May 1, 1937
Lehman Engel’s chorus of eighty voices from the Music School of the Henry Street Settlement will sing the Final Chorus from "The Second Hurricane” by Copland at a concert in the Sculpture Court of the Brooklyn Museum this Saturday afternoon, May 1, at 3:30. Other numbers on the program will be an Organ Choral Prelude by Bach played by Charles Hobbs of the Brooklyn Music School Settlement; Intermezzo in C Sharp Minor by Brahms played by Helen Syse of the Turtle Bay Music School; a Beethoven Quintette played by pupils of the Neighborhood Music School; a Sonatina by Dvorak played by Gerald Widoff, violin, and Judith Widoff, piano, of the Bronx House Music School; a Saint-Saens Trio played by Dorothy Smith, violin, Sylvia Warshawsky, cello, and Molly Rabinowitz, piano, of the Music School Settlement of East Third Street, Manhattan; and a Toccata and Fugue by Bach played by Blanche Winogron, Janet Baron and Maida Bernokin of the Greenwich Music School.
On Saturday morning, May 1, at 10:30, Eva Decca assisted by Harriet Ann Grey of the Charles Weidman Demonstration Group and by the Doris Humphrey Understudy Group will give a recital and demonstration of the Humphrey Weidman Dance Technique.
Also on Saturday, May 1, the Museum will open two exhibitions, one of drawings of dancers, and the other of photographs of Long Island, 1870-1885, by George Brainard. The drawings of dancers are by Dolbin, Joseph, Betty Joiner, Valeria Ladd and Lisa Schlaffer.
A group of Large drawings by Dolbin, size 36 x 50, and many small drawings represent some of tho most celebrated dancers of the world, B. F. Dolbin, a Viennese, has had in Europe a brilliant career in more than one of the arts, music, engineering, architecture, literature, stage design, illustration, and so forth. He was the offspring of an artistic family, studied technical science at the Technical Highschool in Vienna, was at the same time singer and cabarettier at the famous "Nachtlicht." As musician a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg had his first concert of his compositions in 1911. He was engineer at the construction of the famous Tauernbahn (Tauern-railroad), head-engineer at the biggest Austrian iron-construction plant. He studied besides his technical and musical work the history of art, wrote essays on art and architecture for magazines and newspapers. He was president of the art group "Bewegung" in 1918, a member of the board of directors of the "Gesellschaft zur Forderung moderner Kunst” (Association to promote modern art) and member of the board of directors of the "Internationale Gesellschaft fur neue Musik" (Association internationale for modern music) together with Alban Berg and Anton von Wobern, In 1922 he left the iron—construction plant, worked as technical advisor find representative. In 1924 he was commissioned by the City of Vienna and by the "Gesellschaft zur Forderung moderner Kunst" and became technical director of the first International Exhibition of Theatrotechnic in Vienna. He was also commissioned as member of the Art—Council of the City of Vienna. In 1925 in Berlin, he worked as illustrator and visitor for the most important German magazines and newspapers. Buchillustrctor and critic on art, music, dance and architecture. 1928 settings and masques for the plays "Die unuberwindlichen" of Karl Kraus and “Kamerad Kaspar” for the "Berliner Volksbuhne." Portrayed between 1924 and 1934 most of the European musicians, playwrights, writers, scientists, dancers, sportsmen and big business men. At the end of 1935 he left Germany and came to New York.
Mr. Dolbin’s drawings and paintings have been exhibited in Vienna in 1918, 1925, 1926 and 1932; Hanover in 1927 and 1928, Berlin in 1928 and 1931, Koln in 1928, Moscow in 1928, Leningrad in 1928, Osnabruk in 1928, Oldenberg in 1928, Hamburg in 1930 and Munich in 1933.
The Photographs of Long Island taken by George Brainard in the period 1870-1885 represent many scenes of historical interest. Mr. Brainard’s negatives were given to the Brooklyn Museum many years ago but were in bad condition so that until recently no use has been made of them. A special artists and technicians project of WPA has cleaned and restored the negatives and made exhibition prints from them.
Some of tho scenes represented are: Bay View House, Orient Point, L. I.; Mort Howells Hotel, Westhampton, L. I.; Mill at Mill Neck, L. I.; Saw Mill at Smithtown, L.I.; Old Saw Mill, Riverhead, L. I.; View of Sandy Hook; Shore at Northport, L. I,; Street in Northport, L. I.; Street Scene in Northport, L.I.; showing country stores; Old School House, Westbury, L. I.; Street in East Moritches; Road to Station, Cutchogue, L. I.; Old House near Puxabogue, L. I.; Phelps Paper Mill at Roslyn, L. I.; Fish Oil Factory, Conklins Point, Islip, L. I,; Indian Altar near Aquebogue, L. I.; Shore at Hallets Point, L. I,; Scones in Babylon, L. I,; Shore Scene at Sag Harbor; Dock Scene, Sag Harbor; Otter Pond, Sag Harbor, L. I.; Wharf, Sag Harbor; Lighthouse and Keeper at Plum Island; Engine House, Hempstead, L. I.; Panorama of Newport, R. I.; Shore and Fisherman’s Shanty, Newport, R. I,, and many views of churches, manufacturing places, summer resorts, schools, street scenes, and so forth.
The Exhibition of Drawings of Dancers and the ExhibitiOn of Photographs of Long Island taken by George Brainard will remain on exhibition through June 27.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 04-06_1937, 087-89. View Original
April 30, 1937
"Mankind in action has never ceased to be the focus of the artist’s eye,” B. F. Dolbin, celebrated Viennese artist, told representatives of the press today at a reception and preview of the exhibition containing his drawings of dancers which will be open to the public from April 30 to June 27.
"Always in the past," Mr. Dolbin continued, "the human being was pictured in a certain phase of motion, mostly not very much out of balance. Closed outlines and painstaking exactly drawn details picture the body, turn aside the motion itself."
In addition to the drawings of dancers in which Mr. Dolbin demonstrates his theories of the suggestion of dance motion in drawing, he is also exhibiting two architectural models, one of a little dance theater and one of a chamber music hall, both designed to be decorated with his murals of dancers.
"The problem how to picture the motion, that is the kinetic element itself," Mr. Dolbin explained, "began to arise at the outset of this century, in the prime of life of kinematography, at the time of tremendous acceleration of all means of transportation (motor-car, aeroplane), at the time of the conception of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, which enlarged the geometrical idea of space fourth dimension, the time-dimension.
"The Futurists (Sevorini, Carra, Beccioni) were the forerunners in venturing upon a method of picturing this fourth dimension, the kinetic element. Gino Severini in his famous dance picture resorted to representing a dancer in several dance-phases simultaneously, as a monster with several legs and arms. But his mosaic-like technique of colouring veils this method of designing motion for the benefit of an aesthetic effect, thus paralizing action by dissecting it.
"The cartoonist, in order to typify the motion of a leg resorts to drawing the leg in some pose, adding several dotted or feeble outlines to indicate several preceding and following poses. But such a stuttering in design is a cartoon expedient and not artistic.
"In order to perceive motion, the observer’s eye must be induced to join the movement, to dance, so to speak. The art of painting can achieve such an inducement only if the linear element is predominant. Only the line is able to express motion; it alone has the power to carry the eye along, exceeding the bounds of the line even beyond the frame, and not the academic line, but the line, enhanced through intensity of the motion, overcharged by means of caricature.
"Parts of the body, not participating in the dance-motion can be suppressed up to the point of elimination. Each detail not contributing to the accentuation of the motion makes the observer’s eye stagnate, makes the eye stumble over details, such as nose, mouth, oven toes and fingers if the dancer himself does not include them in his movement.
“Therefore oven the best candid camera shot pictures the dancer as frozen meat, as mummy. And the shorter the exposure, the more stiffened, because the lens, this Polyphemus-eye of the camera (not capable to make a choice) pictures the single hair with the same precision as the outline of the body, the outline most essential for the dance-moment. The camera represents tho dance-moment as still life which the French call so rightly "nature morte" (dead nature).
"The best motion-drawing is a kind of stenogramm. The steno-designer only is able to catch the element of motion with efficiency. And he must rather write than design. He will rather write the idea moving hand or leg then design the limb itself. He will throw line at the dancer as a lasso and catch as catch can. And the colour, if cooperating, is not to be permitted to be naturalistic, but to strike, if possible, the key of the musical element, embodied in every dance-movement."
Among the celebrated dancers who have posed for Mr. Dolbin are: Gertrude Bodenwieser, Trude Burg, Marion Rischavy, Hilde Holger, Hede Juer, Marie Petyrek, Fritze Vorberger, Gretl Kollmann, Liesl Rinaldini, Ella Rares, Gertrude Krauss, Gisa Geerd, Jo Mihaly, Thea von Uyy, Bertha Trumpy, Valeska Gort, Mila Cirul, Sonja Revid, Uday Shan-Kar, Rama Tahe, Claire Bauroff, Raden Mas Jodjana, Vera von Skoronell, Mary Wigman, Yvonne Georgi, Palucca, Ruth Abramowitsch, Georg Groke, Harald Kreutzberg, Martha Graham, Mimi Theilade, Ted Shawn, Hanya Holm, Elizabeth Waters, Henrietta Greenhood, Bernice van Gelder, Louise Kloeppor and Lucrezia Wilson
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 04-06_1937, 090-1. View Original
