ART and personality
SINCLAIR, UPPON
ART and personality By UPPON SINCLAIR WE have promised to prove our thesis psychologically, by watching the art process at work, gad historically, by studying the art workers of the ages. We bejrm...
...This is his last concert ft* this country for the next five years...
...he slu inks from pain and violence, and feels a real swe fur authority...
...Brooklyn...
...But they emulate the skunk which befouls the air whenever it is threatened with defeat...
...Those were different times...
...Than DEVOTED parents Who WILLINGLY allow A TOTAL STRANGER To DICTATE WHEN their child > SHOULD EAT And whan IT MUST Be STARVED— STARVED TO DEATH, i i If profits DEMAND it...
...O It goes without saying that I neither received nor accepted any message from the Russian Communist party or the Soviet Government...
...O Nor did I ever receive or accept *" any money from the Soviet government or the Communist i party...
...Phone Lenox 3559...
...Fortunately, the resistance of our own comrades has "spoilt the game" for the Left wing hoodlums, and everywhere it haa been possible for me to deliver my message...
...Your description of the fat lawyer on the' train had in it the descriptive quality of Dickens...
...the remainder | was |iaid by myself...
...We bejrm with the former task...
...The late J. G, Brown was a "realist," according to the popular use of the term...
...smaller suture than his fighting j nisii, because he will be coddled in i j childhood...
...Gene and I have read it with mingled feeling of sorrow and satisfaction...
...That is one kind of "idealizing...
...My expenses were paid, in part, by the Bund...
...If there was it rrust have been in some inconspicuous corner that I did not see...
...Terre Heule, Indiana...
...The sympathies of my sister and myself are with The New Leader in losing his splendid contribution to the success of the paper, and to all comrades and friends who must have loved him for his many gifts and charming personality...
...Try it on your own little Ogis, and you will find they never tire of hearing about the aurochs hunt...
...Cooperation with the miiddleheads, alliances tc "capture" old parties and virtually steal nominations, support of "good' men who will do anything to keep on the inside of the corrupt and bankrupt old parties, would be more than compromise, X would be the end of the Socialist Party...
...And land is whispering land...
...Clsessena will eheeie the Rand School representatives fit* Ihe fry-onta for the negative...
...Our job now is, as it always hut been, to make more Socialists and to get them into the party...
...Never could an artist tolerate such a subject as that...
...familiar to the Socialists of the world...
...2. "Cellular Basis of Heredity...
...Greeting* and good cheer...
...My passport, signed by Karaba and three times visaed by the Cheka (No,,862, dated August 8, 1920), explicitly states on page 8, "sent by the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Labor Party...
...The | man who lent me the money and made 1 it po.oible (or me lo leave Russia was ! —Moleye Olgin, who was at the time 1 in Russia as representative of American publications, and waa on terms of personal intimacy with me...
...In their desperation the Communists have turned to other, and fouler, means...
...So I understand the difference between a man who wishes to probe the deeps of the human spirit, and one who wishes merely to be popular with children and child ish-minded adults...
...6, i "Eugenics...
...What generally happens in such cases we saw when Ogi was invited to portray the Witch Doctor and the Old Man of his tribe...
...snobbery and subservience, timidity and worship of tradition, also bragging and strutting and beating of tom-toms...
...The lectures will be accompanied by illustrative readings, with comment, and opportunity will be given for questions...
...There is, first of all, the pleasure of recognition...
...But even supposing that a micro-photograph were the highest art, still yoa a—Id not gat away from tha influence of personality There would always remain tha problem...
...The recital of the tragedy and wh*t you saw touched us to the depths and we felt outraged by the crime of which those poor miners were the victims...
...Too bad, too bad, that our bright young men in the progressive movement of the day should be taken in the flower of their youth and in a time when they arc so much needed...
...but by deliberately excluding from his artistic vision everything suggesting pain and failure, he left you as the sum total of his work an utterly false and sentimental view of life...
...At this dis tance I remember only two things about him, his benevolent gray beard and the intense repugnance he ' » pressed when 1 pointed out an old war veteran who had lost an arm Deformity and mutilation oh, hoi rible...
...Henry James tells a story about a portrait painter, who takes as his subjert a prominent man...
...It is all the more pathetic that the whole of them, with a few minor exceptions, were patriots during the war, slugged and drove from the mines the few who would not swallow the bait and get down on their bellies, and that they helped to pile up Coolidge's 7,000,000 majority...
...The poom by Comrade De Witt first crii-rht my eyes, and then to the 'eft of it the editorial article...
...Tha Women's Committee of the Rand School have a number of choice seat* to dispose of, the proceeds of which* by special courtesy of Mr...
...He thinks his suvereign is bigger in spirit...
...Morris H. Kahn is beginning a five-lecture course on "Heredity and Eugenics...
...YOU made them— They BELONG to YOU...
...It is this impulse, to communicate ideas and emotions to others, that becomes the dominant motive in art, and is the determinating factor in the greatness of art...
...There's print in the callous hand Thinks he we've paid in ages Oj sweat— Must wc pay again and aguin...
...Then searching through the pages to see if it might not be in some inner part, I finally came to the editorial page...
...And jost as he I would share the meat of the aurochs in s feast with his fellows, and derive honor and advantage therefrom, so he would use a picture of the aurochs, or a story of the hunt, or a tong about it, or a dance reproducing it...
...Over all lands a whisper, Under all seas a word, And he who has made this world what it is— . Bowed Labor—he has heard...
...Manifestly, In a settled empire the rulttr will be of...
...And in order to place all available data before the bar of public opinion, i herewith make the following statement: 1 I left Russia in November, *? 1020, at the request of the Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Party and the "Bund...
...S-Httrok...
...The topics of the five lectures will be: 1. "The .Mendelinn Laws of Heredity...
...Thus we note two motives, the second of i in oi predominantly social...
...Just as Ogi would seek for ways to keep the meat of the aurochs for as long as possible so that he might eat it, sv he would keep the memory of the aurochs so that he might contemplate it...
...We take the World as a daily paper, and I am surprised that no mention was made of Comrade Ilan-iia's taking off...
...In the first lecture he will discuss the American Rhythm — Frost, Robinson, Sandburg...
...go to the Rand School Thete tickets can be purchased at the Rand School office, 7 East 15th street...
...tpemi j That his DEFT Angara Are keeping tap I On the PROFIT angle • Of his business, And that the LOAF SHALL NOT reach them Unless PROFIT continues...
...in the fourth, Poetry and Propaganda—Giovanltti, Oppenheliner, and others...
...TUy IMAGINE That their boy will RISE lo the PINNACLE of fame, At the FOOT of which His father COLLAPSED, j And HOPE their daughter i Will MAKRY "well"— j PERHAPS a N F. A R relative I Of HOME gold-ancrustsd, ' LEAN-SOULED hog...
...Upon what shall the camera lens be focussed...
...Workmen's Furniture Fire Insurance Society INCORPORATED lb* York snd Vicinity and 49 Branches is the United States, published 1872...
...What, if black ink shall set us ti think, And thinking shall make us men: Iter all lands a whisper, Under all seat a word, \nd he uho has made this work what it is— Boned Labor — he has heard...
...but the smaller he be-i nines in reality, the more rigid the an convention that he is big...
...I was delegated to participate with Comrade Martov in the Intel national Socialist (non Communist) Conference in Deoember, I '.»:!ii...
...Terre Haute Babbitts Editor, The New Leader: Your article on Sullivan and the Terre Haute Babbitts is, in the language of polite society a "pippin," a "corker," and then some...
...Copies ul' (he request for visas were mailed to all foreign delegatus of the Third Internationale, which was then in session in Moscow, in order that they might lie apprised of the...
...When I opened my paper, I missed "Just A Word," and wondered why...
...that is, having selected a subject, he painted him exactly as he was...
...You oan take a microscope to the product of a camera, and discover endless more details—a bigger magic than any son or grandson of Ogi has achieved...
...The pleasures which we derive: from a picture or representation of | reality are many and complicated...
...Thinks he I come nj a rare nf brutes...
...and so, in making him bigger in body, the at list is acting as a seer and philosopher, bringing out an inner truth...
...I saw the nightmare* of Dore, and the war paintings of Verestchagin...
...It was a credit to our movement, a splendid piece of Socialist journalism...
...I happened to see and hear him onlv once...
...Closed on Sundays and Holidays ' tfooklyn Office open only Mondays «4 Thursdays, from 6:30 to 8:30 p. m, lestr Lyceum, 949-957 Willoughby Ave...
...But growing older, 1 observed that some of the world's greatest an ists had made a habit of painting mutila tions and deformities...
...WHO CAN imagine ,' 1 A FATHER Struggling ALONE With a PACK OF WOLVES, When his FELLOW-WORKERS , Are BECKONING to him...
...The vlsWnff speakers will he lienry Srtgal, Yafi, Willner, and Miss Florence Forgett-reii...
...but manifestly Ihe portrait painter who practiced that method would have a hard time to find sitters...
...The reports of the Chicago conventions in the Capitalist papers were shamefully inadequate, and it was not until I read my New Leader that I had any clear idea of what had happened there...
...3. "Phenomena of Inheritance": 4. "Influence of En- | vlronment and of Heredity...
...divining the fundamental cheapness and falsity of the man's character, he paints a portrait which biingB out these qualities, and so for the first time reveals the man to the world, and causes the man's wife to leave him...
...Tillers and killers and such, TV'rWe life was a feeding, a toiling, and breeding, And their joy was none too much...
...James Oppenheim...
...We knew the beast at sight...
...My brothers art reading as well as t tiding...
...SM Hours, 9 a. m.-8 p. m. Sa*., 9 a. m.-lf.m...
...I hope there may be a more detailed account in the coming week...
...in the third, Poetry as Color—The Imagists, Amy Lowell, John Gould Fletcher, "H...
...THEODORE DEBS...
...AGNES C. WATSON, The Chicago Conventions Editor, The New Leader: Permit me to compliment you upon the issue of Feb...
...It is the sort of slanderous campaign against which an innocent man is almost powerless, for nothing definite or disprovable is said—only vile insinuations and innuendos...
...That is old .Smith," we say—"even to the wart on his nose...
...In tha Same] *ay, in the pictorial labors of all the Ogis of Egypt, you will And the j rular always represented si of ab-normal itaturs...
...Let us investigate the pro-ce>.« in its elemental forms, as we have seen them in the story of Ogi...
...1 J A certain part of the money I I was compelled to borrow...
...Certain ly, we aren't in business to make « present of our organization, oui political experience, and the devo tion and idealism of our members tc muddle-headed middle-class peopU who don't/ know what they want Slowing up to be in step with .sec tions of the working class is no compromise of principles...
...April 12, at 2l80 p. m., at the Metropolitan Opera gauss...
...Under cover of "rumors" and equivocal statement') they have set afoot the most outrageous slanders imaginable...
...The Thinker (Suggested by Rodin's Statue...
...If our recent allies cannot set their way clear any more to go for ward, that's their lookout...
...As a hoy I watched him at work, and roamed about the country with him when he selected his subjects...
...Th> same evening at 7:00 p. m., Dr...
...Vincent Millay, Conrad Aiken, Elinor Wylie...
...Communists in this country aro determined to stop at nothing in disrupting my meetings...
...And now the way is clear—clearer than it lias been for ten years, with no side issues like war and peace, civil liberty, etc., defense against disruption, to distract our attention...
...have the pleasure of following the details...
...William M. Feigenbaum...
...Art begins as the effort of man to represent realfty...
...An ORGANIZATION $ Of WORKERS Is a SAFE stepping-stone— It wsrrants BETTER things Than LONE efforts Could yield, And it STRENGTHENS you To TAKE BACK FROM the robber \ ' The tools of production...
...The New Leader Mail Bag Paul Wallace Henna Editor, The New Leader: I cannot tell you how shocked my sister and I were when we saw in The New Leader of March 7 of the passing of Con.rade Paul Hnnna...
...Membership 44,000...
...in the second, the Lyric Note —Sara Teasdale, Edna St...
...Some day th.dr heirs will...
...EVERYTHING in tha world Is EASIER to imagine, And easier to UNDERSTAND...
...The poor slaves did not know any better...
...At 3:.'I0 p. ni...
...But how about the countless paintings ha had mads of himself T Do you imagine that tha painter ever failed to supply a sound and sturdy loft arm...
...You cannot imagine HOW BAD a bargain you made Until the PROFITS fall, And YOUR MASTER LOCKS AWAY the tools And TURNS YOU OUT Of the JOB, Away from the CRUSTS, OUT OF the hovel, And LEAVES you And your WIFE And "LITTLE SLAVES"- ' SHIVERING in rags...
...Having selected a subject, they do not reproduce it exactly, but modify it, emphasizing this trait or that 'fins piocess is known as "idealizing...
...We share Ogi's memory of the bunt, his' thrills of fear, his furious struggle, his triumph over a chunk of brutal and non-rational force...
...They seem to be determined to spread despicable lies anil calumnies regarding my revolutionary career in Russia...
...COME OVER WITH US And HELF us...
...first, for the purpose of bringing it back to his own mind, and second, for the purpose of making it apprehensible lo others...
...Chaliapin's farewell concert will be given Sunday...
...I nm speaking for myself, but I am sure that I echo what tens of thousands of our people feel when I say that the stand for Socialism am) Socialist political action taken in Chicago has immensely heartened the Comrades...
...Failing to gain their ends by their original method, they have now embarked upon a course of vituperation and vilification, the j like of which has not been seen in the radical movement...
...in Berne, and In February, 1921, in Vienna...
...and here is the essential point while healing, they are living in the minds of others, thsy are" becoming social beings...
...la it not, indeed, the irony of (ate that Olf in ia the very peraon who now ia reaponsible (or the campaign of vilification against met It Is interesting to observe that notwithstanding the bitter political struggle which is being conducted between the Menshevik party and the Russian Communists—a struggle in which the Communists spare no political weapon—not a single word has yet appeared in a Russian Communist paper attacking my personal character or political honor...
...On April 1, the Rand School team will meet the Washington Square College delisting squad in the Debt Auditorium, on the question: "Resolved—That a Re organization Of Political Pardee Along Conservative and Liberal Lines Best Meets' the Needs of the Country...
...I am now, and have always been, ready to "face the music," lo hurl defiance at my detractors, to appear before the organized workers in eycry city and defend every act of my political life, every word I ever uttered, everything I ever did...
...The first artiat I met in my life was a painter, the late J, G. Brown...
...Thanks to the reports in our paper, our Comrades know what the party delegates did, and will be filled with enthusiasm far the brave stand they- took...
...But' as a matter of fact, this kind of idealizing of rulers and fighting men ! may be entirely sincere The artist is more sensitive than his fellowmen ¦ |.«i is what makes him an artist...
...An Open Letter From R. Abramowitch To the Editor of The New Leader: ? SHALL deem it a very great j 1 favor if you will grant me the I courtesy of your columns to make the following explanation: In an effort to prevent the Jew- ' ish working class in the United States from ascertaining the truth about Russia, and lacking the necessary arguments with which to defend their indefensible position, the...
...white Clement Wood will lecture on Cahan and London in his course on Contemporary Fiction...
...On Saturday, March 21, at 1:A0 p. m., Scott Nenrlng will discuss "The Geneva Protocol" In his Current Events Course...
...Thinks lie our masters hare given us light Better their rule to...
...Such is the clue tu the greater part of our present day art standards...
...BUT HE BLACKJACKED yea, And'you TRADED the tools ' And YOURSELF And the little SLAVES You are railing FOR HIM In exchange For a VERY UNCERTAIN Supply of FOOD, SCANT clothing, And a dilapidated shack...
...If there is no account of his death in the issue that I missed...
...DRIVE YOUR ENEMIES OFF YOUR BACK...
...Ala office for New Yolk and vicinity at W East 84th St...
...In his photographs you will toe Mat carefully I pused, so that his left arm Is partly J turned sway...
...Every little tea-psrty poet and semi-invalid cherishes a strong and cruel dream — Nietzsche with his Blond Beast, and Carlyle with his Hero-worship, and Henley with bis Song of the Sword, and Kipling with his Cod of our ' Fathers, known of old, Lord of our fHi flung battle-line...
...Professor Ferdinand Varrelman will giv* I a lecture illustrated with slides on "The Evolution of the Earth," On Wednesday evening, March 25, at 8:30 p. m., August Clneneni will discuss "Mental Differences Between Men snd Women, in his course on Sex and Society...
...The word is generally understood lo mean making the thing more pretty, more, to the beholder's taste, but this is a misuse of the word To idealize a subject means to modify it according to an idea, to make it expressive of that idea, whether pleasing or otherwise...
...But is that ill there Is to art ? Manifestly not, for if it were, the sons and grand-eons of Ogi would have been put out of business by the photographic camera...
...I want to send your article marked to that fat lawyer ard hnlf a dozen other Babbitts here, and if j'ou can send me a few extra copies I will place eucli of them where they will • he praised with damnation if they do not cause son ething to sprout and grow...
...If the cowardly defam-crs and character assassins had the courage to make definite charges, it would be possible to nail the lie...
...W addresses of Branch Secretaries, •rite to our main office...
...Y'our article should open the eyes of at least some of them...
...The visas of Martov and myself, accural' by the Con-tral Committee of my party (of which 1 was Vice-Chairman at the time), were officially and publicly secured from the Soviet Government...
...11 was for offenses such as thia' that 1'lato dio\e the artists out of Ins Republic They were liais and pietenders, the whole tribe, and destroyed men's respect for truth...
...In fact, several days before my departure I was arrested, and spent a night with the Cheka...
...in more mature reproductions we...
...They IMAGINE Thet a CAPITALIST Is a prototype Of the PERFECTED Human ATTAINMENT} And they ALMOST Starve to DEATH TRYING to mimic His EXTRAVAGANCES On the TENTH (or lass) Of his INCOME...
...true facts in the case...
...Ha used to paint pictures of newsboys and country urchins, and the quaint-looking old fellows who loaf in cross-roads stores...
...Thinks he they toiled for their few \ hard masters I Of castle and church and court:' Many a million, maity a million Ached for an idler's sport...
...They CANNOT lmagino That a GREEDY man HOLDS in his left hand The LOAF which sustain...
...We played fair in our recent alliances, we were absolutely honest, we made all the concessions we could have been humanly called upon to make, we kept the faith, and we have no apologies to make...
...In its cruder form it is like guessing a puzzle...
...obey: Machines need bruins lo get good gains, And the brutes must pass uwuy.' Thinks he the heavens ore touched with wings...
...Glengarry's Review (Written for The Mow I ilfaxf Some can imagine That thay are ABOVE The COMMON worker BECAUSE thay OWN a home, . And the EARNING half Hss a JOB That pays ENOUGH To THRIFTILY support The parents and the children...
...Most artists go even further in imposing their personality upon their work...
...Respectfully yours, (Signed) R. ABRAMOWITCH March 10, 1925...
...The last great hero of the Hohenzollerns, who paid for those white marble monsters at which I tittered in the Sieges Allee, is cursed with a withered left nrm, a cause of agonies of humiliation to his strutting soul...
...Rand School Notes LouU Untermeyer, poet and literary critic, well known to American and continental lovers of poetry, begins a series of four "Talks on Modern Poetry," at the Rand School, 7 East I nth street, Friday evening, March 27, at H::to p. in...
...There is nothing in my entire and political career which demands any apologies...
...For more than a quarter of «" century my political activities aro...
...We say: "You can see the shine of the fish's scales, you can wipe the fuzz off the peach, you can bury your hands in tat Wrd's feathers...
...So through the ages the race has developed its great civilizing force, the sympathetic imagination, which has brought the tribes together into nations, and ultimately may bring the nations irij^ the human race...
...I saw "Old Masters" portraying crucifixions and martyrdoms...
Vol. 2 • March 1925 • No. 12
