Evening star., 1934-12-30
COMMENT ON CURRENT EXHIBITIONS.

NTONeIIHleII,
of regional committees throughout
the United States, gave employment
for four months or over to epproxi-
mately 5000 unemployed artists, by
whom, in that period, Is, 900 or more
works of art were produced. This
colossal relief measure, which took
the form of art patronage such as
the Government has never before ex-
tended, was practically terminated by
the exhibition Of 800 paintings and
few works in sculpture held in the
Corcoran Gallery Of Art in April,
from which works were chosen for
placement In Government depart
ments and buildings here in WASH
ington and throughout the country.
Thirty were chosen by the President
and Mrs. Roosevelt to hang in the
Executive Office Building and the
White House. As an aftermath of
this display an exhibition of works
by former P w. A. artists was held
in the Corcoran Gallery in Novem-
ber, with special emphasis on sales,
at which the number of purchases
came to 70-a record in private
patronage.
Also, as outcome of the P. w. A. P,
permanent painting and sculpture
section of the procurement division
of the Treasury was set up this
Autumn or early Winter, with Ed
ward B. Rowan as director, Olin
Dows assistant, and Edward Bruce
expert adviser. The purpose of this
section will be, briefly, to procure
art of the finest quality and COM
plete suitability for the decoration
of public buildings-sculpture, mural
paintings, etc.
The year 1884 will also be remem-
bered by its celebrations of the GEN.
tenary of Whistlers birth-unhappily
by the issuance of a mutilated repro
duction of his portrait of his mother
as a postage stamp, and happily by
exhibitions of his works held in vari-
Gus places in this country and in
England. Special Whistler exhibi-
tions were held here in the Freer
Gallery, in the Library of Congress
and at the Corcoran Gallery. And
the American Federation of Arts, at
its annual meeting in May, a9voted
an afternoon to a program of fitting
tributes.
A large mural by Gilbart White
representing, lyrioally, Agriculture,
was installed on the wall of the STAIR
case in the main building of the
Department of Agriculture in May
scoffed by representatives of the mod
ern school, but greatly commended
by others. Under the P. w. A. P.
mural paintings were produced by
local artists for the aGornment of
two of the high schools. the Mount
Pleasant Branch of the Public Lii.
brary and the Zoo, the last taking
the form Of habitat backgrounds.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art during
the year has received some notable
gifts and loans, besides making through
purchase number of interesting addi-
tions to its permanent collection, such
as the painting by Rockwell Kent, re-
Gently reproduced and noted in these
columns.
The governmental building program
has been steadily carried forward in
connection with which some impor-
tant works in sculpture by way of
pedfments and panels have been added
to our national outdoor gallery.
There has been a constant round of
temporary exhibitions at the Corcoran
Gallery of Art, the Arts Club, the Art
League, Studio House, the National
Museum, the Library of Congress and
elsewhere. A local etchers' society has
been formed. Distinguished lecturers
on art have been heard here under the
auspices of the Washington Society of
Fine Arts.
Outside of Washington the year has
been marked by notable exhibitions,
evidencing the increasing richness of
American collections; by eXtraordi-
nary buying on the part of museums;
by more lively bidding and better
prices at the auction sales in New
York in connection with the dispersal
of famous collections, and, throughout
the country generally increased en-
phasis on 1.-The American scene" and
local production. The rearrangement
and reopening of the Walters Gallery,
Baltimore, in November, added a gem
of a museum to the fast-growing list,
and a place of reWarding pilgrimage
for Washington art lovers.
Not bad record for art at time
when the world is endeavoring to climb
out of a period of depression.
X X
TURNING now to the present: At
the Library of Congress, December
"a, memorial exhibition of etchingS
by the late Elisha Kent Kane Weth-
erill Of Philadelphia was opened. This
collection, consisting of so or more
prints, with the original copper plates,
was presented to the Library recently
by Mr.. Wetherill's estate. After grad
uating from the University of Pennsyl-
vania in 1895, when 81 years of age,
Wetherill studied at the Pennsylvania
Academy and then in Paris. His
masters were Anshutz and Whistler,
and surely none could have had better.
His paintings brought him awards in
the great expositions and group of
his etchings was purchased by the
French government. He died in
March, 1929, in North Carolina, from
injuries received in the World War.
That he had exceptional gift, none
who sees this memorial exhibition can
doubt, but it was of subtle character.
He was not one to produce striking
effects, and he was not an especially
GOOD craftsman or technician. But
he had evidently keen perception
and q particularly sensitive feeling
1Or GnOSe elements Ol WHICH, al 10 ooiA IL
-line, form, light. shade, tone, at
mosphere-an of which he interpreted
with reticent charm. At times he at
tanned a very considerable height, as
in "Tenements." Negro Blacksmith
Shop" and THE Schooners," all of
which possess the qualities of great
etchings and are exquisite. The same
Ightness of touch is seen in some of
his etchings of New York, and espe-
cially of Philadelphia. For instance,
Broad Street Station" and "The
Archway." In other plates, particu-
larly those of the great Manhattan
bridges and scenes under the elevated,
there is, it must be confessed, remi-
niscent note of Pennell, doubtless an
unconscious borrowing. But whatever
may have been this etcher's shortcom-
inps the fact that he had the artists