:!lrmnrial 1.Exqibitinn :!lary iogrr!i (1881-1920) i\n part of t􀀣r JJf tftq i\uuual i.Exqthtttou of Wqr §ortrty nf lluhrpruhrut i\rtiatn i\t tq.e ·Balhorf-i\atoria Nrm fork 1921 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries BALLET MARY ROGERS EPITAPH FOR AN ARTIST She who played in color and light, \Nho wrote her autograph in flame. She who made slave-children dance, Has joined a far-off freeborn game. ·1 n velvet jail and curious snare, \Ve are entangled yet, But she has burned the threads of time, Our fire-bird has escaped the net. VACHEL LINDSAY LANDSCAPE HAIL AND FAREWELL _ \s one looks at the picture of l\lary Rogers, one's first thoughts are of the beautiful landscape and the interesting people they portray-one's first impression is of the warm, happy mood that was the characteristic o± the artist and that found its natural symbol in these joyous visions of the spring and summer, these kindly, humorous and deep appreciations of the men, women and children she painted. Rut as one looks a little longer, there come a clearer understanding of this clear art. One realizes that the beauty of the landscapes comes as a reflection of the beautiful mind that could translate them into the line and color before us; the interest we J1ayc in the sitters is due to the interest in life-to the capacity for interest in life and for the love of it that made of Mary Rogers one of those blithe spirits whose friendship -as freely given as the unlight-is one of the most precious things one can know in a lifetime. And just as we realize that the source of beauty in her art was the light that she herself cast over her subject, so we can get to an understanding of her mood more exact than that which we had at first, when it seemed of such uncloucled radiance. A great critic has said that there is no art of the first rank from which the idea of death is entirely absent. Even in an art of health anc'. joy there must be at least the possibility of change to our graver thoughts, or it will miss the relationship with life which makes the difference between significant and meaningless work. The pictures of Mary Rogers do indeed bespeak the mood of happiness. But is there not also, and most clearly, the indication that the mind that produced this work knew the darker side oE life beside? Yes, for otherwise, instead of these deep and beautiful things we should have the monotonous brightnes of the painters who have merely learned the modern technique of rendering light. The death that, last summer, took from us our gay comrade, and from the country one of the most admirable of its younger painters, was therefore not as foreign to this art and life as it seemed in our first moments of grievous surprise. She had kept the shadow:,; of ill-health out of sight in her associations with her friends, as in her painting the mood of sunshine was always the dominant one. But before the remarkable work shown here, even those ·who knew her and her art the best will feel anew the fulness with which she knew life and the integral rendering of an experience that there is in her painting. i\!Iary Rogers was born in Pittsburgh, in 1881. Coming to New York in 1905, she studied under Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes-Miller. For a considerable part of the time between 1907 and 1912 she was in Paris, Holland and Italy, and in these years the art of the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists came to mean much to her and aided in the development of her talent. From the time of her first important showing, at the International Exhibition in ew York (1913), she was considered by many artists and critics as one of the most able American painters of her generation, and her work was welcomed at various exhibitions. At the founding of the Society of Independent Artists, in 1916, Miss Rogers became one of the charter members of the Board, was reelected as .a director each year since then and held the position at the time of her death in August, 1920. The services she rendered the Society and her fellow-professionals during these years were very important, especially when the heavy tasks of the year of organization called for the fu I lest devotion and energy of those who believed in the Independent idea and were determined to see it succeed. However considerable her work 111 this capacity, it will be for her personal qualities-her brave, bright optimism, her gentle but inexhaustible faith in the world and in people, that her memory will mean most to those who were associated with her. Those who hatl not that privilege may yet know her-and through her may kno"· S'..lmething of the America she loved-as they look on her work, one of the fine and valid products of our soil. FLOWERS The Exhibition will be presented in tv,;o sections, as follows- From February 26th to March 12th .A Qknup nf ®tl Jaiuttugn From March 13th to March 25th .A 􀁤rnup of 31llf atrr QJ.nlnrn