A RT
(THE NEW CHENIL GALLERIES.)
IT has been said that those animals which have over- specialized have invariably failed to survive, or at least to
achieve any great advance ; -while man has been the grand non-specialist in evolution, perfecting his primitive structures rather than acquiring environmental adaptations which had only a limited or an immediate purpose to serve. It would seem that in every branch of man's culture he must continue this process of development, never losing sight of his original bearings for any great length of time. Our artists, on the con- trary, seem to have discarded this law of development, for mostly their art consists of adding ribbons to the tails of the monkeys that have immediately preceded them. Some of the ribbons are very nice, of course, but no more. The chief fault with most of the pictures in modern exhibitions (and this exhibition is no exception) is that they give no sense of organic unity—no oneness. They have beautiful touches of colour, occasional flashes of brilliant draughtsmanship, and ably mastered pieces of form ; but, throughout the exhibition there is a lack of that quality which, in Rembrandt, for in- stance, forces us to see the " wood " before we are obsessed by the " trees." We feel that the majority of these young painters are so intent on idolizing the technical gods of the last decade that they are losing contact with the primeval origins of art. Their art is becoming the art of specialists, and as such cannot survive. They must hark back to the past in Art and in themselves, for the appeal of their work does not penetrate beyond the narrow environmental incrustation surrounding our souls.
W. McCAwen.
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