An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art GalleryCheney, Sheldon
History
An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art Gallery
Cheney, Sheldon
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
The Swedish Section, in galleries 99 to 107, is one of the most
important in the building. One who likes a gentle, polished sort of art
will not be at home here; but for virile, fresh and colorful painting
there is no other section that achieves the same high standard. Many of
the pictures are so strong and big that they never should have been put
in these box-like little rooms, where a proper perspective is
impossible. In the paintings there are traces of French and German
training, and especially of Impressionism; but the exhibit shows more
true national feeling and more individual independence than any other in
the building.
The two featured groups are the remarkable paintings and tapestries of
Gustav Adolf Fjaestad in gallery 107-well worthy of long study-and
the paintings and prints of Carl Larsson in gallery 101. But there are
many other things quite as important: the brilliant and fresh canvases
of Carlburg, the snow scenes touched with late sunlight, by Schultzberg,
and the compelling autumn decorations by Osslund, all in gallery 102;
the illustrations by Bauer in gallery 104; the big landscapes by
Hesselborn in gallery 105; and the deep-toned studies by Anna Boberg,
and the virile portraits, in gallery 106. If you doubt that these
Swedish painters can do the polished, poetic thing, as well as the big
vigorous sort, go back to gallery 103, and look at Bergstrom's
atmospheric "Spring Day."
The Swedish sculpture is not so remarkable as the painting; but the
print section in gallery 99 contains a number of very interesting
etchings and wood engravings.
The Argentine Section, in gallery 112, shows much that is fresh, strong,
and brilliant in color. It is interesting to see how much closer these
South American painters are to Spain than to France and Germany. Here
are many echoes, not only of Velasquez and Goya, but of the vital modern
Spaniards like Zuloaga. The collection is very uneven; but in the work
of men like Jorge Bermudez and Hector Nava there is a mighty promise if
not any great achievement. The few sculptures are unusually strong and
interesting.
The Portuguese Section, in galleries 109 to 111, has the appearance of
belonging to an older period in the history of art than the present. One
feels that the artists who show pictures here have not that mastery of
light which marks the Nineteenth Century's greatest advance in painting.
Certainly there is evidence of a general reliance on the older
standards. Perhaps the best works are those of Columbano, in the central
gallery. Here too, and in the next room, are some realistic works of
Malhoa that compel attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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