ART.
MR. ROGER FRY'S PICTURES.
Tina prophet of the Post-Impressionists has been putting hiss theories into practice, and the results are now to be seen at the Alpine Club Gallery. Mr. Fry's well-known seriousness: precludes the possibility of any mere desire to astonish and shock. Rather the impression given is of a somewhat laboured copying. The value of tradition in art which has been so- ably upheld by Mr. Fry in the past with his pen is now exemplified by his brush in the imitation of Maurice Denis. and Picasso.. Post-Impressionism has been both upheld an& derided with much violence and unnecessary waste of ink, and' champions and opponents have lost themselves in wandering- mazes of subtle aesthetics. In truth the issue is simple- enough. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, art, largely owing to science and photography, became too often occupied with mere realism and the outward appearance of things. To represent the external and physical aspect of an scene became the end, and the emotional and spiritual signifi- cance was forgotten. To produce this result a. series of technical conventions were built up with the aim of producing• as much illusion of reality AS possible, and ended in the typical Academy and Salon picture. Against this limited and materialistic view of art has come the inevitable reaction, and with it a desire to devise a new convention of representation.. The aim is to convey the spirit of the thing represented; rather than its outward appearance.
There is, of course, nothing new in this struggle between- mind and matter. Chinese, Italian, Flemish, and Dutch art can all show the two forces at work. What remains to be• seen, and what only time can show, is how far the present workers are right in their practice. Are they right, we may wonder, in neglecting qualities of delicacy and beauty of paint and wilfully assuming a deliberate clumsiness of exeeu-- tion and a pretended childishness of vision P Experiments. must clearly be made if art is to be a living thing. Are the- present experimenters of sufficient genius to lead us ferwarEt and not into blind alleys P That is the question. H. S.
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