(2 of 2)
Charmer, The School of Paris, which was not a school but an atmosphere in which the teachers of most of the best current painters were taught, was recalled to Manhattanites by an exhibition at the Findlay Galleries of 30 paintings by Montparnassian Moise Kisling. A fiery Polish Jew, friend for 20 years of such notable scapegraces as Utrillo, 46-year-old Kisling surprised gallery-goers with his weight of opulent color and delicate draughtsmanship. Included were two nudes of Kiki, catlike Queen of the Paris models, who once called Kisling "the swellest guy in the world," now sings sailor songs in her own Paris cafe.
Portraitists. Three European portraitists, two serious and one not, showed their wares to prospective patrons. At the Newhouse Galleries Austrian Dario Rappaport, skilled painter of such illustrious opposites as Frank B. Kellogg, Benito Mussolini, Pope Pius XI and Bebe Daniels' grandmother, took the palm for traditional solidity. At the Marie Sterner Galleries Arthur Kaufmann, capable and colorful German emigre, showed character studies of the late George Gershwin, Luise Rainer as a plain and pensive 17-year-old in Düsseldorf. At the Georgette Passedoit Gallery were 23 oddities by a healthily impudent 21-year-old Danish girl named Isa Neuhaus. In the U. S. for one year, she has had 20-minute sittings with Bishop Manning, painted subtly all in mauve; Leslie Howard, all in green; Mayor LaGuardia, all in red.
Ceramics. Sanctiora auro, certe innocentiora* wrote Roman Pliny of the ceramic statues of the Etruscans. Far from sacred but often fine were the 142 examples of U. S. ceramic art with which the Whitney Museum opened its season this week. Assembled last year by the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts for showings in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and England, the collection included sculptures in terra cotta and enamel by the artists who have revived ceramics as a fine art in the U. S.—Waylande Gregory of Metuchen, N. J., Henry Varnum Poor of New York, Cleveland's Russell Barnett Aitken, whose Europa, a jolly maiden atop a jolly, ogling bull, well illustrated the fresh, light-hearted tendency of this medium.
*"More sacred than gold, and a damn sight less harmful."