16th Annual Exhibition the Society of Independent Artists

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Thomas Edison, calla lilies and suicide gangsters! The sixteenth annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists is on! The present show, like the first, is being held at Grand Central Palace, but the American society, less nomadic than the Paris group, which has moved in the course of its career from the Tuilleries to the Invalides, showed for a period of twelve consecutive years at the Waldorf Astoria, settling only recently in the great barn which alone can accommodate the thousand contributions of the four hundred and fifty artists represented. Each year, about a third of the entries are from newcomers; probably the most valuable function of the show is the welcome that it extends to the young, unknown artists who have not yet been able to gain access to the dealers, and without the disinterested assistance which the society offers them, would probably not be able to make the necessary connections. There is also an entire group made up of those who, because of the unconventional qualities of their work, have met with academic rejection, and when one reflects upon the fact that Cézanne, Seurat, Van Gogh, Derain, Redon. Rousseau and de Segonzac first received sympathy and support from the Independents, one can estimate more adequately the function of such a society.