Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-08
PAINTINGS ON LAST
NIGHT EXHIBITION
CorCoran Awards Stimulate
Public Interest as Works
Receive Praise.

The last of series of special night
openings for visitors to the Twelfth
Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary
American Oil Paintings at the Cor
coran Gallery Of Art will be held to-
night from to 1890 o'clock
The evening period of inspection was
arranged by the gallery with the CO.
operation Of the Washington Society of
the Fine Arts and is for the beneflt of
persons who have been unable to at
tend the art show during the daytime.
The exhibition will be open to the
public this afternoon until 4:30 o'clock
and on Friday and Saturday from 9
o'clock in the morning until 4:30
o'clock in the afternoon. Sunday,
closing day of the exhibition, the hours
will be from 2 to o'clock.
Awards Stimulate Interest.
Public interest in the exhibition has
been stimulated by the announcement
this week of awards in the referendum
for the most popular picture. Two
Models" q figure painting by william
SOoOOAAp
public as the most popular work in the
show. Second place was given AN
theta" by Paul Trebilcock, and third
place went to Betty" by Maurice
Molarsky.
With the exhibition nearing a close,
art observers continue to manifest
keen interest in the works on display.
Art critics of the Boston Evening
Transcript and the New York Herald
rfIrft 41sk
have commented favorably in their
columns.
Under the caption American Art
Sings in the Nations Capital" Albert
Franz Cochrane Of the Transcript
wrote:
Much has been said of late concern
ing the development of American art,
and its right to peer with that of other
nations. In no other single exhibition
has this right been so clearly made
than in the group of paintings now on
view here in Washington. The Ma
tional Academy presents largely the
work of conservatives, the modern
museum sponsors the modernists, the
half the picture Of contemporary
American painting, while Carnegie dis
eliminates against New England and
pretends never to have heard of points
west Of Chicago.
THE Corcoran Biennial Exhibition
presents the whole story with marked
impartiality. The result Is an excellent,
comprehensive and gratifying outline
Of contemporary art. It lis almost i'm
possible to name single outstanding
painter in the United States not repre-
sented. Mr.. G. Powell Minnigerode, d.
rector of the gallery, and his competent
Jury are to be congratulated on as
sembling an exhibition that is at once
all-embracing and representative Of the
best OF all schools. 1t would be pos
exhibition, for its latitude and high
quality invites critical discussion. But
even more insistent is the demand made
on US to stand aside and listen to its
unified chorus Of voices-American art
sings in the Nations Capital, and its
song is rich, full and strong"
Royal Cortissoz of the Herald Tribune
said:
Every two years there is a volu-
miIlous exhibition Of American painting
at the Corcoran Gallery in Washing
artist on his mettle. Their character
from the beginning has been such as to
build up certain prestige and they
are held under favorable conditions.
The rooms are spacious and well lighted.
The hanging is judiciously looked after.
Finally, the four prizes established by
the late Senator william A. Clark
amount to a total of $1,000. Every
thing, in short, conspires to make the
Corcoran biennial an important occa-
sion.
Importance of Exhibition.
"It Is important because it is about
as representative an exhibition as we
have. The extremists of the mod
ernistic wing would probably deny this.
Their productions are indeed conspicu-
ously absent. But this is not by any
means to say that conservatism pre-
walls to the arrogant exclusion Of all
else. On the contrary, the walls dis
close a pronounced tincture of liberal
ism and the point is emphasized by
the nature Of the awards.
There is nothing radical about a
jury composed of Daniel CARRIER, Chlde
Hassan, Charles Hopkinson, Leon Knoll
and w. Elmer Schofleld, if one may
Judge by their works. Yet that on-the-
whole conservative jury gave the first
prize Of So, 900 to a still life by Maurice
Sterne, who is hardly of an academic
habit, and the second prize Of 81 800
went to Clifford Beal for his Circus
Girl similarly free from the supposed
ly deadly faint. Edmund Archer and
Joseph Plavcan, winners of the remain
ing prizes, are equally 'emancipated.'
The truth Is that the spirit of individu-
atty and freedom is far more wide
spread in American art than is admit
ted by those who think that modern
painting began with Picasso and Ma
tisse. and this jury has found that it
could function more or less adventur-
ously without bouncing on the latest
Partisan formula. BY the same token
the show in its entirety indicates that
it is possible to be conservatives we
must use labels-without any loss of
vitality"