he sought to reproduce. Since then however he has changed his point of view. Since then he has attached himself more to details which in their relations to another confer on a piece ot sculpture a greater variety of interest and offer a » paralle-lism » satisfying both the spectators eye and mind at the same time. fhese qualities are to be found in much of his rater work as for instance in » Lilliette » a graceful, smiling ligure, in the » Bust of Madame Kolbert » which was recently placed in the Luxembourg Museum. ln his later statues notably the » Legende Heroïque « , exe-cuted for the war monument of Roulers, » Première Offrande » and » Suzanne » a small figure of a young girl done in black or onze, one notes the further evolution of the sculptor and how he expresses his artistic theories in concrete form. . A great believer in the role that light plays emphasizing the values of a piece of sculpture, contemptuous of chiselling uii ect trom the marble because as he says it tends to limif an artist i ather than allow him to express his idea fully, Arnold also considers that it is possible to exagerate the value ot analysis. He considers that the latter should only be a ineans ot explaining one’s esthetic sensations and not under-take to create those sensations artificially. He prefers to work with plaster rather than in clay. ALEXEIEFF, ETCHER. Before long critics everywhere will recognize Alexieff as one of the most remarkable etchers and most gifted illustra-tors of our generation. Only twenty-eight years old this tall, blond youth with his deep-set. eyes and musical voice has already seen much and past through many trying experiences. As a boy at the Academy of the Military Cadets in Saint-Petersbourg more interested in his drawings than in is military studies, Alexieff used to dream over books of travel and adventure or the fantastic-tales of such writers as Poe, Baudelaire, Wilde, Grimm and Andersen. Since then he himself has travelled many thousands of miles, encountered many strange adven-tures. The Revolution cast Alexieff adrift. He made his way to Vladivostock, Indo-Chine, Egypt and England. The latter country retused to admit him and it was while on his way Lack to Egypt that the artist left the shilp on which hewas working as a stoker at Marseilles and took the train for Paris. He had talked French as a child but all he could remember were two words – Quartier Latin. There he lived from hand to mouth till the day he met the theatrical producer who controlled the Studio, Comedie and Theatre des Champs-Elysées. This patron of the arts engaged him for the princely salary of one hundred and thirty five francs a week to design the scenery and costumes for the plays produced at the three houses. To do so it was fre-quently necessary for Alexieff to work sixty-eight hours at a sretch. Nevertheless this was the first step upward. Through his connection with the Comedie des Champs-Elysées the artist met Pitoeff for whon he designed sets, such as those for » Joan of Arc » and » Henri IV » which Paris still remembers. Through Jean Genbach Alexieff made the acquaintance of the poet and novelist Philippe Soupault. Thanks to the latter he was introduced to several publishers and made his debut as illustrator, with wood-cuts for » La Pharmacienne » by Jean Giraudoux (Editions des Cahiers Libres). Other books follo-wed. Among them were » L’Abbé de l’Abbaye « , a series of cngravings for which Jean Genbach wrote the accompanyng text, Gogol’s » Journal d’un Fou » (Editions de la Pleiade), » Marie Chapdelaine » (Editions du Polygone), » Siegfried et le Limousin » by Jean Giraudoux and Paul Morand’s, » Boudha vivant « , (Aux Aldes), Kessel’s » Les Nuits de Siberie « , Mau-rois’s » Voyage au Pays des Articoles (La Pleiade) and fron-tispices for books by Julian Green, Guillaume Apollinaire, Bove and Soupault. In a number of these notably, the extremely interesting pictures for the volumes by Gogol and Maurois one finds reminiscences of some of the artist’s early loves Poe, Baude-laire, Rimbaud and Andersen expressed through the medium of his art. » Les Nuits de Siberie » recalls his wanderinngs in and around Vladisvostock while the lithographies for » Marie Chapdelaine » bear curiously enough the stamp of certain j apanese artists whom Alexieff admires combined with a mysticism which is wholly slav. But it in his latest work a series of one hundred lithographs for Doestoievsky’s « Les Freres Karamazov » that Alexeieff really cornes into his own. The exhibition of these pictures at the Galerie de l’Art Contemporain has attracted wide attention and aroused much interest and discussion. The volume which will be published in an edition limited to one hundred copies by La Pieiade whose director G. Schiffrin, to whom we already owe so many handsome volumes, was one of the first to reco-gnize the quality of Alexieff’s work, has been several times over subscribed long before publication. Never before has tragic intensity of the great Russian novelist been rendered with such poignant and dramatic effect. h is all here, the sordid realism, the• fantastic imaginative conception, the brilliant characterization, the pathos, the mystic detachment. In short we have here that rarest of coincidences, a great illustrator interpreting a great text in an unforgetable manner. THE FIRST EXHIBITION OF THE ART FRANÇAIS INDEPENDANT. Although we have a, great respect for many members of the newly organized groupe known as the Art Français Inde-pendant as painters we feel obliged to state thate we believe the society is mistaken in its policies. The program of the Art Français Independant declares that its members are anxious to revive on behalf of sincere and independant painters the setting and policy of the Inde-pendants of before the War. This is a laudable ambition. Unfortuantely we are now no longer in 190o, or in 19to but in 1929. Conditions have altered. The economic situation of French painters, the attitude of the dealers and that of the public have all undergone radical changes. The number of galleries has increased, sixty to eighty exhibitions are held in Paris every month. All over the world people are buying representative canvases of French modern art, the number of publications devoted the subject grows constantly while publi-shers are continually bringing out handsome volumes which make the work accomplished by our artists more and more widely known. Still more striking evidence of the new order is to be found in the comparison of the prestige, social and financial, enjoyed by such painters as Matisse, Picasso and Chagall with their predecesors Renoir, Cezanne, Sisley when the latter had the same age as the modern generation. What is wanted is not to revive the stimulating atmosphere of the early days of he Independants but a house-cleaning that shall eliminate the innumerable parasites, speculators and profiteers who have invaded the field of art and who are more gifted with commercial intelligence than with artistic talent. Moreover the new organization declares that it will only admit as members » professional artists » and those who refuse to exhibit at the exhibitions of the Artistes Français, the Natio-nale and the Salon d’Automne. An exception is made in favor of the Salon des Tuileries. Why ? The impression produced by the exibition itself is favorable. To be sure it is suprising, how much the work of orne of these » professionals » resembles that of amateurs. The arrange-ment is good and among the canvases that may be specially mentioned are those by Yves Alix representing the » Pro-menoir » of a music-hall, a » Portrait » by Louis Bouquet, Lhote’s » Repas de Matelots » and a nude by Bernard Py. Le Gérant : F. SANT’ANDREA. IMPRIMERIE DE COMPIÈGNE. FIND ART, DOC
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