Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and PoetsHartley, Marsden
History
Adventures in the Arts: Informal Chapters on Painters, Vaudeville, and Poets
Hartley, Marsden
Art; Literature, Modern -- History and criticism; Vaudeville
The Chinese really knew just what a wash was capable of, and confined
themselves to the majesty of the limitations at hand. John Marin has
been wise in this also though he is not precisely fanatical, which may
be his chief defect, and it is probably true that the greatest
experimenters have shown fanatical tendency, which is only the
accentuated spirit of obsession for an idea. How else does one hold a
vision? It is the only way for an artist to produce plastic exactitude
between two planes of sensation or thought. The parts must be as
perfect as the whole and in the best art this is so. There must be the
sense of "existence" everywhere and it might even be said that the
cool hue of the intellect is the first premise in a true work of art.
Virtuosity is a state of expression but it is not the final state. One
must search for as well as find the sequential quality which is
necessitated for the safe arrival of a work of art into the sphere of
esthetic existence.
The water-colors of John Marin are restless with energy, which is in
its way a real virtue. They do, I think, require, at times at least,
more of the calm of research and less of the excitement of it. All
true artistry is self-contained and never relies upon outer physical
stimulus or inward extravagance of phantasy, or of idiosyncrasy. A
work of art is never peculiar, it is always a natural thing. In this
sense John Marin approaches real art because he is probably the most
natural water-colorist in existence.
With Charles Demuth water-color painting steps up into the true
condition of ideas followed by experience. He has joined with
modernism most consistently, having arrived at this state of
progression by the process of investigation. The tradition of
water-color painting takes a jump into the new field of modernism, and
Demuth has given us his knowledge of the difference between
illustration, depiction, and the plastic realization of fact. Probably
no young artist has accomplished a finer degree of artistic finesse in
illustration than has Charles Demuth in his series of illustrations
for "The Two Magics" of Henry James, or more explicitly to say "The
Turn of the Screw". These pictures are to the true observer all that
could be hoped for in imaginative sincerity as well as in technical
elusiveness. Demuth has since that time stepped out of the confinement
of water-color pure, over into the field of tempera, which brings it
nearer to the sturdier mediums employed in the making of pictures
evolving a greater severity of form and a commendable rigidity of
line. He has learned like so many moderns that the ruled line offers
greater advantages in pictorial structure. You shall find his approach
to the spirit of Christopher Wren is as clear and direct as his
feeling for the vastiness of New England speechlessness. He has come
up beyond the dramatisation of emotion to the point of expression for
its own sake. But he is nevertheless to be included among the arrived
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account