Part 17

March, 1910, exhibition of the work of “Younger American Painters”: Arthur G. Dove, Arthur B. Carles, L. Fellows, Marsden Hartley, Putnam Brindley, John Marin, Alfred Maurer, Steichen, Max Weber. This was the first collective exhibition of Modern work by Americans.

April, 1910, second Rodin Exhibition. The very latest drawings of Rodin were shown, together with eleven of his earliest ones. At the same time the best small bronze of the “Penseur” (loaned by Mrs. John W. Simpson) was exhibited.

November, 1910, Exhibition of lithographs by Cézanne, Renoir, Manet, and Toulouse Lautrec. Together with these, drawings and paintings by Henri Rousseau, just deceased. This exhibition introduced Rousseau for the first time to America, as well as it introduced Cézanne.

January, 1911, Exhibition by Max Weber, American.

February, 1911, Marin Exhibition (third).

March, 1911, a series of Cézanne water colors. The first one-man show of Cézanne’s in America. These water colors were most carefully selected and really represent a side of Cézanne which is underestimated by all those, even Cézanne lovers, who do not fully understand Cézanne’s importance.

April, 1911, Picasso. Drawings, lithographs, water colors, etc. A series of eighty showing the complete evolution of Picasso. The first introduction of Picasso to America and the first exhibition anywhere of Picasso held in this sense.

February, 1912, second Hartley exhibition.

February, 1912, first Arthur G. Dove exhibition.

March, 1912, sculptures and latest drawings by Matisse. First introduction to America of Matisse, the sculptor.

April, 1912, Exhibition of Children’s Work, showing relationship of that to much of the spirit of so-called “Modern” work, first exhibition of its kind held in America.

December, 1912, drawings and paintings by A. Walkowitz.

January, 1913, fourth Marin Exhibition--the now famous New York skyscraper series were shown.

March, 1913, Picabia’s New York work. The first one-man show of Picabia held in America.

April, 1913, Exhibition of De Zaya’s abstract caricature. Possibly the most _modern_ expression of the human portrait.

Incidentally, without having had official shows, the work of Eli Nadelmann (Paris) and Manolo, was introduced to America by examples of their work being shown.

Outside of all these exhibitions, of course, must be added the exhibition of color-photography, first in America, in 1907, and numerous other exhibitions, of important photographic work.

APPENDIX II

TWO COMMENTS

It is only fair to the press to say that here and there, in most unexpected places, not only articles but editorials appeared admonishing the public to be cautious about condemning the new art too impulsively.

We have chosen two such expressions from places so different, as London, and Reno, Nevada.

Apropos the Russian Ballet and its extraordinary music, the London “Times,” in a leading editorial, July 13, 1913, said:

“We have entered into one of those periods of artistic revolution in which the public, audience, or spectators become partisans and express their opinions as if they were at a political meeting. The Russian Ballet, for instance, produced a conflict of opinion last Friday, which recalls the conflicts provoked by the plays of Victor Hugo in the thirties. Post-Impressionism now is what the Romantic movement was then. To one party it means the end of all beauty; to the other a new birth of it. People no longer clap or hiss because they think a particular performance is well or ill done. Even in England, where the arts are not commonly taken very seriously, they are beginning to clap or hiss on principle, and to feel that they are making history when they do so. Partisans on both sides are probably not very clear in their minds why they like Post-Impressionism or dislike it; but the word, vague and clumsy as it is, does imply to them a set of tendencies by which all the arts may be ruined or regenerated. It is not merely a fashion in painting, but, like Romanticism, a movement of the mind which is trying to express itself through all means of artistic expression.

“Of this the new turn taken by the Russian Ballet is a striking proof; for no one can suppose that the artists concerned in that enterprise are haters of beauty because of their own incompetence to achieve it. They have every material inducement to continue delighting the world with Ballets like Carnival or Scheherazade; and, if they attempt a new kind of art, it must be because they are driven to it by some force in themselves too powerful to be withstood. Masters like M. Nijinsky do not try dangerous experiments on the public for the mere pleasure of trying them; and it is a little presumptuous to assume that they are suddenly afflicted by sheer perversity of taste. It is more probable that they are possessed by that ardour of discovery which is common both to great artists and to great men of science, indeed to all men whose interest in life is stronger than their desire for their own comfort.

“Most people make the mistake of thinking that the development of an art consists altogether of what is called invention and not of discovery; and for that reason they often resent innovations as mere perversities. If a thing has been well done already they cannot see why it should not continue to be done. But the artist knows that he cannot invent again what has been once invented. He knows, too, that these seeming inventions are also discoveries of the possibilities of his art; and that when discovery has been carried very far in one direction it cannot be carried any further. The history of all arts proves this. After Michel Angelo no one could invent anything fresh in his manner, because he had discovered all that could be discovered about his method of art. Renaissance architecture prevailed in Europe because no new discoveries were possible in Gothic.

“The Romantic movement changed English poetry when there was nothing more to be said in the manner of Pope. You may prefer the old art to the new, but even if you are right in preferring it, you are not therefore right in condemning those who practice the new art. For they have no alternative. Either they must be mere imitators of the great men of the past or they must make a new start; and the true artist can no more content himself with imitation than the true philosopher can content himself with repeating what other philosophers have said.

“Behind all representation in the arts there is the impulse of expression; and that will make its discoveries wherever there is most to be discovered, turning naturally to those elements of the art which have lately been neglected. If we understand this we shall see that a new artistic movement, such as Post-Impressionism, is not to be judged merely by a few pictures or to be condemned because those pictures seem to us very unlike reality. Whatever may come of it, it is something that is happening in all the arts, because discovery is turning in a new direction. All the successes of the past are obstacles to new success of the same kind, and discovery naturally takes a line of least resistance away from them. For a long time, in every art, artists have been raising expectations which they found it difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy. In painting, with its effort at complete illusion, they have provoked comparisons with Velasquez. In music, with its elaborate forms, they must do as well as Beethoven if they are to succeed. The dance, as we are used to it, demands an easy grace in every movement, which M. Nijinsky himself cannot combine with novelties of expression. He has found that, if he is to be a discoverer in his art, he must teach his public not to expect this easy grace, this formal and accustomed beauty, from the start. And that is the purpose of Post-Impressionism in all the arts. It is determined not to arouse expectations which it cannot satisfy.

“The public may begin by thinking it all crude and ugly and childish; and it will be the more delighted by any beauties which it discovers afterwards. Hitherto the arts have promised more than they could possibly perform. Now they shall promise nothing, and so perform at least more than they promise. It is natural, perhaps, that the public should resent this as a kind of discourtesy. The artist who makes no professions seems to them lacking in respect, and they are inclined to hoot him as an impudent charlatan. But there are very few artists who wish to be hooted, and the real charlatan usually flatters his public. Whatever may be said against Post-Impressionists in all the arts, they are not flatterers.”

* * * * *

It is a far cry from London to Reno, and the differences between the two places are not measured by the miles between them.

Leading editorial from the “Journal,” Reno, July 11, 1913:

SIMPLE SOLOMON

“When Solomon staked his reputation for wisdom as well as originality on the assertion that there is nothing new under the sun, he did not think some day the Cubist painter, the Futurist artist, and the color musician would rise in the twentieth century and make him ridiculous. There is something new under the sun even in these departures, and like everything original since the first sin, the innovations are now roundly condemned.

“It is the fashion now to condemn the Cubist and the Futurist in art, even as not long ago it was the fashion to condemn the realist, the impressionist and the Post-Impressionist; but it is a peculiar tribute to the authority of an innovation that it requires such a general attack of condemnation. A trivial thing requires mere neglect; a war of condemnation implies some strong and virile thing to be subdued.

“These new things have a substantial basis for existence; else they would not exist. Their novelty has caused some extravagant adherents to carry them to unreasonable excess. They have abused the discoveries, not used them. They will pass away but the new principles will survive.

“The cubist takes his cue from the idea of perspective itself--carried to excess. No one can imagine anything but straight lines as the basis for ‘vanishing points.’ Curved lines, while apparent and obvious, are not the scientific representations of actualities. The things we see strike the eye on the basis of flat images and our imagination brings out shape and significance. It is but a simple reversal to present flat art and give the imagination equal play in reconstructing real images in the eye.

“If we take a half-tone engraving and examine it with a magnifying glass we find it is a series of holes of uniform size but more or less dense on the surface according to the requirements of light, shade and line. Magnify a half-tone 100 times and we have a large grating of black and white circles or squares. That is cubist art. It requires a slight shift in the point of view, a little development and stimulation of the imagination--nothing more.

“When Gulliver visited the Brobdingnagians and viewed the complexions of their women at close range, it almost made him sick--yet they were noted beauties. He looked too close. When they looked at him they observed no complexion--they looked too far. Yet each had a concrete complexion and the only trouble was the point of view and the shock of comparison.

“The futurists have a very novel and, at this time, an outlandish art. One of them has a full page picture used as an advertisement of the peculiar sound of a horn. It is a picture of a sound that saws its way through other sounds. There is a straight, fan-like picture for a constant, augmenting note, rising in scale. It is gray. There is a black ellipse for a loud varying noise of fairly regular variation of note, and so on. The foreign noise of the horn is shown as utterly unlike in form, intensity, regularity or harmony, any other sound.

“If one has a diagram one can understand the futurist art and, when one understands, he approves. The new arts are simply aids to comparison, discrimination and inspiration. They have all the delights of wine-tasting or salad-judging--and some salads are vile.

“The color musician has developed only another exercise in discrimination. If we were to make mathematics of music we would find that there is an exact relation between the number of vibrations of notes an octave apart; a constant relation between the vibrations in the natural and the sharp; a direct ratio between the vibrations of the notes in a chord; a formula for harmony and another for discord. It is an interesting mathematical study, a science as well as an art, and it proves that our appreciation through the senses is based on natural mathematical sequences and on well understood ratios, seasoned for variety’s sake by divergences from type.

“Now the color musician has taken the spectrum and made notes out of it like the notes on the gamut. He has a color-scale and can do as much on it for the delight of the eye as a musician can with the musical scale for the ear. He merely brings out an extra way of enjoying distinctions and of enjoying that most restful of enjoyable things--conventionality. The certainty and the satisfaction of the conventional is about the most assuring thing in all experience. There is no more steadying feeling in all the world than to know that two and two make four, and that c-a-t spells cat. The more ways by which we can be assured of the belief we hold by faith, that there is an uniform, unchanging, all-pervading rule in the world, arguing an individual, mastering central consciousness and direction, the happier we are.

“The cubists and the futurists and the color musicians may be faddists, but they help to drive out old Solomon’s pessimism. They help us to understand by purely human experience how it is that there may be some things which even humans cannot understand--but which are.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ENGLISH

In attempting this bibliography of the modern movement in art, the search in periodical literature in England, France, and Germany has been carried back no farther than 1908.

IS ART A FAILURE? by Robert Fowler. Nineteenth Century, July, 1912.

ART, A NEW VENTURE IN. _Exhibition at the Omega Workshops._ Times, July 9, 1913.

BAKST, LEON. _Art Exhibitions. A Great Designer._ Times, June 17, 1912. Morning Post, June 18, 1912.

BAKST, LEON. _Exhibition._ Athenaeum, July 6, 1912.

BERLIN SECESSION. For short notices on see “Studio”: LI, p. 241; LI, p. 328; LII, p. 68; LII, p. 153; LII, p. 240; LIII, p. 324; LIV, p. 84; LV, p. 59; LV, p. 249; LVI, p. 241.

CÉZANNE. _Article by Maurice Denis._ Burlington Magazine, XVI Part I, p. 207; Part II, p. 275.

_Cézanne_. _Manet and the French Impressionists. Pissaro--Claude Monet--Sisley--Rénoir--Berthe Morisot--Cézanne--Guillaume._ Translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch. Illustrated with 34 etchings, 4 wood engravings, and 32 reproductions in half-tone No. 9 by Theodore Duret. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1910.

CÉZANNE. _Cézanne and Gauguin._ Athenaeum, Dec. 2, 1911.

CÉZANNE. _Cézanne and Gauguin._ London Times, Nov. 28, 1911.

COURBET. _Exhibition._ Times, March 8, 1911.

CUBISTS. _Cubism._ Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger. Translated from the French, with illustrations. T. Fisher Unwin, 1912.

DRAMA AND ART, THE NEW SPIRIT IN. Huntley Carter. London, Frank Palmer, 1912.

FUTURISTS. Athenaeum, March 9, 1912.

FUTURISTS. Spectator, March 16, 1912.

FUTURISTS. _The Initial Manifesto of Futurism._ F. T. Marinetti. Printed in the Catalogue of Exhibition in the Sackville Gallery, London, of works by the Italian Futurist painters, March, 1912.

FUTURISTS. _Severini (Gino)._ Introduction to catalogue of his pictures on view at the Marlborough Galleries, Duke street, London, 1913.

GAUGUIN. _Cézanne and Gauguin._ London Times, Nov. 28, 1911.

HARRISON, FREDERIC. _Aischro Latreia--The Cult of the Foul._ Nineteenth Century, February, 1912.

HIND, C. LEWIS. _The Consolations of a Critic._ London, A. and C. Black, 1911.

HOURTICG, LOUIS. _Art in France._ London, Heinemann, 1911.

HUNEKER, JAMES. _Promenades of an Impressionist._

IMPRESSIONISTS. _The Post Impressionists._ Article by Clutton-Brock (A), Burlington Magazine, XVIII, p. 216.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY. _Exhibitions._ Times, April 8, 1911; Spectator, April 15, 1911.

LONDON SALON. See Times July 8, 1911; July 30, 1912, _Effects of Artistic Freedom_; July 7, 1913.

MACCOLL, D. S. _Ugliness, Beauty and Mr. Frederic Harrison._ Nineteenth Century, March, 1912.

MAILLOL. _The Sculpture of Maillol._ Roger Fry. Burlington Magazine, XVII, p. 26.

MEIER-GRAEFE, ALFRED JULIUS. _Modern Art, Being a Contribution to a New System of Aesthetics._ Translated from the German by Florence Simmons and George W. Chrystal. 2 vols. London, 1908.

MUNICH NEUE VEREINIGUNG. Studio, LIII, p. 320.

NEW ENGLISH ART CLUB EXHIBITION. Spectator, Nov. 30, 1912.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _The Post Impressionists._ C. Lewis Hind. London, Methuen & Co., 1911.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _Review of Mr. Hind’s Book._ Athenaeum, July 8, 1911.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _Notes on the Post Impressionist Painters at the Grafton Galleries._ C. J. Holmes. 1910-1911.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _On Post Impressionism._ Sir William Richmond. Times, Jan. 10, 1911.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _Pages on Art._ Charles Ricketts. Containing article on _Post-Impressionism at the Grafton Gallery_. London, Constable & Co., 1913.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _French Artists of Today._ London, Heinemann, 1912.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _From Impressionism to the Spectral Palette._ H. P. H. Friswell. Saturday Review, Feb. 23, 1901.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. Foreword to catalogue of exhibition by Frank Rutter. Doré Galleries, London.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. Letter on _The Post Impressionists at the Grafton Gallery_. A. Warren Dow. Spectator, Oct. 12, 1912.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. Athenaeum, Jan. 7, 1911; December, 1911.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _A Year of Post-Impressionism._ D. S. MacColl. Nineteenth Century, February, 1912; “The Spectral Palette,” Saturday Review, Feb. 9, 1901.

POST IMPRESSIONISTS. _The Post Impressionist and Others._ Yoshio Markino. Nineteenth Century, February, 1913.

REVOLUTION IN ART. Athenaeum, Feb. 4, 1911.

RODIN, AUGUSTE. _Art._ From the French of Paul Gsell. London, Hodder & Stoughton.

SCULPTURE. _Gills, Eric._ Times, Jan. 27, 1911.

SCULPTURE. _Post Impressionist Sculptures._ Athenaeum, Jan. 28, 1911.

SCULPTURE. _The Sculpture of Maillol._ Roger Fry. Burlington Magazine, XVII, p. 26.

VAN GOGH. _The Letters of a Post Impressionist, Being the Familiar Correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh._ Translated from the German by Anthony M. Ludovici. London, Constable & Co., 1912.

VAN GOGH. _Review of V. Van Gogh’s Letters._ Athenaeum, Dec. 21, 1912.

VAN GOGH. _Riefstahl_, R. Meyer. Part I, _Vincent Van Gogh_, Burlington Magazine, XVIII, p. 91; Part II, _Van Gogh’s Style in Relation to Nature_, Burlington Magazine, XVIII, p. 155.

VAN GOGH. _The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh._ F. Melian Stawell (review) Burlington Magazine, XVIX, p. 152.

FRENCH

APOLLINAIRE, GUILLAUME. _Meditations esthétiques. Les peintres cubistes._ 1ère série: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Mlle. Marie Laurencin, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp Villon. Paris, Eug. Figuière, 1913. In-40, 84 p. et 46 planches, reproductions.

BERNARD, EMILE. _Souvenirs sur P. Cézanne._ Paris, office central de librairie, 5 rue Palatine, 1908. In-12.

BUZZI, PAOLO. _Aeroplani._ Canti alati di Paolo Buzzi. Col. IIe Proclama futurista di F. T. Marinetti. Milano, edizione di _Poesia_, 1909. In-16, 282 p.

DENIS, MAURICE. _Théories 1890-1910._ _Du symbolisme et de Gauguin vers un nouvel ordre classique._ Paris, Bibliothèque de l’occident, 17 rue Eble, 1912. In-80, 272 p.

DUHEM, HENRI. _Impressions d’art contemporain._ Paris, Eug. Figuière, 1913. In-120, 382 p.

GLEIZES, ALBERT ET METZINGER, JEAN. _Du cubisme._ Paris, Eug. Figuière, 1912. In-40, 80, 44 p., et 30 pl., reproductions.

GUY, MICHEL. _Le dernier état de la peinture._ Paris, Union française d’édition, Le Feu, 1911. In-16, plaquette.

LETALLE, ABEL. _Idées et figurations d’art._ Paris, E. Sansot, 1911. In-160.

MARINETTI, F. T. _Le futurisme._ Paris, E. Sansot, 1911. In-12, 240 p. La Iere édition italienne est de.

MARINETTI, F. T. _Coupées électriques._ Drama en trois actes avec une préface sur le futurisme. Paris, E. Sansot, 1909. In-12, 194 p.

MARINETTI, F. T. _Le monoplan du pape, roman politique en vers libres._ Paris, E. Sansot, 1913. In-16, 349 p.

_Les peintres futuristes italiens._ Exposition du Lundi 5, au Mardi 24 Février 1912. Paris, Bernheim, Jeune, 1912. Oct. In-16, 32 p., 8 fig. ou reproductions.

_Catalogues des peintres futuristes et sculpteurs_. Paris, Bernheim-Jeune, 1912. In-16. Même opuscule que le précédent à peu de chose près 3 éditions: en français, en anglais, en italien.

MELLERIO, ANDRÉ. _Le mouvement idéaliste en peinture._ Paris, H. Floury, 1896. In-80, 75 p.

MELLERIO, ANDRÉ. _L’Exposition de 1900 et l’impressionnisme._ Paris, H. Floury, 1900. In-80, 48 p.

NOCQ, HENRY. _Tendances nouvelles. Enquête sur l’évolution des industries d’art._ Paris, H. Floury, 1896. In-80, 204 p.

SALMON, ANDRÉ. _La jeune peinture française._ Paris, Société des Trente. Albert Messein, 1910. In-80, 124 p.

Lors paraître prochainement du même auteur:

SALMON, ANDRÉ. _La jeune sculpture française._ Paris, Société des Trente. Albert Messein, 1912. In-80.

SIGNAC, PAUL. _D’Eugène Delacroix au néo-impressionnisme._ Paris, Floury, 1911. In-80, 120 p. (nouvelle édition) La Iere édition en 1899.

UHDE, J. B. _Henri Rousseau_, (dit Rousseau le Douanier) Paris, Eug. Figuière, 1913. In-40, avec reproductions.

EN PRÉPARATION.

MORISSE, CHARLES. _Gauguin._ In-80. Chez l’éditeur H. Floury, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris.

A noter pour paraître prochainement sous la direction de Guillaume Apollinaire, à la librairie Eugène Figuière à Paris, 7 rue Corneille; Une volume sur Cézanne, sur Seurat, sur Dégas, sur Rénois, par des auteurs différents. Une volume également sur _Les peintres orphiques_ par Guillaume Apollinaire lui-même.

À noter aussi l’ouvrage suivant:

RÉNOIR. _Album de quarante reproductions dont 4 fac-similés en couleur et 36 phototypes._ Préface d’Octave Mirebeau. Texte des plus notoires écrivains de tous les pays. Paris, chez Bernheim-Jeune, 28 boulevard de la Madeleine, 1913. In folio.

ARTICLES.

ALEXANDRE, ARSÈNE. _Maurice Denis._ Signé: Arsène Alexandre. In-40, 6 pages, 5 reproductions. L’art et les artistes. Tome VIII, Janvier, 1909.

APOLLINAIRE, GUILLAUME. _Henri Matisse._ Signé: Guillaume Apollinaire. In-80, 5 pages, et 3 reproductions. La Phalange. No. du 15 Décembre, 1907.

AUREL. _L’Ensiegnement d’Emile-Antoine Bourdelle._ Signé: Aurel. In-80, 14 p. La Phalange. No. du 20 Mars, 1912.

BERTAUX, EMILE. _Notes sur le Gréco._ I. _Les Portraits_. II. _L’Italienne_. III. _Le Byzantisme_. 3 articles dans de _revue de l’art ancien et moderne_, Années: 1911, Juin; 1912, Décembre et 1913, Janvier. Nombreuses reproductions et planches hors texte.

BESSON, GEORGES. _Le grand palais aux bestiaux._ Signé: Georges Besson. In-80, 5 pages. La Phalange. No. du 20 Décembre, 1912.

BRICAUT, JEAN. _Essai sur la couleur._ Signé: Jean Bricaut. In-80, 5 pages. La Phalange. No. du 20 Avril, 1913.

CORNU, PAUL. _Bernard Naudin, dessinateur et graveur._ Signé: Paul Cornu. Les Cahiers du Centre. 40 Série, Mars, 1913.