Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-28
TYD|NCS MAY URGE
ART BILL At SESSION
Senator Hopes to Reintro-
duce Measure Providing for
u. S. Artists Competition.

Senator Willard Tydings of Maryland
has expressed hope that he vii be able
to reintroduce at the special session of
Congress next month his bill to estab-
lish, In Washington national board
OF painting and sculpture to provide for
an annual competition for American
painters and sculptors.
The Senator pointed out that the
United States makes an annual expen-
diture of several billions of dollars in
its various ramifications, but makes
little or no contribution" to further
art. He expressed the belief that this
partly Is due to the "newness OF the
United States of America"
Senator TydingS' bill, which has been
introduced in the Senate, provides for
the permanent establishment of a ma
tional board Of painting and sculpture
to be composed of not less than three
nor more than five members to be ap-
pointed by the President and to hold
ONCE for terms of one year. The per-
sons appointed as members of the board
shall be qualified by experience and
training In the consideration of art OBJ
jects.
Annual Competition Proposed
The board shall hold prize COM
petition in the District of Columbia
annually for the selection Of the best
works of living artists who are citizens
of the United States. The competition
shall be in two divisions, one for paint
ing and one for sculpture. For the
three best works in each division to be
selected by the board, prizes shall be
awarded.
Each work for which prize is award
ed shall become the property of the
United States, except In the event the
work has been executed for a private
individual or corpora ton, when the art
list shall be entitled to medal, but not
to the cash prize.
An exhibition of this sort would
be Of ineStimable value to Washington,
the Senator said, pointing out that thou
sands of persons would be attracted
to the city at that period With time,
Senator Tydings surmised there might
even develop in Washington an artists
colony.
Historical Worth Is Cited.
Another advantage would be pic
torial record Of the country's history,
he maintained.
"Over the period of time" said the
Senator, these paintings and bits of
sculpture would be living pages of Amer
lean history. They would show and tell
so much better than can the printed
word the ever-changing story of a ma
tons life. Already much that we know
of the Old West has disappeared.
Thanks to Frederick Remington.
many scenes truly depicting Western
life as 1t was are preserved to us. If
it Is possible to conceive that the policy
which I have outlined had been in
existence for the last century, We would
now have many hundreds of paintings
by American artists in the nineteenth
century, during which time there was
the gold rush, the long covered-wagon
trains across the Nation, the war with
Mexico, the War of the Rebellion, slave
life in the South. the old Robert E.
Lee plying up The Mississippi. the great
round-ups in the West and stirring mo-
n1ents in our national life at Wash
ington.
Foreign Works Now Bought.
by the mere brutality of wealth.
continued Senator Tydings, Americans
hn1-o YHgarahaccd or4H hro1ank1f To, t+1ase