Newbury Street: Boston's World of Art Tour of the Galleries

This is the second of two articles by Thomas E. Stebbins Jr. on local art galleries. Mr. Stebbins is a graduate student at the Fogg Museum.

The commercial nucleus of Boston's art world lies along Newbury Street in the three blocks from Clarendon to Fairfield Street. At last count, there were 22 galleries in the area, less than on-tenth the number in New York. Everything in the Boston art scene exists on a lower scale than in New York (including perhaps the usual quality of work); great extremes of venality and eccentricity simply do not exist on Newbury Street. Nearly every gallery owner mans his own shop, and is likely to have time to talk with anyone who looks interested; there are none of the obsequious undertakers who staff the large New York establishments.

Before proceeding to a tour of the major galleries, two institutional events should be noted. First, the Fogg Museum at Harvard is now showing "Three Americans," a display consisting of six monumental paintings each by Noland, Olitski, and Stella. Michael Fried, who organized the exhibit, considers these three young artists to be among the best in the world today.

Second, a major exhibit called "New England Art Today" opens April 26 at Northeastern University (360 Huntington Avenue, Boston). This has been organized by the artists themselves, and includes examples by 68 painters and 25 sculptors-nearly everyone of talent who works in this area.

The current exhibit at the Ward Nasse Gallery (118 Newbury St.) should be of interest to the Harvard community, for it shows the recent drawings of Albert Alcalay, instructor in Drawing at the Carpenter Center. The story of this artist's success seems almost story-bookish. Imprisoned in 1941 for being a Yugoslavian Jew, he talked his way out of one concentration camp by persuading a Nazi colonel that his artistic future should not be destroyed. Recapture, in another camp, he used his abilities to forge false documents and again he escaped. After the liberation, he made his way to Rome, where he staved off starvation by selling water-colors at fifty cents each. His paintings at this time were emotional and expressive; he made city-scenes with violent brushwork and discordant colors.

Alcalay was admitted to this country in 1951 under the Truman Bill. Equipped only with his talent and humor, he has become one of Boston's leading artists and has had successful shows also in Washington and New York. Alcalay's most recent works are ink drawings on rice paper, a painstaking medium in which he shows his ability as a draftsman.

His style now is entirely different from his expressionistic mode; it is linear and clear, made up of the abstract forms of his own vocabulary. His work always contains at least some reminiscence of reality; as he says, "I employ symbols of visual things, and always structure, structure, structure."

Harold Tovish, another well-known artist, is exhibiting his work at the Swetzoff Gallery (119 Newbury St.) One of this sculptor's fine heads is now on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. In his recent work, however, he seems to have gone spectacularly astray perhaps under the influence of Pop art. Here he is displaying pieces constructed since 1962, with prices starting at $6000. I am puzzled about why such an artist and a gallery should go to so much trouble over objects of so little interest, but perhaps other will disagree.

Arnold Bittleman, another artist who appears to have put in long hours of labor without much success, shows his pastels and drawings at the Kanegis Gallery (123 Newbury St.). This gallery, however, is noted for its fine modern prints. In less reputable places such prints by Picasso, Roult, Chagall and others present dangerous traps for the unwary buyer. Photographic reproductions are often sold as original lithographs and etchings.

At the Pace Gallery (125 Newbury St.) is a show of recent wood sculpture by Hugh Townley. He is an extremely talented artist, whose work seems among the most interesting of recent sculpture. I prefer his large reliefs made up of several types of wood, but his oversized "chessmen" and his colored drawings are also fine. Unfortunately, the current exhibit is somewhat thin. There are no recent works of major scale, and I am afraid that the New York branch of this gallery may have sold off the best things there.

The Obelisk Gallery (130 Newbury St.,) seems to be one that, along with the Ward-Nasse, will become a leading force in Boston's contemporary art scene. It is run by a group of energetic ladies who know the field, and they have had several good exhibits since the gallery opened last fall. Just ending now is Richard Merkin's first one-man show in which everything was sold-an extremely rare event for Boston, especially for an unknown artist. His paintings are in the realm of "Pop Art"-the artist calls them "slanted documentaries"-for they comment on popular images. But these works have none of the banal, obvious quality of much Pop; they are clever, painterly, and biting.

Bernard Chaet is displaying his paintings, drawings and sculpture at Boris Mirski Gallery (166 Newbury St.). He is technically accomplished, but seems to say little. His style is Matisse - plus - Boston - Museum - modiness. Even a favorable review of his show in the Boston Sunday Herald (there is no such things as an unfavorable review in a Boston paper) commented on Chaet's lack of originality.

The Childs Gallery (169 Newbury St.) specializes in American painting of the nineteenth century but can come up with almost anything, from Walt Disney prints to Durers. This is a fine establishment which runs regular exhibits at which browsers are welcome.

By any standards, the finest gallery in Boston in Vose, (238 Newbury St.). This is run by two Harvard men, Robert and Morton Vose, who are the fourth generation of their family in the gallery (founded in 1841). The deal primarily, like Childs, in American pictures of the last century; their specialty in marine painting. But at any given time they may also have works of high quality of other periods; currently their stock includes a fine Fanti-Latour and several Flemish still-lifes. As they do not run regular exhibits this is mainly a gallery for the serious collector.ALBERT ALCALAY: Structure, Structure, Structure