MATISSE, MAILLOL

The exhibitions of Aristide Maillol at the Whitney Studio Club and of Henri Matisse at the Brummer Gallery, both in Manhattan, show similar theories of art expressed respectively in sculpture and painting. While Sculptor Maillol is little known to Americans, artist Matisse's crude nudes and restless still-lifes have long been flaunted before a sceptical public.

Maillol attempts a direct treatment of essential form and line in an effort to interpret the inner truth which he and Matisse strive to dissect. The distorted drawing and crude modelling is the result of artistic conviction, rather than inability to draw or chisel.

Says Matisse: "What I dream is an art of balance, of purity, of tranquillity . . . which shall be ... something comparable to a friendly armchair."