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SHOP

There is so much that might be said about the magnificent book which is going to Guild subscribers as the December selection that Wings might be expanded to twice its size and still not have room to include all that is interesting. There is, for example, the brilliant list of contributors, all of them—and there are twenty-four—distinguished in their particular fields, whether painting, photography, or literature. The list includes such names as William Carlos Williams; Lewis Mumford; Waldo Frank; Evelyn Scott; Sherwood Anderson; the painters John Marin and Arthur G. Dove. And there are the illustrations, 120 of them, perhaps the book's most striking feature.

We have tried, in this issue of Wings, to give as representative a selection of these pictures as our space would allow. All of the pictures taken from the book, as well as the Matisse on page 18, are by artists who were first introduced to the American public by Alfred Stieglitz. The photograph on page 7, of the Exhibition held in 1914 at 291 Fifth Avenue, Mr. Stieglitz's former gallery, shows a drawing by Picasso, a drawing by Georges Braque, and an example of Negro sculpture. Mr. Stieglitz was the first to exhibit in America the work of Picasso and Braque as well as primitive Negro sculpture. It was Stieglitz who encouraged the young Steichen (an early example of whose work appears on page 9) and who first adequately presented the work of D.O. Hill, the nineteenth century pioneer of modern photography, whose remarkable Handyside Ritchie and William Henning is also reproduced in this issue  The first public exhibition in America of Cézanne's work was held by Alfred Stieglitz at "291" in 1911. It was at this exhibition that Cézanne's lithograph The Bathers was shown. And it was again Alfred Stieglitz who held the first exhibition in America of the work of John Marin (1910), and of Georgia O'Keeffe (1916), and who introduced Matisse to the United States as early as 1908.

One of America's most outstanding photographers is Eduard J. Steichen, who was closely associated with Alfred Stieglitz at the Photo Secession Galleries at 291 Fifth Avenue in the early 1900's and in the introduction of Modern Art to America in connection with the demonstrations held at "291" between 1907 and the War. He has since devoted himself almost entirely in his photographic work to advertising and portraiture and his photographs of celebrated figures that have appeared particularly in Vanity Fair and Vogue are perhaps the best known and most distinctive work of their kind in America.

D.O. Hill, the "old master" in photography, was born in Perth, Scotland, in 1802 and died in 1870. He was a painter who is best known for his photographs. His work was first adequately presented in the extraordinary reproductions that appeared in Camera Work, a magazine published by Alfred Stieglitz, in 1905.

Although Georgia O'Keeffe is particularly famous as being the foremost "woman-painter" and for her paintings of flowers, comment upon her on such score must be considered inadequate. Her paintings need not be apologized for because they are "merely" done by a woman, no matter how unique, but more truly they express something that only a woman could express. As for her paintings themselves, her pictures of flowers are expressions of the same inner states that she seeks to communicate in any of her other paintings, whether they be called abstractions, paintings of western landscape, of New York City, or of any other subject matter as such.

John Marin's dynamic watercolors as well as his paintings in oil and his etchings have given him a place almost unrivalled in the field of American art and he is generally conceded by most authorities to be one of the few great forces in contemporary art as a whole. Since his work was first exhibited by Stieglitz in 1910, it has been shown year by year in exhibitions arranged by Stieglitz.

WINGS VOLUME 8 NUMBER 12

December 1934

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COVER ALFRED STIEGLITZ
From the Shelton, New York—1930. With permission of An American Place, 509 Madison Avenue, New York City. This photograph of the towering shaft of a skyscraper is a striking and dramatic example of Alfred Stieglitz's work. All of the illustrations in this issue of Wings, with the exception of the frontispiece and those which appear on pages 16, 17, and 18, are from the December selection. Notes about the artists will be found in "Shop."

FRONTISPIECE DOROTHY NORMAN
A portrait of Alfred Stieglitz.

"AMERICA AND ALFRED STIEGLITZ" CARL VAN DOREN
The book which the Editors have chosen for December is at once a history of a generation of art and a tribute to a great man who is one of its most important figures.

ALFRED STIEGLITZ DOROTHY NORMAN
A note about Alfred Stieglitz, the man, and what he stands for. Mrs. Norman, herself a photographer and the author of a book of poems, Dualities, is a contributor to America and Alfred Stieglitz as well as one of its Editors.

PIONEER OF MODERN ART SHELDON CHENEY
Mr. Cheney discusses the importance of Alfred Stieglitz to art and artists in America and to modern art in general. Author of A Printer of modern Art and of several books on the theater arts, Mr. Cheney's new book, Expressionism in Art, will be published sometime in November.

MASTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY FRED J. RINGEL
Editor of America as Americans See It, a Guild selection of 1932, and contributor of reviews and articles to leading periodicals here and abroad, Mr. Ringel is working at present on a survey of the arts in America. His article for Wings deals with Alfred Stieglitz as a genius in photography.

THE JUNIOR GUILD THE NEW BOOKS

Wings is edited by Harriet Colby, published monthly by the Literary Guild. It is intended for circulation only among guild Members and is mailed directly yo them each month. 

Inquiries concerning the services of this organization should be sent to THE Literary Guild, 244 Madison Avenue, New York City. Those who subscribed through a bookstore should address all communications to that store.