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I nFRED^EISENL E A T H E R S H O PTHE MAILBAG91 Montague Street Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201Tel: 718-852-29081 7 th holid ay seasonHrs M - W 10:30 - 6:C^ TH, F 10.30 - 7:30 SAT 10.30 - 6:30 SUN 12-5. Hrs. will be extended fo r holid ay season.THE FIRSTUNITARIAN CHURCHBROOKLYN HEIGHTSW ishes to th an k these neighborsfo r th eir donations to U N I FAIR:By Hand Etcetera Brooklyn Philharmonic Orch Clover Hill Restaurant Ferrybank Restaurant ll Piccolo Teatro Appletree Natural Foods Baskin-Robbins, Montague St. Benetton Clothes Cousin Arthur's Books Everything Natural Galleria Restaurant Haagen-Dazs, Montague St. Heights Sea Grill Imperial Jewelers Key Food, Montague St.Lassen & Hennings Deli Leaf & Bean, Montague St.Lichee Nut Restaurant Minimax Halmark Gallery Mr. Souvlaki Restaurant Pathmark Drug Store, Montague St. Perelandra Natural Foods Promenada Restaurant Pure Logic Computers Raffaele's Clam Bar Sinclair's Bakery, Henry St.Summa Gallery Waldenbooks, Montague St.James Weir-Atkins FloristMachine In Museumcontinueddesire to possess both to control the present and future, lend a distinctly visceral quality to the American work that is often unambivalently revealed. In the photographs of Charles Sheeler, the physicality and efficiency of the machine are conveyed, yet through his lens, the voluptuous curve of the wheel and the sensual aspects of rigid lines and perfect cubes bring out the fertile power from the productive object.Photographer Lewis Hines, in his %u201cPower House Mechanic,%u201d joins man and machine in a dramatic fashion, in an image of the idealized worker suckling at the breast of the Madonna machine as he bends in profile to crank it to life. A water pitcher, elongated and streamlined, is juxtaposed with an advertising poster from the 1930%u2019s by the Austin Company. In the tone of a triumphant colonial power the poster declares %u201cSpeed %u2014 the world salutes each victor . each conqueror of time.%u201d The wellspring of the American optimism was a fascination with the mythology of the machine as speed, control and power.A display of clocks from the era reveals the changing relationship with time. Gone are the elaborately ornamented Victorian time pieces. In their place stand sleek, round, undecorated clocks, absent even of numbers, as if minutes and hours no longer matter under the umbrella concept of massproduced speed and progress.Similarly, streamlining became a pervasive design movement in the 1930%u2019s, and throughout the show its influence is apparent. A Raymond Loewy designed pencil sharpener seems prepared to shoot down a runway. Furniture rapidly loses its superfluous ornamentation, reduced to a geometry based on a concept of speed as if the removal of incident would hasten the enjoyment of the product. Although streamlining had its functional purpose in the design of vehicles, in the home it answered the psychological need of a culture whose products possessed time to rocket their owners into the %u201cbetter%u201d future.In the section of the exhibit entitled %u201cThe Machine as Menace,%u201d a less widespread perception of the relationship between the machine and society is described. The heightened sense of emotion that in other sections of the exhibit evoked the awe of power, the thrill of speed and the vast beauty of the city, here expresses a threat: aW alter Dorwin Teague%u2019s \is one of the many outrageous householdobjects that symbolize the fascination of%u201cThe M achine Age in America 1918-1941.%u201ddangerous loss of control.The machine becomes a metaphor for streamlined humanity in Benton M. Spruance%u2019s %u201cTraffic Control,%u201d where cars in a frenzied fashion steer right and left with no direction. Clarence H. Carter%u2019s painting %u201cWar Bride%u201d drive the message home blatantly. A woman in a wedding gown stands submissively before a large machine. America%u2019s love affair has turned out to be a Faustian deal with the devil. The machine is no longer an object of fantasy, created by man to help man, but has become a separate entity with a design of its own.1941 is the cutoff pointed for the exhibit. Much as the Europeans witnessed the destructive ability of the machine in World War I, Pilgrim says America%u2019s machine age came to an end with the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima, when the thirst for material progress finally eroded the optimism and naivety in the face of unfathomable destructive potential. The splitting of the atom unleashed new hopes and fantasies, and fueled new doubts and a new sense of America%u2019s relation to the world, closing the book on the first, and formative, chapter of the machine age.%u201cThe Machine Age in America,1918-1941,%u201d will ran through February 16.There are films, talks, tours and otherspecial programs taking place in conjunction with die exhibit.Modernism Exhibit Leaves A New ImpressionContinuedrather than trying to recreate the light and transparencies of the moment, as did the Impressionists. They found in this new way of painting a sense of freedom and discovery which laid the foundation for what we know as %u201cmodem art.%u201dAlthough Hassam is noted for his earlier Impressionist painting, his %u201cThe Silver Veil and the Golden Gate%u201d shows the %u201cflattened space, abstract compositional features, and directional brushstrokes of PostImpressionism.%u201d The painting%u2019s monochromatic blues and greens suggest the work of Van Gogh, with horizontal brushwork livening the sea and vertical brushwork stiffening the mountain against a swirling sky.There is a certain unevenness of quality here but there are colors to delight in and a directness and simplicity that seem to express the optimism of the period, an optfenism which gave way to darker themes during World War I. Like any group of artists, of course, these early modernists expressed their share of brooding and restless emotions.Maurice Prendergast%u2019s %u201cLa Rouge%u201d has a fresh American face looking out of a busy background filled with blunt, color-laden brushstrokes. B.J.O. Nordfeld%u2019s %u201c Blue Plate%u201d with its delicious dark midnight blue background and rough white linen sets offftM itfo n n iV in n l o f n in o fn n rtrr o o n f r o c fMax Weber%u2019s %u201cFleeing Mother and Child%u201d with its tortured shapes, denuded tree, lonely birds and distorted, heavy figure on a red background, is filled with grief, and suggests Picasso%u2019s later %u201cGuernica.%u201dStuart Davis%u2019 %u201cPortrait of a Man (EugeneO%u2019Neill?)%u201d with its blue face, brooding expression, penetrating eyes and lively chartreuse background has the focus and power of some of Van Gogh%u2019s portraits.%u201cSpringtime in Picardy%u201d (1919) by A.Y. Jackson writhes over the canvas in anguished lines depicting ruined houses, a gray sky, scorched earth. It is an altogether savage scene, lightened not at all by a single tree with cherry blossoms and viewed dispassionately by two soldiers in uniform.An early painting by Joseph Stella,%u201cStudy for Battle of lights, Coney Island,%u201d is pure color gone wild. Short strokes of red, blue, yellow, white and pink explode on a dark background like burning fire.Walt Kuhn%u2019s huge %u201cTragic Comedians%u201d shows two large figures held together in an uneasy rhythm. The spectral face of the man and the cool, Garbo-like profile of the woman sets up a kind of tension between them. Kuhn was bom in Brooklyn%u2019s Red Hook section and was a co-organizer of the legendary Armory Show of 1913.Also Brooklyn-born was Allen Tucker, considered the first American follower of Van Gogh. His %u201cDistant Shores%u201d plainly shows a preference for pure color and thick pain* surfaces, in a composition where trees, rocks and sky seem to swirl in constant motion.%u201cThe Advent of Modernism: PostuuprCaBiuuuiiu ami Nui iii American An, 1900-1918,%u201d runs through January 19. The Brooklyn Museum, at 200 Eastern Parkway, is open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 10am-5pm; Saturday, 11am-6pm; and Sunday, l-6pm. For more information, call 638-5000.Page 28, THE PH OENIX, December 25, 1986