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THE ART NEWS

May 6th '39

U.S. Art at the Fair:  Democratic Selection & Standardized Result
BY DORIS BRIAN

The sculpture, usually well disposed throughout the galleries and in large rotunda, is, in general, of higher quality than the painting, and experimentation in this medium is more daring.  The sculptured equivalent of hundreds of landscapes - rows of heads - have happily absented themselves.  What heads there are graciously offer as much interest to the spectator as to the sitter and the artist:  Minna Harkavy's poetic reduction of New England Woman in pink case stone.  Will Shuster's traditional bronze bust of a statesman, Milton Horn's terracotta Portrait of the Artist's Mother and Koncak Ziolkowski's gigantic and detailed marble of Paderewski, furnish a variety of lively treatment.
Females in the Maillol tradition are not waning in popularity, but in addition to numerous echoes of this manner, there are slender figures by Doris Casesar, a sleek black bronze torso of a dancer by Marshall Fredericks, and ebony semi-abstraction by Chaim Gross.  There were size limitations here as in the painting, but the doors were not closed to largeness of conception as found in William Zorach's imposing Benjamin Franklin, Malvina Hoffman's Elemental Man, Henry Kreis' tremendous visitation, and Heinz Warneke's powerful Prodigal Son.
There is a rich assortment of small groups, some intending for enlarging, some, like Adolph Weinmen's rococo Duet, finished statements.  Extreme pathos is found in mother and child themes by Zygmond Olbrys and Richmond Barthé.  The cubic breadth of Anita Weschler's timely anti-war group contrasts with the undulating rhythms of Nat Werner's ebony Swing Trio.
Animals appear in ornamental plenty:  a giant granite frog by Cornelia Chapin, A Bison by Richard Davis, a sleek, economical owl by Richard Recchia are but a few samples.
Abstractions, many of which suggested to their creators titles of philosophical import, are welcome decorations in the galleries.  Perhaps the most distinguished is the Blue Construction by David Smith, a triangular composition strong in its linear force, plastic variation and three-dimensional power.
Over four hundred examples in graphic media, some by artists already represented by painting or sculpture, are comprehensive in score and offer few surprises.  In style they range from detailed architectural renderings of French cathedrals to freely treated aquatints; in subject matter, from political cartoons to pastoral landscapes.  Farmers, workers, actors, legendary figures and other less colorful humans are represented in varied activity and nature depicted in the entire gamut of her moods.  A group of color [[?]] in several techniques by such artists as Emil Ganso, Louis Schanket, Max Kahn and Allen Lewis enliven the show.  For black and whites, the roster includes Peggy Bacon, Frank Benson, Jack Markow, Adolph Dehn, Lewis C. Daniel, Jerry Bywaters, Horense Ferni, and a plethora of others.
In general, confronted by such a desert of mediocrity in which the few oases are usually insufficiently equipped, the spectator may be led to some conclusions about the inability of the American soil to nourish art worth the name.  But the observations would not be altogether warranted. The desire to be just as led to unintended condemnation:  after all, it is by best, not the average production that an epoch should be judged.