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Show Mrs Whitney's Latest Photograph, Which Den&tes Her Artistic Tastes Expressed m Dress i The Group by Benjamin Bufano, of New York, That Won First Prize at Mrs Whitney's First Exhibition as the Best HmJ? Representation of ' The Soul of tha Immigrant " W0Sim i. The Curious Painting by Mr Evan T Walters That Won a Prize from Mrs Whitney as an Inspired Representation of ' Immigration s Soul ' L h 101a ' T The Group by Benjamin Bufano, of New York, That Won First Prize at Mrs Whitney's First Exhibition as the Best Representation of ' The Soul of tha Immigrant " JSfe&zp orK. Fashionable Society's 0k&n Sculptress Sjf plains Her Effort to Materialise Immigration's Spirit in Art and Why S-ach Odd Ideas of It Win Her "Prises MRS HARRY PAYNE WHITNEY 13 seek ing the soul of the mm grant Mrs Wh tney is Cornel us Vander bilt s favorite child her cla m to her father s special regard lying n her talent her earnest ness and her laree soc al consciousness Not content wrth the life of society to wh ch she was born she tossed awav the golden spoon and opened a studio at No 8 West street where close to Washing ton Square hat has tl e 1 omes of Knicker bockers on the north and east and ia bounded by New orks Latin quarter on west and south she pursued tl e art of sculpture She has become deeply interested in the problem of the immigrant How after he has come to this country he shall be ass m la ed into the national 1 e to its betterment and his own she regards as one o tl e most v tal questions today before the American people Seeking a solut on of it she asked artists to compete for $1 100 n pr zes she offered for the best sculpture pa nting and posters on the subject of the mm grant s relation to America or as she puts it the soul of lm migrat on She opened her studio for the purpose and there more than one hundred works on The Immigrant in America are being displayed Two of the interest ng concept ons wh ch have been awarded prizes by Mrs Wh tney as most nearly approaching her ideal are shown on th s page The reason for tl e exh bit on and com petition is th s ad Mrs Whitney before her recent departu e for Californ a We wanted to do wl at all our wise bool s on m migration and a 1 ou comm sslon nves ga t ons and lengthy discuss ons n Congress have never done show the average Amer can that he has too long lost sig t of t e imml grant as a vast 1 uman asset He s a tre mendous factor n he spir tual destiny of this country We wanted fore gn bo -n and native born artists alike to b n0 the r creative insight to the theme I asked he a t sts to teach us by pictures the ela on of the mmigrant to America and Amer ca o the Imra grant I bel eVed tl at ej would help s to reach a better understand ng of the neaning of the imm grant to An erica and of America to the mm grant Look at the exhib t See how the artists of America nat ve or foreign born answer the questions Do vou think they in their answers show a deeper comprehension than that of the average thoughtless American on these points' Do thej photograph for us the soul of the immigrant n America' Have thev d scovered or rediscovered it for us' Some of them have and some have not Of the art n the work I need not speak It is the idea rather than its expression that interests me In other words I named to evoke n art a powerful concrete convincing ma erial za t on of the sou of he mm grant B do ng so we could re a An erica s atten on o e fact that mm ran s ave ouls and hat h ra is a soul of m n gra on Th s les o once forcefu lv brou t o tafr ca a en ion the lot of he mm gra t wou d conce vably be mucl 1 a p er byteba pn CabainPhsRe There are many p ctures that bear a strik ing family resemblance due to the presence of the Statue of L berty Ell s Island and the New York city skyline The pictures show the promised land the dumb gratitude and inarticulate hope of the immigrant That to some artists as to many thoughtless c tizens is all According to them the drama of it the fulfillment are in the arrival The vlev is as naive as that of the immigrant himself Only let dow n the gangplank Peace 1 berty opportunity prosperity w 11 begin with the first footfall on shore and will continue with out interruption they think Others of the artists have shown deeper vis on They all have aspiration The hope of fulfillment is always there but the vision is chastened by struggle The first prize was won by a young Ital an He has shown the soul of the immigrant in a sculptured group He shows a number of im migrants at the threshold of our country A ch Id s struggling to raise a cross Persona admiring the wo k have sa d That cross is the emblem of religious liberty I think not. It is rather tie old world burden of care and poverty home along m the new In front ot the figure of hope on the base slab is the attitude of many mm grants toward Amer ca We came unto our own and our own received us not. The heaviness the animal heaviness of their faces has been commented upon If this typifies the immigrants soul said one of my fr ends We d be better without that soul I i o nted to the spark sh mng in the clod It is that spark tl at it is our duty to fan into God 1 ke beauty It can be done It is our m sslon I bel eve that this exhibit will make & way for greater exh bi s to come I should like to see the artists teach the lesson of the imm grant s true relat on to the United States in every large c ty n this country by means of such exl b ts They will I hope teach us more about the immigrant in America They will cause us to better value t e spiritual forces represented by the dark eyes and clear cut pointed chins of the faces we see on the East S de The artists by these pictures will hint to us how to Invite and to use more fully the spiritual forces and capacities we now ignore In the immigrant on our shores And the more they thmk upon the theme the more often will the soul of the immigrant be present pres-ent in their works Mrs Whitney was well pleased with the exhib t as a beginning said one of those in whose care she left its conduct But she hopes that artists and citizens too will grasp the big part the immigrant plays In American industry We know the brawn and muscle o Individuals well enough but we don t know the collective strength of the possible cltl zens But the big mine owners and subway con trac ors and barge canal builders know The ave age Amer can does not know that the ra lroad that carries h m on his journeys the clo hes he wears he cigars he smokes the turn ture be puts nto house are made for the mo t par bj n m gran s Take iron and steel that have been called f7ed the strateg c industries of this country for In stance The Federal Immigration Commission found that 57 7 of the workmen were foreign born and that if you add the workmen of fore gn born parentage it will reach 71 7 The large controlling percentage runs through a long 1 st of fundamental industries In bl tuminous coal mining 61 9 per cent are for eign born In sugar refineries 85 per cent were born on other than American soil MrB Whitney was impressed by the lack of knowledge on th s point And she was Impressed by the waste of undiscovered talent among foreigners For example she and all of us often speculated upon what becomes of their art stic powers They come to us with vision trained for centuries in beauty of line and color v th the deft hands of races skilled by the shap ng of arch and temple or cathed ral for tl ousands of years They feel the beauty and nobil ty of outline as only those feel them who have lived with them for gen erations What becomes c those dormant capacities' Does Amen a give Immigrants a chance to use th'-'-? American doesnt seem to realize that exist Mrs Whitney md all others interested in the exhibit want to see the soul of the imml grant recognized America has seemed to ig more his soul and give consideration only to bis brawn and muscle There is more than hope of prosperity in his soul There is as pirat on for the beauty of life We were im pressed by th recent impassioned declaration of a young strike leader on the East Side What do we want? she cr ed We want something beside the chance to work our lives out to keep from dying We want some of the beauty of life That is in the soul of every imm grant no matter how brutish his aspect how stolid his countenance The brutishness the idiocy on the faces of tl e winning sculpture group have been much commented upon It has been severely criti c zed as being not at all representative of the Immigrant It has been said that the imml .grant we wtat is the clear-eyed alert intelli 0ent type So we do But what a greater mission is ours to take these human clods, trodden flat by centuries of ignorance and op pression and make of them strong men and women That Is the message I nthls group and it was this that Mrs Whitney felt Bo powerfully The painting by Evan T Walters has also aroused much comment naturally But it has a quality of inspiration that was felt to call lor reward Here we see the immigrants soul rising out of the souls of his ancestors It has their ancestral faults and it has their virtues What are we going to do with this soul? That is the great leBson Mrs Whitney wants to teach that the immigrant has a soul that there is a soul of Immigration Just as there is a national soul to America to Eng land to France to all races If we can ma terialize this soul in art n such a way as to move men s hearts and make them say This is truth then we wil have put the immigrant on a d ffere t p ane We will have created the right in teres to make s do our best to get the best out of him for our own dear country |
