Foreword. Jean Decker. Jean Charlot. December 1938. For exhibition at Georgette Passedoit Gallery, 121 East 57th Street, New York City, during 1938 December 19 to 1939 January 1.
THE NEW TREND of building up noble architectures with human bodies, of treating symphonically great themes, is well illustrated by this series of biblical episodes painted by Jean Decker. Her come-back to story-telling is truly that of a painter, not the feat of an illustrator. She finds anew those discreet classical means reminiscent rather of the seventeenth century, purposely shuns an audacity of the brush and the sensousness of color which would clash with her descriptive purpose. A return to local color, volume and space suggested by imperceptible changes of values, distortions put to use not to satisfy the painter's ego, but to emphasize the point in the story, mark her work. Her painting is a stage, but the theatrical display admits of no ham acting, carries its mood through a strict unity of atmosphere, lighting and gesture.
MODERN ART, having put an unfair premium on the freakish extremes of emotion and personality, I would like to take as a sign of the near future this series of pictures objectively conceived and wisely painted.
—Jean Charlot.
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