Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . ainting. It is self-evident that processes in art are to be consid-ered as mediums of expression rather than as ends in them-selves. Although fresco painting is unquestionably one ofthe most successful methods of mural decoration, I have nodesire to expound it here as the Alpha and Omega of paint-ing. As a matter of fact, the modern art movement finds itswidest expression through the medium of oil paintings; thegreat masters have expressed their genius through thisprocess. The traditional technique of so-called easel-paintinghas had to adapt itself to meet the plast
Brooklyn Museum Quarterly . ainting. It is self-evident that processes in art are to be consid-ered as mediums of expression rather than as ends in them-selves. Although fresco painting is unquestionably one ofthe most successful methods of mural decoration, I have nodesire to expound it here as the Alpha and Omega of paint-ing. As a matter of fact, the modern art movement finds itswidest expression through the medium of oil paintings; thegreat masters have expressed their genius through thisprocess. The traditional technique of so-called easel-paintinghas had to adapt itself to meet the plastic demands of ourday. Xo longer did we feel drawn toward romantic mys-teries jjlanned to move us by their very obscurity; the mys-tery that now attracted us w^e found in light, in clarity. Thecharacteristic chiaroscuro and relief modelling of the artschools seemed no longer to attract serious thinkers amongpainters. These sought to grasp the throbbing animation ofnature in the open. To do this they relied upon the living 84. THE LOVERS OFFERING(Collection M. Bernheim) quality obtained by employing a whole gamut of colors, in-tensified and simplified in their harmonic relations. To obtain this play of spectrum light upon objects inthe fullest degree certain painters had recourse to spotting—fragmentations de touches. They worked with small sep-arated brush-strokes, which let the bare white canvas showbetween them. This device relieved the monotony of a flattone by producing accidental effects that increased the ocu-lar stimulus. Others, on the contrary, did not proceed sonakedly, building up their tones out of tiny spots of varie-gated color whose combined effect was to obtain, through theplay of complementaries, certain vibrations which imbuedthe tints with a more or less organic life of their own. Stillothers relied upon variations in density, covering their can-vases with a coating in turn fluid or thick, smooth or accordingly gave the color more or less radian
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