Alex er Brook Edited by \\ CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO YOUNGER ARTISTS SERIES NUMBER 2 ALEXANDER BROOK Those interested in the raison d'etre of this monograph will find in the first number of the series to whidi it belongs a General Intro^ duction by Mr. Harold Ward. With as much brevity as is consistent with definite- ness, this Introduction seeks to formulate the intellectual position of the editor, and to outline the critical badtground against whidi he has placed the various figures dealt with in TheyoungerArtistsSeries. PRINTED BY ERNST WASMUTH A.-G., BERLIN ALEXANDER BROOK BY WILLIAM MURRELL WITH FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR AND 24 REPRODUCTIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE WOODSTOCK, N. Y. 1922 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM M. TISHER YOUNGER ARTISTS SERIES Already Published Nr. i Ernest Fiene Nr. 2 Alexander Brook Nr. 3 Peggy Bacon Nr. 4 Yasuo Kuniyoshi In Preparation Nr. 5^Henry Lee Mac Fee Nr. 6 Ben Benn Nr. 7 Edward Fisk Nr. 8 Henry Mattson ALEXANDER BROOK The paintings of Alexander Brook offer a nice problem for analysis : why does this gay-spirited young man paint such lugubrious personages? Is he simply jthe rarely met opposite of the better kown melancholy-humorist? or is there something well worth study and appreciation in his per- sonality and work? His history is brief. He was born twenty-three years ago in New York of Russian parents, and has been painting and drawing since he was twelve. But it would be beside the point to ignore him on account of his youth : he has functioned in a definite and authentic manner, and that is an all- sufficient ground for consideration. His is a high-strung, vehement, and riotous nature/ impatient of delay and plodding methods. His lithe, nervous body and close-set, curious eyes are never in idle repose. In fact his whole being, mental and physical, seems ever straining at and plunging forth from an invisible leash a line that becomes more elastic and attenuated as his self-knowledge and power increase. Of concentration and coherence as such, there is no sign in the effervescing energy of his tem- perament,- but his mind and his eyes alike are ever flitting far and near with bee-like force and per- sistancy, seeking, seizing, and storing precious notes of appearances and forms that interest him. And his manner of painting is consistent with this restless activity. He uses no models, but makes numerous pencil drawings of things conceived or seen. Then, something pleasing him in any of these a woman's hat, or a chimney pot, a start is made on canvas, and from that first shape he developes the whole painting, the color co- incidental with the form. Curiously enough there is always something droll or whimsical inextricably bound up with the genuine beauty of his color. To regard him as a painter of humorous subjects is to miss the artist in him entirely. It is not the line in his work that is droll, for there is none. It is the fusion of subtle tones and bold juxtapositions of color with other- wise incongruous shapes, forms, and features, and all done in a manner reserved, restrained, and grave. His paintings, when exhibited last January at the Brummer Gallery in New York, were characterized as sullen, gloomy, and depressing. Not one of his critics even unintentionally used the word lugubrious, with its hint of the whims^ ical or the droll. Brook, despite this, still likes to think of his work as American. Yet the complete absense of response to both its humor and its quality points to the conclusion that his outlook MME, BOURDELLE Oil 192L LABORER'S HUT Oil 1921 ALBERT Oil 1920 FIGURE STUDY Oil 1919 PORTRAIT Oil 1922 MOTHER AND CHILD Oil 1919 r- 1 g PEON CHILD Pencil Drawing HEAD Pencil Drawing PRETTY BABY Ink Drawing WTNDAY DAY Ink Drawing HEAD Crayon Drawing A 000738101 5