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Show T Art Work at First National . i Logan has as yet no ait museum but the city is not entirely without art centers', as any one will testify who has had tho pleasure of visiting the studio of Mr. A. B. Wright, or the art rooms of the Agricultural college One of the most recent additions to the local art treasures Is the work done' by Mr. J. S. Powell, In decorating the Director's room of the First Nat. lonal Bank. The walls and celling of the room are beamed with dark wood alternating with dark green panels, all In warm rich tints and showing the simple, strong effect of the Mission Mis-sion style. Tho color scheme and general plan of all this was designed by Mr. Powell, whllo the woodwork was put In by the practised hand of Mr. ctrl Graff. The most unique and distinctive feature of the room Is also duo to Mr. Powell. He has filled in two panels in opposite sides of the room with mural paintings paint-ings In which he treats the past and the present in western life with striking strik-ing vigor and fidelity. Like a truo westerner, he has found Inspiration In the history and scenery of his native state. In one painting wo see the Indian In-dian squaws busy about their tepees, while their better halves pursue the buffalo. The painting on the other side shows us the same scene, about a century later, transformed into a pro-llflo pro-llflo wheat field with a threshing machine ma-chine as center of activity. It is not so much in his choice of subject as In his handling of It that Mr. Powell has shown his originality. While pervaded with the spirit of the life of the plains, his figures have the quaint primness and the awkward grace of early Indian drawings, such as we see on ancient pottery and on Navajo blankets. As a background for his figures, Mr. Powell has painted a range of hazy mountains', a soft blue sky Is all over and slender trees are gracefully grouped here and there. In his mountains, trees, and sky, Mr. Powell shows that he has come under the Influence of modern French art, for ho has treated them In a way that strongly suggests the work of Puvls do Chavannes, that greatest of French mural palntors. To combine the crude but vigorous art of the Cave Dweller with the delicate grace of a Chavannes Is no mean accomplishment and Mr. Powell Is to be congratulated on marrying so successfully in his work these so diametrically opposed styles. The crumbling frescols of Clmabue and Giottl In the Florentine churches arc still the dally admiration of the tourist though seven centuries have dimmed their colouring and effaced ef-faced their contours and It is to be hoped that these mural paintings by Mr. Powell may attain to as long a life and give pleasure to countless generations of bank directors. X. |
