By Thomas B. Hess

The Modern Museum's fifteen:

Where U. S. extremes meet

ARTVJ«

.he extremists, the forward-pushing, exploring artist and group of new, unexhibited works), Tomlin, Lippold, Baziotes, the one whose vision is set in a long, backward-looking gaze, Ferber (whose sculpture here, the decoration for a synagogue in are conventionally opposites in art. Their prototypes are Dela• Millburn, N. J., will be the subject of an extended article in a croix, erroneously but commonly considered as the man who kept forthcoming issue). Now they widen their public, which is pleas• beating down the doors to the future, and Ingres, equally er• ant. And they fill in some gaps in the Museum's record of roneously accepted as the disciplinarian reactionary, the dis- exhibitors, which is understandable.

dainer of innovation. Actually, however, if "modern" is to imply But if we decide to accept many of these works as extremist, an "extremism of advance," then Ingres is the more modern, with we must change the term to suggest acceptibility, even pop• sponsorship from such different quarters as Picasso and Arshile ularity, and still leave it extending in the realms of pure indi• Gorky. Yet it is possible that the very idea and position of vidualism and uniqueness of expression that can. paradoxically, extremism, in the old sense, no longer exists—a possibility that become anonymous. And we must change an implication, for is suggested by the exhibition opening this month at the Museum extremes suggest distances, polarities (like the Romantic-Classic of > ftl >dern Art of fifteen American painters and sculptors. "feud") which no longer seem applicable.

In modern politics, extremes are blunted by coalescence, the Two exceptions to the above are two of the most astonishing Left and Right alliances which characterize history since the artists represented at the , Edwin Dick• 'thirties. In art they are blunted by rapid and total acceptance; inson and Frederick Kiesler. Both are discussed in the article not by society, naturally, which is so distant from today's on the following pages of this issue. extremist that its opinions make no difference, but by the fairly Two of the most interesting cases for the above are Herman large, fairly informed audience at which the artists probably sighted to begin with. So although the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition could be considered an investigation or partial presentation of some extremes, its timing misses by a few years, or months (or minutes, if one considers the pace of museum schedules). The edge is gone, the start, shock, jolt, turn of surprise, instant of disorientation or whatever gave edge and bite have vanished. We say: "Yes, . . . and it's about time he got here, too." Many of the others have already made their own way, set their pace, established their stature: Rothko (who is represented by an important

Two moderns see

Herman Rose fleft] of , veteran but generally unappreciated painter, sees Twenty-third Street El (lent by J. H. Hirshhorn) from a nearby rooftop. Herbert Katzman [right], young newcomer sponsored by the Downtown Gallery, found a sweeping design in Brooklyn Bridge. Both are in the Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of fif• teen Americans—each of whom is presented in a small one man show. Where U.S. extremes meet continued

Rose and —painters whose achievements have little strokes and dabs of minutely regulated tones, building been relatively unappreciated and whose inclusion among the the oily pigment up into a relief of bumps and pats. This gives fifteen Americans is a cause for congratulation. his pictures an Impressionist look that is as superficial as a

One of the more astute theorists of the advancing extremists family resemblance, for Rose admits Pissarro is his father, —those who demand something that will look new and whose but father and son are very different, even though you recognize search at the outer edges of modern perception involves an one in the other. Rose's scenes are not impressions; they have enthusiastic jettisoning and breaking of past paraphernalia— a timeless look. His skyscrapers or little Brooklyn gardens is Barnett B. Newman. He has dismissed "quality" as a "fetish," might have been built before Columbus by some prophetic and denied that "art has any concern with the problem of Pueblo tribes. The shadowless light that soaks them is unrelated beauty and where to find it." "The image we produce," he wrote, to the clock or the calendar. And the dialogue is not between "is the self-evident one of revelation, real and concrete, that the painter and his subject, or the painter and his , can be understood by anyone who will look at it without the but the energy is made to flow between the picture and the nostalgic glasses of history." site—two realities outside the artist. The revelation is the discovery of the landscape—the object—and it is slowly and Does this extreme separate Mr. Newman, and the painters patiently transferred and preserved on the painting. associated with him, including Rothko and Still, from what expectedly would be considered the opposite extreme, such as This is a backward extremism. The artist pushes quite con• the intimate, small, dreamy and exactly realist city scenes of sciously to his extremely individual position, but he insists on Herman Rose? the validity of various historical devices. It is not being tradi•

Rose works with infinite patience, literally. He searches the tional, which in the best sense involves building on the past rooftops of Manhattan and Brooklyn—the last private places in some sort of continuum of action and reaction, and in the for the artist who wants to capture public scenes—for the worst sense a kind of thoughtless, face-value appreciation. Nor view and the look that stops him and which he recognizes as is it being eclectic, or scavenging for new ideas about old styles. the finished image. Then he must commute to the site from It is not reactionary painting, viz. literary; nor retardataire, his home in Brooklyn. Working on one area of the canvas at viz. eccentric. It is an idea about painting that has been pushed a time, bringing it to completion, then moving on to an adjacent to the extreme where the artist gives himself up to the sensation one, he gets the painting to open as the petals of a bud will of the subject—and in this sense Rose's method might be called open into the full shape of a flower. His method is one of anonymous. It is relevant to mention here that one of his favorite

The Dance by Herbert Katzman, who made his One of a series of untitled charcoal dra New York debut last year in one of the Mu• ings by Edward Corbett of Taos, N.M. He seum of Modern Art's "New Talent" shows. the most interesting newcomer in the she

6 ^ . is .-.,•;>. y ' • *>s^- %" Si; •

-if \

Female Head by Joseph Clasco of New York, youngest of the 15 Americans at the Modern Museum. He was born in Oklahoma in 1925. Clyfford Still's 6% feet high untitled abstraction (lent by Alfonso Ossorio) is typical of his energetic style that has had a wide following on the West Coast.

modern painters is Josef Albers, not only because his forms are Rose uses the softest sable brushes; Still gave up using brushes

"all of one piece" or because "he is in control"—two of Rose's some years ago—"I had gotten too much virtuosity"—and given reasons, but perhaps also because Albers insists on his paints with long, slashing, sliding strokes of the palette knife. anonymous place as director of the drama between the painting Rose is a "tonal" painter; Still is not interested in painting as and the object. it is a profession with such subdivisions. Rose paints a detailed

But Albers' object also includes the idea. picture of reality; Still's paintings contain no elements of nature,

In the pictures of Clyfford Still, the object is almost all idea. and the only possible tie between his image and the spectator'"

Where Rose'3 paintings are apt to be small (they must be visual associations is the long, horizonless, "egocentric" plain? carried to and from the landscape), Still's are apt to be huge. of the Midwest and West where Still [Continued on page 65]

to lin. In laurai and pirn, at 2,300 f»t*t. gcuauib i/bai Him ... ~ — oklft N and Information writ*-. always walked in the shadow of of painting and I have the optimism SEASON JUNE 14 to SEPT. 3 i G. Hoyn««. UJr., H«nd«r»onvilU, NX. Bear the friend, mentor and counsel to believe that many people recog• for Soginnon ai woll at advanced stud.nH. Co-«ducarional. Indoor L outdoor studios, of other artists. Perhaps now his nize quality." And characteristically landicap*, StilMjf* and Portrait Painting energetic calligraphic pictures will he quickly added, "I love quality. ISVILLE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS instruction. receive recognition. Once explaining It ss so snobbish and anti-messianic." ideational — Graduate — Und«r«raduata For furth.r information \g addr.is: couri»i in Donald Bear was singularly un- why he didn't do more for himself Until Jun. 5>h, ROSA LEE, c/o Hoffman - '-••t*Mo Colo • Sybil Srowna • Ivan snobbish. Anti-messianic? Yes. About V JoHnwwt as an artist. Bear explained to a Studio, 30 5. Adami St., Chicago 3, III. alto, young painter he had launched: everything but art. Allot Jun. 5th. ROSA LEE, 4 K.ndall Lon., :•. Drama, Educoticm, Writing, Mwtic 9 - Auguit 19 Provinc.fown, Mau., on Cap. Cod jory D. Ivy, Director Approvod uodor CI. bill of Stighti continued from page 19 WOMAN'S COLLIOI o* tha Unlvar- Where U.S. extremes meet o4 North Carolina - Orooniboro grew up. few spots flecked like opals showing Still has jettisoned almost all the through. Some are almost white, MORRIS historical appurtenances. The cliche- with white on bare canvas. Others ear 'Round Instruction acceptance of the aesthetics of mod• have intricate, interlocking forms DAVIDSON ern painting in its role of heir to the which express complex physical ex• Schooi of Modem Painting ORTON Renaissance, he finds dull at best, ertions. irritating at worst. This artist is en- Many of the artists taking this PROV1NCETOWN :HOOL OF ART aaged in writing his autobiography, contemporary extreme of advance Sofor. Jun. lit—63 W.st 26th Slrt.t, Hi PALM BEACH. FLORIDA and because he is a "natural" paint• have arrived at a calm, graceful ex• N.w York 19. COIumbus 3-7879 Write for Catalogue er, he does it with paint on canvas. hibition of taste which can be called But the autobiography—which is a feminine, if one expunges the de• chain of thoughts and meditations rogatory implications this adjective EASTERN SCHOOLS on sensations—is primary. He fol• has when applied to American males. LANDSCAPE lows Horace's advice, and breaks There is a sense of poise, rest, re• PAINTING COURSES JULY AUGUST 30TT ART SCHOOL with tradition by inventing a con• finement and poetry. Edward Cor- IN PROVINCETOWN MASS. SUMMER COURSES sistent story. Still likes big paintings bett, the most interesting new artist July—Auguat because he feels that in this scale a in the Museum of Modern Art'3 ex• D«gr«« cours«» in Commer• sense of intimacy and immediacy is hibition, taught with Still in San cial Art. junior School. Sum- ARTHUR S1LZ established between the painter and mar Circular and Winter Francisco for a while, and though 231 E. » St. NEW YORK 3 School catalog on r»qu«st. the picture; between the onlooker his soft, gently smudged charcoal ANNE F. ABBOTT, Diwtor and the picture (an idea he shares do not resemble Still's Box T, 20)3 £y* St., N.W. with Rothko). But aside from this aim Washington 6, O.C. work, they may be considered as men at immediacy, Still's judgments are of the same extreme. Corbett's state• often negative—certain elements will ment in the catalogue i3 simply: "1 CATALOG ON BEQUEST not be permitted to obtrude, incon• intend my works as poetry." Still is I23T EIMWOO0 AVENUE BUFFALO 77. NEW YORK sistent elements that come from the unique in that he has evolved a past or the accepted present and masculine, dramatic, pounding ex• thus bear the "impurities" of stereo• pression within the strict confines ART types. Still may reject any estab• that his interest has set. [bright SCHOOL lished method as being incapable of Are Rose and Still at extremes ^L>» PHILIP C ELLIOTT. I acting as a vehicle for his per se newness. from each other? Is there, in fact, any metaphysical distance between GET A DEGREE IN ART Then why should anyone look at them? • OSTON UNIVERSITY Cdiu.ti »nal CII.II it 'NSYLVANIA ACADEMY Prstrtit.l Art* •»« Lartsri. Curse. Isadlni ti 3.3.. Still's paintings? Both have searched for and found A.A.A. Itirm. 2-4 y**r yr.fr.ins tor Alan Mhc.1 OF THE FINE ARTS "Why, indeed," he might reply an individual expression while deny• insluit.s ir ttlltf. tr.nif.rs. Major lit Casilarslal 12.000 awardad annually in orliat and Mhal- Art. Fiskl.a *r Ba.lt illmtratl.ii. Art TaMlsar s ta young men and women Interested In a . . . and anyway, he doubts if one ing the validity of "originality" as a Tralaint, l.tarlar DaMratla.. Individual lulnansa. in nne arts. Study Palntina, Sculptura. Illus- Alia1 anil »Mirs** Insludaa. Ctal.i. snd Mural Decoration with noted professional* can ever see them correctly, as a follower of Picasso's would appreci• wiea's oldest 0806). most dlitlnfulshfd Fin* related series, a product of long ate that distinction. Both have highly Writ. 0. 1_ OLIVER. OlrMtar if Adaalsalans :h©al. $20,000 In national prizes won recently it. 3.F.A. and UFA. throuth University of growth. Most shows are but fortui• original handlings of paint, and have DM 210. 70S C«».n»«.Kh Av*.. IHIII IS. Mass. ivania. Summer session. Catalogue. tous ensembles, dictated by gallery made paintings that could almost be M, Broad St., Philadelphia 2, Pa. space and by what happens to look classed as reliefs as the light plays well, he feels. over the elaborate surfaces. Still dis• OGUNQUIT SCHOOL of t WIGGINS • Still's attitude and opinions seem misses this as a mere manifestation Painting and Sculpture immediately acceptable as logical of energy—"something that comes OGUNQUIT, MAINE dscap. LANGDON K1HN extensions of the right of an artist and goes and does not really make ROBERT LAURENT • SCULPTURE trait to exist. And his paintings also seem much difference." Rose consciously JOHN LAURENT • PAINTING ART SCHOOL O.I. Approved I July 7-Aug. 29 immediately acceptable as art, de• studies his relief effects and inte• mediums • Visiting Artisrs spite the artist's logical denials of grates them, "like setting diamonds," YASUO KUNIYOSHI • ERNEST FIENE Jun. 16 to August 29 the relevance of such acceptance. with his facets of hue. But more im• CATALOGUE • So* 391, Slacksburg, Vo. ESSEX, CONNECTICUT His tawny, fatty and lean colors, sur• portant seems their similar view of faced like soot and grease, seem the role of the painter as a mediator ripped into jagged bays and 3purs. between painting and idea—an idea HAYSTACK MOUNTAIN SUMMER Something appears to have been of a landscape and its reality and CHIPENKO ART SCHOOL flayed alive, skin and sinew pulled significance; or an idea of a sensa• SCHOOL of CRAFTS Woodstock, N. Y. out to expose layers of rough-ledged tion or response to meditation ex• matter. A large red area will invade pressed with appropriate methods IN THE KINGDOM LIBERTY, MAINE IPTURE • PAINTING • Indowed-Non Profit—Sum mar Program a yellow one, the knife building up and intuition on the canvas' plane. CERAMICS REOPENING JUNE 29, 1952 T.och.rs, Profottionals. Hobbyists rods and shelfs of paint along the The search for beauty and the POTTERY > WEAVING > WOODWORKING REGISTER NOW! way, with strange mounds and scars BLOCKPRINTING Writ*: 1947 8r»ad»ay, N. Y. fetish of quality are immaterial to Far baaklat srrlta Francis S. Marrltt Dlrastar appearing in unexpected areas. Col• both. Rose says "frankly I'm in love ors meet and are separated as the with my subject," so beauty is of no knife pushes them together, making particular importance to him. And ••SXOWHEGAN SCHOOL OF" iORGE BARBER transitions which should answer any although Rose would probably fight ••PAINTING AND SCULPTURE*" I £ /> I OF PAINTING critic of Still's technical abilities. for quality, and Still dismiss it, both Focultyt H*nry Vornum Poor, Jack t.vin., Ann. July 7-Aug. 30 One painting is almost black, with have so individual a method that Poor, Willord W. Camming., Milton H.bald. Visiting Artists: Franklin Watkins, Choim Gross, 1AL LOCATION—A PRIVATE ISLAND only a few streaks of red and blue. the common "fine-artists'-type-qual- Rob.rt Moth.rw.il, Korl Knaths, David Smith, IFF THE CONNECTICUT COAST There is an immediacy and depth of ity" has been expelled from their and ofh.rs. tud.nt tlitHi, .Is. MM* availabla vwMni *• arofaaaian.1 artist*. LIVIHI srttM.dstlont. impact here which is astonishing. paintings. Osxxti July Is*. G.J. Approval. Hvautl Ifcrr. S .W Another, smaller, is yellow with a Thus extremism as separate ex- to S» W. 12 Sir.*, N York, N. Y. mkWm SKOWHIGAN, MAINi NEW YORK SCHOOLS NEW YORK SCHC tremes is perhaps just a lingering impact often comes through. myth perpetuated by the avant-garde Herbert Katzman, born in Chicago COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY in order to assert its avantness; a in 1923, is a slapdash Expressionist fetish to which to ciing in our period in the Kokoschka manner, but he ART STUDEi when a "new" idea gets digested in can work his views of Europe or New about fifteen minutes. York so fast and ingeniously that What has been written about Still they achieve a simple integration. A LEAGUE OF! and Rose could apply to several of few shapes, two triangles and two announce Summor Scnoo/s ovals, for instance, are covered by N. SCHOOL OF the other painters in the exhibition. Woodstock, Y„ and New Y And there is little need to discuss deep but contrasty earth colors, and PAINTING and SCULPTURE June 2 - August 29 again in these pages the notable con• black outlines add drawing on top. instructors in Woodstock: jumma session tributions of Pollock. Lippold, Roth- Here speed and poise of execution, Blanch, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, S with the final picture brought to CLASSES Jury 7 to August 15, 19S2 ko, Tomlin, etc. However, one must Monk**, Frank J. Reilly REGISTRATION July 2, 3, and 5 add that some of them (as well as perfect balance, is somehow remi• The Stimiiw Swien coureee of the School Instructors niscent of Raoul Dufy—despite all In New Yerk: of Pointing and Sculpture have boon some artists still very incompletely Alston, Will Barntt, 0 planned for student* who desire prof ee- exhibited at the Museum of Modern Katzman's show of violence. Freuchen, 9abort W. Johnso •ional instruction by accomplished practi• Art—like DeKooning, Franz Kline, Irving Kriesberg (also born in tioners: painters and sculptor* known for inaid Marsh, M. Peter P the excellence of their art and for the George Cavallon) cannot be called Chicago, in 1919) reminds one of Louis Priscilla, Frank J. contemporaneousness of their reaching. extremists, for they work with, while Paris, too. but of the younger gen• Harry Sternberg. DRAWING AND PAINTING drastically changing and reinterpret• eration that has been combining George Picken and Julian Levi ing tradition—which historically is their masters into new cocktails. He drawing / paint" SCULPTURE the position of the great artist. uses Bonnard's colors, especially the illustration/ fash Jean DeMarco and ettore Salvatoro As for the newcomers in the show, purples-to-reds and greens; Matisse's illustration / anal GRAPHIC ARTS they are, on the whole, disappoint• frontal arrangements (and his danc• Han* Alexander Mueller ing, perhaps because of the high ers) and Kriesberg's own ideas about applied VISITING ARTISTS Jean liberie, Arthur Csver, Sen Shahn, level of company they have been sheep and birds. The results are Very Reasonob/e Terms/ William Zorssdt asked to keep. Corbett, as already pleasant, like so much of the mod• 215 West 57th St., N. Fer seeseMe Suraraer Seealea t»d Winter Ses- noted, is an exception, but Rothko, ern Ecole de Paris, with violence of slea Aeneunceeseflt* addree* the On*** ef Ual- Circle verslty Arfnlsslene, Celuaskia Ualvarslry. New Still and Tomlin must quite over• color justified (sometimes to the Yert 27. N. Y. whelm his sober works, which look point of negation) by the verve and WINTER SESSION like sensitive abstractions by Odilon good humor of the linear drawing. September IS, 1952, to January 29, 1*53 Registration, September 19 to 24 Redon miraculously resurrected and Thomas Wilfred, veteran experi• living in our hot, dry Southwest. menter, shows his "Lumia" composi• Joseph Glasco is the youngest ex• tions of colored lights that drift like AMERICAN ART SCH hibitor (born in Oklahoma in 1925). planned sunsets across a screen. His ISA W.SoST., N.Y.19 e PU7-: IBLOMSHIELD He has been seen in three New York researches (in the opinion of this shows, and has demonstrated con• reviewer) have little to do with art, study with: ROBERT BRACKA PAINTING * DRAWING * PORTRAITURE siderable talent. His huge, doughy but they may have a lot to do with LEON PRI • PRIVATE INSTRUCTION • personages — of paint that looks comfortable living and enjoyable GORDON "OS" • FOR CAREER OR HOBBY * somehow as if it had been knitted watching. Wilfred's works show no RAPHAMJJO 340 E. 63RD ST., N.Y. 21 * TE 8-4149 together—have a blunt and witty sign of changing their appeal which [ flNt ARTS • ADVERT/SING . presence. Glasco likes soft, shifting has placed them among the most ' fee- catalog V tones and elaborations of texture NEW YORK popular and widely demanded ex• PARSONS that are a bit postery for the intensi• hibits ever seen at the Museum of SCHOOL OF DESIGN PARIS Thoreocfc prefesslenat tralnlsui ta ty he seems to strive for, but the Modern Art. MEXICO SCHOOL Adrertlsln*. fashion. Inunar. ITALY rut Deelcn (textiles. wallpaper*, T etc.), IllueLralien. Teacher Tr*i*- Dickinson and Kiesler continued from page 23 ing. Prelasslerial designers serre a f EXI' MEXICO aa aaitlca. S-reer eeursea. Also 3.1. X dear**. B.O.T.C Catalesrue. fraction of an inch, here he whips outdoors) appears in the uppermost IV JLart wot *el N, IM C J7t» Street, hies* Yert ZJ. N. Y. out huge, elaborately twisted forms units which together form a rough c • tirvercraft • design FOREIGN SCHOOLS in a day with a band-saw. Devoted square like that of the lintels. Power• ° • painting • Spanish to this machine, which he finds "a ful strokes of ocher enamel skip from M JULY and AUGU ART TOURS of EUROPE real discovery," he insists on util• picture to picture in the asymme• University Credit Optio July-Augu.t-7 Weeks—SI 057 izing it for even the most delicate trical cross that follows the plan of • SyracuM L france-/ta/y-fng/and-HoJ/and-B«Jgium 1 details. Uncannily anticipating his the base. And four vertical strips, FREE Unrv*r*ity Art History—Approcfatioo— Sketching c 401 L 0*. final forms, he laminates thin, flat the only parallel units in both FOLDER University Tour Leader*—Optional Credit* 0 SyrocuM 2 pieces of wood together to achieve Galaxies, become the piers. Broadly APPLY: Irma S. Jona«, Tran*marin*> Tour* apparently impossible curves, or fits painted, with a sensuality and light- SO0 Fifth Avemso, New York II, N. Y. groups of irregularly shaped seg• heartedness he never learned from ments together to arrive at flat De Stijl, this Galaxy—exhibiting a SCHOOL OF planes. These mechanical ingenui• new principle, offering a new di• ITALY FINE ARTS ties, evident only on close examina• rection— is undeniably a revolution• tion, offer another important level ary step in modern painting. STUDIO HINNA on which to experience this work. Offering nothing palpably new VILLA STROHL-FERN this The weighty cross-bar of the base but h:3 own unique talent, Edwin Veterans Approrrttd and the heavy rope looped eloquently Dickinson, in terms of his aware• e Enroll Any Time VIA 01 VILLA RUFFO over one of the joints were both in• ness of the artistic climate about sword e Inquirist Answered nAur ITAIY Promptly in English KUrYsfc, I I ALT spired by the theme of his original him, paints with as square a spirit Totem. The Totem—simultaneously of rebellion as does Kiesler. The re• a Christian and a Pagan religious bellion, as manifested in his art, is means j A FASCINATING, MONEY-MAKING symbol, the artist suggests—was directed against the rabid rejection based on the principle of a primi• —which is the moral basis of much art caree tive fire-making device, a wooden avant-garde art—of a whole area of Cancer J cross with a rope attached. But a past tradition. Dickinson stubbornly be yours motif in Kiesler's work often jumps resists this pressure to reject, and from one medium to another. Thus, continues to put anything into his RESEARCH^ America's 12 Most the version preceding this Galaxy painting that occurs to him, ruling famous Artists Show was made as part of his 1948 stage out no technical possibilities, direct• You Howl Prepare production for Milhaud's Le Pauvre ly utilizing whole levels of non- at homa for high- Matelot, and the version following it painting experience. But his refusal paying art jobsl Mail Your Gift to "Caiice is the Galaxy of paintings. to make his art on the basis of a Care of Your Local Pottoj Rising on the wall a foot higher pre-decided concept puts him in the FAMOUS ARTISTS COURSE ' than the srnlntiir»» th^ emiielwe ~l