Russians

After 18 months' preparation, an exhibition of representative Russian Art is now open at the Grand Central Palace, Manhattan. The committee of Russian Artists who assembled the paintings has included not only Slavic artists already familiar to Americans, but also those who are known only in their native land.

There are 600 canvases, including every Russian school. Much of the work shows the strong influence of Paris training and Salon example. One notes, however, the Slavic temperament and love of brilliant color asserting itself over the French training. The contrasting morbidity and brutality and the blatant gaiety that typify Russia are here displayed in all their aspects.

Young Peasant Woman by Abram Arkhipov might be the work of some young Paris painter were it not for the daring red dress and the voluptuous drawing of the figure. Alexander Jakovlev has some of his beautiful drawings; Bialinitski-Birulia has an entire wall of calm Winter scenes.

Rude strength is the Russian characteristic and is apparent in all the works of these assorted artists, no matter what the technique or the subject.

Independents

The eighth exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists is on view at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Manhattan.

All schools are represented; paintings ranging through chromo, academic and modernist styles in all their manifestations hang in assorted order on the overcrowded walls. The collection contains art good and bad, famous and obscure, enormous and microscopic, bewildering the casual observer by its startling democracy.

One is particularly struck by George Bellow's large canvas of two pugilists, a black and a white, in a particularly intense moment of action. There is Robert Henri's sombre portrait of Miss Battalo Rubino. There are also works by John Sloan, President of the Society, Arthur Lee, winner of the Pennsylvania Academy gold medal, Al Frueh, cartoonist of The New York World, William Glackens, Allen Tucker, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. These represent the established artists who set the character of the show.

Among the "freaks" one notes particularly a sculpture, Red Revel by Albert Dreyfus. A very much guttered wax candle is snuffed by a scull; the smoke issuing from the eye sockets curls up in the form of two reclining; female figures. The whole piece is stained crimson. Afroyim covers one entire wall with his New York Underground, a woven pattern of subways, sewers and steam pipes. Morris Kantor, a cutter of clothes, shows two results of painting at night; one--My Job--is a portrait of himself at work.

Octavine Long tried for the second time to exhibit her Reclining Nude, but the management of the conservative Waldorf debarred the picture, on the grounds that it might offend guests of the hotel who might wander to the roof garden setting of the show.

It is interesting to observe, however, that "Independent" and "Modernist" are not synonymous. The general character of the exhibition is almost more conservative than that of the Academies at New York and Philadelphia. Of the 1,500 works representing 700 artists from all parts of the country, the majority are sensible efforts of slightly talented people.

Daguerreotypes

In the Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, were displayed scores of daguerreotypes (1840-1860) culled from the private albums of the oldest Philadelphia families. In defense of daguerreotypes, it was pointed out out that "as documents of human interest . . . they are more truthful in their revelation of personality than is the modern development. . . . Nor did the pioneer photographer neglect a fine appreciation for spacing and composition in the arrangement of his subject on the plate." "The elusive half smile, half frown of the posed groups" was traced to "the awkward time* required for the photographic process."

Mary Cassatt

Old and almost blind, Miss Mary Cassatt is exhibiting and selling work covering 50 years, in Paris. She plans to retire to a suburb of Paris, or else return to her native America and live in Manhattan.

Mary Cassatt was the sister of the late Alexander J. Cassatt, onetime President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. She went to Paris in 1875, where she studied art, becoming an ardent admirer of Velasquez, Manet, Degas. She has long been recognized as one of the foremost American artists. Her particular metier is pastel but she has turned her facile hand to etchings and oils as well. Miss Cassatt, the friend of many people of prominence, has been respected for her personality and her ability everywhere.

*Sitters were commanded to "look pleasant" for from 20 to 30 minutes at a stretch.