Evening star., 1935-04-23
ART
! EXHIBITION OPENS
Conservative and Extreme
Pictures on Display at
Nine Stores.
Nv LEILA MECHLIN.

TN NINE downtown department
stores, the Greater Washington
Independent Art Exhibition was
4 opened ceremoniously yesterday
afternoon, when prize awards
were oficially presented to the win
ming artists.
The exhibition, in the aggregate,
comprises over 1900 works-on paint
ings, water colors, prints and sculp-
ture-exclusively by washington art
lists. Never before has 80 large a
showing Of local work been made. The
works shown were selected from q still
greater number sent in by q commit
tee Of nine artists and laymen, headed
by Duncan Phillips Of the Phillips
Memorial Gallery, and were then d.
Wded into nine groups, as impartially
as possible, for the nine separate dis.
plays. Apparently the committee
was very liberal In the matter Of Sc
lection and very fair In making dis
trtbution, for the gamut runs from the
most conservative to the most extreme
and each collection has both high
spots and low points aplenty. Whether
quantity Is preferable to quality some
may question, but emphasis on guam
tity Is q characteristic OF all inde-
pendent exhibitions. The artists re-
sponse to the invitations issued to
contribute to this exhibition far ex-
ceeded the expectation of the organ
tzers, and, to some extent, the space
made available for display, so that
some Of the exhibits were held In re-
serve and will be rotated. That pro-
duction In this field Is so great To-
cally will, without doubt, come as a
surprise to many. The need Of Great
ing q market for such work, If it is
to continue, Is obvious.
Different Exhibit Styles.
OF the nine stores cooperating, W.
B. Moses g. Sons provides the largest
and most imposing gallery, whereas
woodward & Lothrop has set up,
especially for the purpose, the most
satisfactory and effective series of
little galleries. The exhibit at Julius
Garfinckel g. Co.'s is the smallest
and the most select-a greater pro-
portion than elsewhere being held in
reserve for rotation, and by Q rather
happy, though forced, use of wall
cases suggests to the visitor a certain
precious quality in the works shown
which should always be associated
with fine art. The use of numerous
easles for the display of water colors,
which with their white mats, make
white spots, initiates somewhat
against the otherwise complete effec-
tiveness here. At S. Kann Sons Co.
the exhibits are on screens.
At Lansburgh & Bros and the
Hecht Co.'S stores the exhibits are
shown in alcoves, well arranged. a
little overcrowded. But apparently
great care has been taken to stress
the interest Of the display-prize pic
lures and sculpture are given promi-
nent positions and every exhibit ID
well labeled. At Frank r. Jelleff's
Inc, the exhibition is set forth in the
firms Little Theater," which is on
the top floor of the building, sky
lighted and entirely apart from the
salesrooms. The Palais Royal, on the
other hand, shows its section of the
exhibit in its furniture department, on
the outer wall of a series Of sample
rooms, where they do not appear to
disadvantage. This thought again
lends O certain amount of appropri.
ateness to the display at w. &. j
Sloane's, the ninth Of the exhibiting
series, where these paintings, prints
and sculpture, are shown in associa-
ton with luxurious and well designed
furniture, typical of refinement OF
taste and high standards of living
The variety in the several ways ir
which these exhibitions are shown In
itself lends interest and sets stand
ards.
Good Is SHn Good.
As to the exhibits themselves. They
are no better and no worse thar
might have been expected. The gooc
are still good, the bad are still bad
No heretofore unknown genius emerges
That Is one Of the interesting things
about these independent exhibition:
which are purposed, primarily, to give
the submerged opportunity to come
to the fore, and prove their right tG
recognition-but for some reason d.
not appear-from which fact a little
more faith In the right judgment OF
juries might be deduced. There 4
no one right way of painting, ne
single measure of merit, but true ART
declares itself without the aid of ex.
positor.
In these Independent exhibitions
most varied in character and kind
and to q great extent unrestricted
the water colors by Eliot O'Hara
Lesley Jackson, Clara Saunders, Eliza.
beth Sawtelle, Margaret Lent, Eleanor
Park Gusts and others, who have
already attained distinction, are nc
les distinguished than when shown
for instance, In the Corcoran Gallery
Of Art. The same is true of the oil
49,