Evening star., 1941-05-04
Interior Gallery Exhibits
Student Water CoIors

Water colors of various types by
students in college art departments
and endowed art schools throughout
the United States are on view in
the Seventh-foor gallery of the In
terror Department. The exhibition
can well be called national in scope;
it includes groups from New Eng
land to Southern California, from
New York to Washington State,
from Chicago to Cincinnati and
Baltimore. The deep South seems
to be the only section not repre-
sented, but not every group had been
unpacked when this was written.
The excellent regulations of
large number of American art
schools and colleges lead one to ex-
pect good work from the students.
The present show of $50 or more
paintings comes up to ones expec-
tatlons. 1t is interesting to note,
too, that the work is predominantlv
conservative, that there is little that
could be called experimental.
Perhaps the dominant feature Of
e+4S SAAAAOAlAO1A ID It's revelation OF
the instructors influence on pupils,
Minus catalogue or numbering svs-
tenn when the paintings were hung
a lew days ago, the writer was able
10 see, in many instances, where
the group from one school ended
and another began, by the homoge-
neouS character of each. Yet each
group is composed of paintings by
/ from 3 to 10 students. From Ober-
lin College, Ohio, for instance, there
are six rather large paintings by
four young artists; the brush strokes
IN all OF them are broad and fluid,
| done IN a wet wash and in rich,
deep-toned colors. In contrast is
the group from Maryland Institute,
Baltimore, one of the most con-
servative in the show. All are flower
and still-life subjects with pictorial
appeal, carefully rendered in de-
tail.
| A group of 10 from Syracuse COL
lege OF Fine Arts is marked by
strong, competent handling, and all
though the subjects are varied near
ly everything is seen from an ele-
| walton, as though the students had
done their paintings while seated
| on step-ladders. From the Chicago
| Art Institute comes the most rad
1cal group of work. The majority
| are gouaches, and in handling and
SubJect-matter one sees the influ.
ence of the advanced Chicago
School" reflected through the in
| stitute's faculty.
In these and other groups one
senses the strong example of the
| instructor. Teachers often are ac-
cused Of turning out many young
| imitatorS of their own methods, but
this seems unjust. 1t is probably
inevitable that the uniformed young
artist starts out to paint as his
teacher paints. Almost classic ex-
ampleS of teacher-inf1uenc ars
provided by two paintings from this
University of California, which has
| both japanese and American in
structors. A young painter with
the Occidental name of Edmopdson,
studying under the Japanese, has
bor scene, painted in fresh, light
tints and ink on silk. while a fell
low-student named Miyoko Ito, ap-
parently working under an Occi-
dental instructor, has turned in a
group of green and brown nudes
markedly reminiscent of the School
of Paris.
In addition to the variety of in
structor- influences. there is much
geographical variety. For example,
all but of the IL paintings from
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. are city
scapes, rows of houses with back
yards and the towers of Manhat-
tan in the distance, and similar as
poets of the urban East, while from
the Western schools come paint
ings of open spaces, with blue hills
for background.
This exhibition should be of par
ticular interest to art teachers and
students. 1t will last throughout
May.