Salt Lake Telegram | 1925-10-04 | Page 4 | Old Book Helps to Revive Forgotten Art

Old Book Helps to JL Revive Forgotten Art i 5 S 5 4 e p pt e t Miss Isabel Whitney at Work 1 NEW YORK Oct 3 Granted Granted there is nothing new inder the sun I But there are fine old oid arts and I crafts rafts that have fallen into disuse and been lost in the shuffle of ages that are as good as new when they ire are revived This leads up to the subject of ii 11 fresco painting and to the only woman In the country who scales tall lad ladders ers and walks shaky scaffolding raIding folding to do it Miss Isabel Whitney Whit Whip Whip- ney of Brooklyn N. N Y At present she is engaged In decorating dec dee rating orating the new renaissance wing of or the he Brooklyn Art museum her most undertaking but she has lone many decorative mantels wail wai and murals for homes and Uld clubs in various parts of the In reviving the art of painting on brick and mortar which is what a al fresco is I believe I am bringing to the notice of modern decorators a medium of decoration that Is in keeping with our modern architecture architecture architecture ture ture she explained Everywhere I find a revival of Interest In the Spanish and Italian type of dwelling I find tind women eager for authentic decorations for them I believe the old art of fresco fills a real want in iii our modern life Ilfe To do her work an artists artist's smock is not nearly so appropriate as the knicker suit Miss Whitney wears for fresco resco Is really a construction Job since it has to be done on the brick when the mortar is still wet and while the building Is 15 being constructed The fresco worker work work- er cuts away only so much mortar as he lie paints In one day The lime in the mortar combined with the theair theair theair air to burn the painting into the wall The picture must be done with quick sure strokes and only earthy colors can be used You may well wonder where Miss 1 Whitney learned this art which flourished In the days of the Renaissance but died with the old masters There are no schools in inthis inthis inthis this country that teach it and only In Paris aris who does It And here comes in the sort of enterprise that feminists applaud She learned it for for herself from a reprint of ot a book written in 1500 by Cenni which she borrowed from the congressional library In Washington Washing Washing- I ton This artist wrote the book in prison pris pris- s on and gave away the secrets of or his craft In order to vent his wrath on his lis fellow artists who were re responsible responsible responsible re- re for his Incarceration Later Miss Whitney went to Italy tb to study frescos where they still survive the neglect of centuries I have gone all over this country country country coun coun- try getting getting- my colors and my materials materials materials ma ma- she told me The colors must be mixed with sand and the sand must be carefully an analyzed as any salt in ln composition unfits it for formy formy formy my purpose The best sand I have ever been able to get comes from the bottom of ot a lake in Connecticut I keep hundreds of pounds of this stored in n my basement Though Miss Whitney expends much of ot her enthusiasm on fresco work she Is 15 a water color artist artist of of reputation She holds exhibitions in n all the large museums of the country and two of tier per paintings are in the permanent exhibition of the he Metropolitan l museum I can recommend the art to Wamen women women wo wo- men as a thrilling and exciting oc occupation occupation oc- oc she laughed I have worked outside on a building in a Blinding snowstorm when I was eight stories from Mother Earth I have painted for hours on ladders and scaffolds but Ive I've always loved the thrill and the sense of achieve achieve- I ment meat