A burst of passion in a pagan god’s eye was the sunrise as I saw it from
the top of Mount Rose one morning last summer. Trembling and with
squinting eyes I looked at the grand spectacle, fearing to go blind if I
opened my eyes.
The sun stretched its arms and with flaming fingers lifted the
bluish-grey blanket from the Nevada hills and the Truckee Valley.
Feeling that the beauty of this moment could not be surpassed, I turned
my face toward California and ran down the western side of Mount Rose.
One day last week when the massive shoulders of Jerome Blum stepped in
between me and a canvas that had transformed his studio into a strange
land for me, I wanted to hold his hands for fear the next canvas would
take the joy produced by the one in front of me. He came back from an
eight-months’ trip through Japan and China recently, and he brought with
him over twenty paintings with pulsating nature and unrestrained joy in
every one of them. The rhythmic lines dance through the curling roofs
and weird trees—and all of them are bathed in sunshine. At the same time
they are a close study of this strange land, its people and their
habits, by a forceful and unusual artist—a man who says “yes” to nature
in no uncertain terms. His bold colors are handled in a most sensitive
manner, and when I wanted to place him among the Chicago artists I found
that he belongs to an entirely different class and could not even be
compared to some of the vacillating and doubtful men who paint in this
town.
He has a portrait of a Chinese girl in a green gown, and some scenes
along a canal and in a Chinese garden, that have tempted my usually
honest mind to some queer contemplations. I have found myself wandering
to the windows and other unusual entrances to his studio, figuring out
how one might find access to that place without a key and at a certain
dark hour. I have only one hope left now of owning one in a figurative
way, and it is that the trustees of the Art Institute may see the light
and....
I hope Jerome Blum will not be compelled, like some of the best men this
country has produced, to go to other shores to gain the recognition due
a man of his ability. A few weeks ago I saw one of the older trustees
spend considerable time before a canvas by a Boston painter that lacked
all that goes to make a work of art,—a canvas on which the artist, with
the aid of a pointed stick, had tried to prod his dead and colorless
paint into some kind of motion. In spite of this I still believe that
they will rise to the high intellectual and artistic understanding that
they are supposed to possess, but which they have failed to display up
to the present, as far as modern art is concerned.
It is impossible for me to describe any of Blum’s canvases except to say
that they tear you away from the dirty grey and ill-smelling Chicago, to
a country you have seen in your dreams as a child. We will have a chance
to see this artist’s work, beginning April fifteenth, at O’Brien’s, on
Michigan Boulevard.
Lucille Swan Blum will exhibit at the same time and place some very
graceful Japanese dancers, Chinese children, Corean, Chinese, and
Japanese mothers with their babies and other far-eastern types. Best of
all is a Chinese philosopher, reduced almost to design to emphasize the
idea of the age and wisdom of this people—folded hands, an emotionless
face, all seeing eyes....