$100 Works

"Why should the distribution of art differ in any way from the distribution of foods or automobiles? . . . We've been snobs and so have the artists. ... To buy a picture you had to be a millionaire. . . . But now even the millionaires are chary. . . .

"If an artist sells one picture every year at $5,000, that's all right. But suppose he sells ten at $1,000 each? That's better.

"The artist doesn't want luxury. He can live well on $5,000. But the American artist has to rely on the American public. Foreign markets are closed to him. The answer is mass distribution."

With such wise, earnest words Mrs. Edith Halpert, smart mistress of Manhattan's Downtown Gallery, this week opened her sixth annual "$100 show." Mrs. Halpert's previous $100 shows suffered from studio remnants. But no critics could spot unwanted leftovers in this week's exhibit. For sale at $100 each were pictures by such U. S. artists as Peggy Bacon, Bernard Karfiol, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Ernest Fiene, Marguerite Zorach, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer and many another. Most of the pictures had been marked down from $300 or more.

While Mrs. Halpert's experiment was the most spectacular "$100 show" the city had ever seen, the idea was not new to Manhattan. Nine years ago R. H. Macy (department store) inaugurated a "$100-and-under show," which successfully sold the work of many an unknown. This season other Manhattan galleries have followed suit.

For the first time in its history, swank Seligmann Galleries held a contemporary U. S. show priced from $10-$250; Valentine Gallery offered Louis Eilshemius watercolors at from $50 to $75; Ferargil Galleries exhibited unrecognized U. S. painters, sold their works for $5-$50.

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