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THE MAROON TIGER
f' '
i : CExhibition, ^Design, c Woodcut j
By Wilmer Jennings, ’34
THE RECENT HARMON EXHIBITION
This exhibition is held annually by the Harmon Foun
dation. The foundation supposedly invites artists of
some repute in art circles. In the recent exhibition,
57 Negro artists contributed 107 exhibits from all over
the country. Prizes we e awarded by a jury. Such
men contributed as Paln.er C. Hayden of New York City,
James L. Wells of Howard University, Hale Woodruff
of Atlanta University, Sargent C. Johnson of Berkeley,
California, and William E. Artist of New York City.
Such an aggregation of Pollen stuff and such a dis
tribution of prizes reflects very clearly the misguided
trend of Negro paintings. I wish to extend my apolo
gies to those who contributed good exhibits, for there
were some rather good pieces hung. I heard a man call
the present-day trend of Negro paintings, “Negro pho
bia” art. I.e meant the forming of a reflection of him
self in his painting. This is of course impossible be
cause he has nothing to reflect; the American Negro has
not. He cannot understand African Art because a gap
of nearly 50C years leaves no vestige of the art of his
forefathers. he spiritual is another thing, however,
because a per: an may sing even while enslaved. The
tenth man was to start at the bottom because the arts
of a people represent years of progress. How can the
American Negro produce an art that will survive when
he himself is losing his identity. I’m saying this to
criticize the Harmon jury for encouraging “Negro pho
bia art” by pinning prizes to such contributions. Oh
well, “forgive them for they know not what they do,
anyway.” I don’t know when I have seen such a list
of mediocre jurors. A man who can’t do himself is
the judge of whether somebody else can or cannot. It’s
not amusing, it’s pitiful!
We can probably forgive them this time because ac
cording to the Time magazine, the winners happened to
be the most needy; we will forgive them whether this
was intentional or not. But we cannot forgive them for,
shall we say, demanding that there be a Negro strain
in the prize-winning contribution. I’m not saying that
a painting with Negroid subject-matter is not good, but
I do say that because it has for its subject something
that is Negroid, it is not necessarily good ari or good
Negro art.
DESIGN AM) COMPOSITION
In my use of the word art, I do not mean the art of
making pictures but the art of making anything. Suc
cess in art necessitates a fruitful imagination along with
a knowledge of design and composition. It is these
two things that I am most concerned about, because
:e average person never seems to recognize them as
t. h when looking at pictures or at anything that is
the product of some one’s imagination. People fail to
recognize their important places in a social order. Now,
is there any wonder that people denounce the efforts
of the modern painter to elevate his art from the limited
and debauched strata to which realism has descended,
up to a higher and more spacious region where he may
get a breath of cool fresh air? In this higher region
the artist is free to use design and composition to his
heart’s content. With these two things we have a good
that has proven its ability to stand the test of the ages
without them we have probably the flimsy aesthetical sort
of thi ng we see on magazine covers as a color edition
of photographer’s genius. Can you not see the limita
tion of perfection in copying nature as the ultimate goal
of art. Pardon me, dear readers, if I have underestimat
ed your appreciation for good art.
THE WOODCUT
Wood block cutting is the ari of cutting a picture on
a slab of wood so that many prints may be made from
the original cut. The wood block may even be used in
the power press. Some artists specialize in this medium
and many very fine works have been done. Many of
our most powerful illustrations are woodcuts and are
easily distinguished because of the singularity of the
woodcutter’s technique. At one time etching and wood
cutting were the only methods by which the press was
able to illustrate its information; that is one of the
reasons why the art has advanced to such a degree of
perfection.
The cutting of the wood block is done with special
tools—sharp cutting instruments with blades that re
mind one of the shoemaker’s awl. These tools are some
times called gouges. There is another kind of block
that is used very frequently; it is called the linoleum
block. A layer of soft linoleum is used for the cut
ting surface of the block; that makes the cutting much
easier. This soft linoleum, how'ever, will not allow the
cutter’s technique to be as fine and intricate as the hard
wood surface.
The method is very simple. The drawing is first made
on sketch paper and the values are worked out at this
stage. The drawing may then be traced on the block by
means of carbon paper. The light masses are cut out
v/ith the tools and the black masses are left. The inter
mediate values are achieved with various kinds of tech
nique. The drawing, of course, must be backwards.
This is how the covers for The Maroon Tiger are
made. This is the first year that this process has been
used by this publication. The first blocks that were
used were not so good, but as the technique of the two
art editors improve, likewise will the covers of The
Maroon Tiger more closely approach the works of Art.
Not all of the covers have been wood blocks, however;
some have been zinc cuts made by photo-engraving
processes. The last two issues, however, have been
done by hand and are valuable if for no other reason
than that. Even though linoleum has made the pro
cess much easier, it is still a hard task and too many
toiling hours have been spent cutting these cover de
signs to have them thrown listlessly around after a care
less glance.
The cover design for this issue is a woodcut and is
nothing mysterious with subtlely thought out artistic
characteristics but merely a representation of a medley
of March events.