive poetic appeal that is akin to Murphy's. Tulip Poplars— Autumn is rich in this quality, with its pattern of russet leaves spread across a vista of water and blue distance.

Mr. Folinsbee frequently paints the factories around his home in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and under his transforming brush subjects that would not rise above the commonplace with a lesser artist become beautiful and powerful. The Factory, with its dull red walls, a flash of green water, gray smoke stacks and rolling clouds of smoke, epitomizes the spirit of iron and steel. Above all, it has a splendor that does not depend on what we are accustomed to consider beauty.

NEW ENGLAND, with its elm shaded streets, shingled houses and quiet harbours, is the inspiration for Henry S. Eddy's oils, exhibited during the first half of March at the Babcock Galleries. In an age when artists are often bizarre in order to compel attention, it is a relief to find the quiet toned, sincere canvases of Mr. Eddy.

A number of snow scenes reveal a subtle and unobtrusive technique Among them, a silhouette of gray houses along the top of a hill, whose scattered bushes break through the snow, is one of his most attractive subjects. The mellow hues of autumn made still more soft by an Indian Summer haze pervade October in Pomfret, whose theme is a lone tree in a meadow. Sunny Street is full of light and warmth, as its title suggests, and could only have been painted in New England, where century old elms line rows of old white houses.

The Old Willow introduces a glimpse of the sea, and Moorings—Edgartown is a dock scene, a subject with which Mr. Eddy has particular success. Two white boats, moored side by side, a cluster of buildings along the shore, and the blue sky and blue water framing the whole, are woven into an especially strong composition.

THE interest that centers in the work of Victor Charreton, whose paintings will be exhibited at the Dudensing Galleries beginning the first week in April, is the result of an appreciation of the Frenchman's strong individualism, which allows itself to be influenced by no school and yet remains true to the basic principles of French art. Underlying all his landscapes is a firm sense of structure, which, no matter with what freedom he applies his pigment, never becomes obscured.

The soft grays and blues of a winter landscape and the brilliant colouring of autumn are handled by Charreton with equal assurance. Among the former arc Winter—Auvergne, an unusual composition with a group of dark hovels clustered together in the snow, and Snowbound—Chaumiere in which the curve of a thatched roof under the heavy snow provides an interesting line against the hillside. In contrast is one of the most recent canvases, Chestnut Tree—Autumn, in which patches of brilliant colour are woven into a scintillating pattern. In this the drawing of the tree displays both the strength and simplicity of Charreton's workmanship.

Morning Mists is devoted to the fresh, clear greens of spring, assembled in delicate harmony. One of the most delightful paintings of all is a study of flowers, evidently painted for a love of colour alone. Their brilliant hues are repeated, much dimmed, and with a particularly happy effect, in the background.

ABORIGINAL American Indian art is so uncommon a feature in local galleries that the current exhibition in the Anderson Galleries is unique in many respects. This show, which was arranged by Dr. Edgar L. Hewitt, director of the Museum of New Mexico, Sante Fé, includes examples of the ancient arts of the Pueblo Indians, such as textiles, jewelry and pottery, together with contemporary work by members of the tribe that is on sale for the benefit of the Pueblos. There is another section devoted to the work of the Blackfeet Indians which includes pictorial autobiographical banners by Blackfeet artists, bead and leather work, and a collection of native dolls that are on sale.

The background of the show, which will continue through April 2, comprises about eighty portraits by W. Langdon Kihn of prominent members of both the Pueblo and Blackfeet tribes and landscapes in New Mexico and Montana by the same artist.

THERE are several reasons why Robert Reid's return to New York from Colorado in order to exhibit his latest canvases at the Milch Galleries beginning the last week in March, promises to be one of the art events of the season. In the first place, his work has not been seen for some time in New York, where he formerly exhibited as one of "The Ten," a group that once included Chase, Weir and Twachtman. Because of the name he made for himself at that time—chiefly as a figure and portrait painter,—his recent work in a different field will be received with particular interest.

All of the paintings in the exhibition at the Milch Galleries are variations of a single theme—moonlight in the Garden of the Gods, a subject of manifest appeal in itself. A unique feature of the display is the specially arranged background and lighting, designed to bring out the full beauty of this type picture, which will duplicate the setting used in the artist's studio in Colorado Springs when these paintings were shown privately to his friends.

NOTABLES of the Washington Conference appear in a series of remarkably interesting dry-points by Walter Tittle at the Ehrich Galleries through March. All of them were posed especially for Mr. Tittle and most of the portraits have added interest in being autographed by his subjects.