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This was more like an interview, reporters fired questions. Who in his opinion were the greatest U. S. artists? M. Matisse didn't know. What were his views on U. S. art? M. Matisse had none. Were there any signs of a return to classicism in France? M. Matisse declined to comment. Friends but not reporters know that in art Henri Matisse is a complete egocentric, that he has no interest in U. S. art, or Swiss art or British art, that he paints what he sees to the best of his ability and lets it go at that. As soon as possible he escaped from human society, spent hours in front of the black panther's cage in the Bronx Zoo. Last week before the Pittsburgh Show opened he was aboard ship, on his way back to Paris. Reporters might have fared better with First Prizeman Picasso. Friend of Matisse, but never a member of his early group of insurgents, Les Fauves (The Wild Beasts), Pablo Ruiz Picasso has theories on art and believes in them. With remarkable technical ability, he might easily have become an adept forger. From his early days as one of the founders of Cubism he has been ceaselessly experimenting, changing his style of drawing, his palette. His studio in the Rue de la Boétie is precise as a laboratory, he is meticulously exact in keeping appointments. He is not only one of the highest priced* but one of the most scientific modern painters.
Apart from First Prizeman Picasso, the jury could not be accused of playing Names in their awards. Exhibiting at Pittsburgh are such newsworthy names as Georges Braque, André Derain, Marie Laurencin, Kees Van Dongen, Rockwell Kent, Eugene Speicher, Horse-Painter A. J. Munnings, Dame Laura Knight, Dod Proctor, Art Theorist Roger Elliot Fry. Yet second prize went to one Alexander Brook of New York, third prize ($500) to Charles Dufresne of Paris. Since Picasso's portrait of his wife is not for sale, Artist Brook's still-life of a cat, three peaches, a begonia and a door brought him $2,000—the Albert C. Lehmann prize for the best purchasable painting. One artist who won no prizes but many a press notice was tousle-haired John Kane of Pittsburgh. Artist John Kane is a house painter and kalsominer by profession, has attended no art classes, had no technical training whatever. In 1927 a picture of his was shown at the Carnegie International to the chagrin of other Pittsburgh artists. This year Kalsominer Kane was the only local artist to win a showing with a landscape of Pittsburgh's grimy "Strip" district.
"My wife wanted that the children should be proud of me, so I am content," said he last week. "My neighbors tell me the critics are troubled whether I be impressionist, modernist or classicist, but these things I do not understand."