Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-12-11
By Florence S. Bergman.
Oil Paintings on Vie1D at


Georgetown Little Gallery.
The horrors of war constitute the
main theme of the oil paintings and
water colors by William Chopper,
now on view at the Little Gallery in
Georgetown, to remain until Deem
Der lS. This artist is one of the
foremost in the group identified with
social consciousness" in subject mat
ter He belongs to the left-wing art
lists faction, concerned with the
struggle between capital and labor
and similar themes These artists
works are generally successful in
raising the blood pressure alike of
those who sympathize with their
theories and those who do not. Mr..
Chopper draws for such publications
as Art Front, New Masses and Daily
Worker. and in 1887 was enabled to
develop his talent with the aid of a
capitalistic Guggenheim Fellowship
worth approximately $250O).
AS regards the present exhibition,
however, nearly every one will be in
sympathy with Mr.. Choppers view
point. His NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of
form and employment of glazing
whites starkly contrasted with SOM
Der browns and olive greens-is well
adapted to the depletion of his
chosen subjects. Tragedy is drama
tlzed, denunciation is more VEN
omous. 1t is essentially the tech
nique of the caricaturist. One of
the paintings in the present show,
THE General" is caricature pre-
sumably of France, clad in bright
blue uniform lavishly decorated with
the Nazi emblem, the order of the
deaths head and other medals
which the artist has executed in
gold paint. to throw them into
CHASTITY contrast with the arms and
legs of wars victims in the back
ground. Another oil, Spanish
Landscape" is a scene of unutter-
able desolation, with the wreckage
OF bombed dwellings limelighted
against the devastated countryside.
The tragedy of the Spanish peas
ant, whether loyalist or rebel, is
depicted in such water colors as Air
Raid" Mont ombatants," Sur
render" woman and Child" and
another touching scene in which two
women cross themselves before the
single standing wall of a wrecked
church.
Turning from Spain to the Amer
lean dust bowl" Mr.. Chopper has
painted tragedy in another guise-
the anxious farmer bending over his
PROSTATE Last Cow" In happier
vein is an oil painting, THE West"
wherein cowboy and his horse gaze
from precipice in the foreground,
to distant snow-capped peaks.
In choice of subjects, Mr.. Chopper
is following a centuries old tradition.
He is most frequently compared to
Daumier and Goya. Still earlier,
Breughel masteTfully painted the
atrocities of invading soldiers against
helpless peasants.
Daumier's influence seems most
apparent in small oil by Mr.. Crop
per, called Audience" a row of seven
heads. british, stupid. defiant. One
can well imagine that thus the audi
ence appears to actors In an unsuc-
cessful theatrical production, when
the spectators seem to be sitting
on their hands"
Georgetown Galleries
Exhibit Paintings and Prints.
Unconcerned with social themes,
the paintings and prints by Jack
Berkman and Oke Nordgren on ex-
hlbition at Georgetown Galleries are
pleasant and lvable. These young
artists have been out in the fresh air
and sunshine of coast villages and