ART CHRONICLE
417
Indeed there are numerous signs that the day of primitive inspiration, like
the day of pure abstraction, is rapidly drawing to a close. The many
artists who recently have tried to draw upon the designs of the North–
west Coast have been able to do little to infuse their source material
(handsome as it is) with any contemporary meaning.
Of the other abstractionists who have had shows this season the
most important were Rice Pereira, whose work has been mentioned
above, Virginia Admiral, Motherwell, Baziotes, and Ralston· Crawford.
Among these, the most distinguished is Baziotes, because he avoids the
fluidity of the group just discussed, and the cold, and' sometimes empty,
calculations of the others, and combines a nicety in the understanding of
color and the close relationship of planes with an intensity and single–
mindedness. It is perhaps revealing in this context that his forms, stylized
though they are, are unmistakable human symbols.
Coming from the other direction, Esteban Frances and Leon Kelly
have infused the precision in representation of their surrealist heritage
with a new note of formal subtlety. Of the two, Kelly is the more sensitive,
and one can hope that he will not feel it incumbent upon him, out of
respect for his ancestors, to continue to execute his mutilated nudes, and
will instead go on with his studies upon floral and bird themes.
The shows of Kantor and Avery raise in two different ways one of
the general problems in American art: Why is it that so many of our
artists, having reached a certain stature, fail to continue in growth and
achievement, or even to sustain the level they have reached?
It
is pleas–
ant to record that Kantor, after several years of unfruitful labor, appears
to be making what in other circles is known as a comeback. The Avery
show confirmed the impression of the previous year, that success and
sales have stretched his talent, always more charming than forceful or
origina], a bit too thin. One compares these two men, not only with
European examples, but with such a painter as Tamayo, whose exhibition
this winter again demonstrated a consistent growth and sense of his own
style.
Sculpture has been suffering a revival. A most curious phenomenon
was the almost complete acceptance by all shades of taste of the English
sculptor Henry Moore in his beautifully installed exhibition at the Museum
of Modern Art. Usually conservative critics, who as a rule complain of
the Picassoids in painting, welcomed this sculpture, so clearly of the
school of the master, with open arms. Their enthusiasm was comparable
to the reception of the abstract artists by the Whitney.
In the sculpture annual at the Whit.ney, the general level was much
lower than in the painting, and the only really impressive work was by
Lipchitz. It was a bold and open statement by an artist who is no longer
worried by the hampering restrictions of good taste, even if that taste is
eminently modern. The same cannot be said of David Hare or David
Smith, both of whom had one-man shows this season. Hare's arrange-
