P R E S S > T H E P
A I N T I N G S O F A
R Y S T I L L M A N
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Excerpts
From Paris Press, 1928-1933 |
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The Paintings
of Ary Stillman - Chicago
Tribune, By B.J.Kospoth, December 1928 |
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True art
Brings Original Touch in Our Lives, Asserts H.Ary Stillman
- The Sioux City Tribune, By H.Ary Stillman, October 26,
1929 |
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Ary Stillman's
American Indians - Chicago Sunday
Tribune (Paris Edition), By B.J.Kospoth, Sunday, November
9, 1930 |
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Excerpts
From New York City Press, 1934-1945 |
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Excerpts
From New York City Press About Ary &Music, 1946-1952 |
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A Rich Life
of Painting - Houston Chronicle, March
3, 1968 |
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The
2 Realities of Ary Stillman -
Houston Post, By Eleanor Freed |
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Stillman
Art Portrays 'Inner Reality' - San
Antonio Light, By Marcia Goren Weser, October 21, 1990 |
By B.J.Kospoth
Chicago Tribune (Paris Edition)
December 1928
American Painters, it is bare justice to remark,
have not been habitually pampered on this page. With few exceptions,
this series of appreciations of contemporary artists has been
limitedet pour cause, as they say in France--: to French
painters. No one in the world is more firmly convinced than the
writer that a great future is dawning in America for art, and
all pessimistic statements to the contrary made to him by American
artists are impotent to shatter his belief. But the fact remains
that, at any rate for the present, American painting appears to
the critic as an art of imitation, a constant, visible manifestation
of the supremacy of Europe, and particularly of France and Paris,
over the New World in at least one field of human endeavor.
The belief in America's artistic future, however,
necessarily involves an obligation on the part of the critic to
be a close and kindly observer of the work of American artists.
So much of it is excellent work that it often seems cruel, almost
unjust, to pass it by as mere good imitation of Cezanne or Renoir,
Picasso or Utrillo. It is high praise to say of Ary Stillman,
who has just had a show in Paris at the Galerie
Bernheim Jeune, that he is not a direct imitator of any French
painter, although he is undoubtedly still under the influence
of some of the masters of the "Paris School," which
is natural enough in view of the fact that it has particularly
dominated the world of art since the days of the impressionists.
Ary Stillman is an American of Russian birth, and
there is Russian delicacy of sentiment in his canvases. He was
born in a village near Minsk, and came to the United States at
the age of fifteen with his family. For a while he worked as a
goldsmiths apprentice in Sioux City, Iowa. Goldsmiths
work is, or used to be, or at any rate can be, of an artistic
nature. There is the example of Benvenuto Cellini. I have never
seen the things that Stillman turned out for the Sioux City jewelers,
but imagineprovided he was given any latitude at allthat
they were full of delicacy and charm. However that may be, their
production did not satisfy him and he went to New York to study
painting. From New York it was an inevitable step to Montparnasse.
Stillman has been in Europe since 1921. Long enough, in my opinion,
to return to America and see what can be painted there.
All artists love France. There is no more natural
sentiment. Provence and the Ile-de-France are Stillmans
favorite parts of a beautiful country. He has painted landscapes
at Cassis and at Moret, like all Americans. But his landscapes
are exceptionally good and reveal an original personality, despite
the evident influence of Laprade, Bonnard and Matisse. Particularly
Laprade, the "painter of gardens," has pointed out the
way that Stillman has selected to follow. It is rather an affinity
than an influence, and it would certainly be wrong to discourage
it. But I should like to see Ary Stillman concentrate it, now
that he is in possession of the power of expression, on the landscape
of America and do for it what Laprade and the others have done
for France. He is only thirty-five and still has plenty of time.
Stillmans portrait of himself, here fragmentarily
reproduced, is characteristic of his interesting personality.
Among the thousands of American painters working and hoping in
France, he is one who deserves praise for work accomplished and
encouragement for the future.