Evening star., 1941-03-23

National Academy, of plowed fields
and open though partly clouded
sky, full Of air and sunshine, and
another by Edward Bruce a little
more stylized of the Blue Ridge"
Mountains, laid like a lovely carpet
at ones feet, patterned by the hand
of man. There are others which
are commendable but in most in
stances the key note is a God for
sakeness which does not allure
the eye or hold attention Painting
is visual art but the painters to-
day seem eager to take it into the
realm of emotional receptivity.
Beauty can be just as emotional
as ugliness which shocks-but this
seems to have been forgotten.
Sophisticated in Handling.
That the trouble does not al
together lie in loss of craftsman
ship or ability for technical ex-
preston, is shown by many works
in this exhibition which are ex-
tremely well painted-primitive in
manner of treatment but very
sophisticated in handling. It is all
great puzzle. The public will
have to decide-for without appre-
citation and sympathy no art can
succeed.
There are two paintings in this
exhibition of scenes connected with
the Battle of Gettysburg-one by
Nussbaum, the other by Edward
Hopper-purely illustrative. Jon
Corbino shows house wrecked by
hurricane, the inhabitants search
ing for treasured possessions. John
Steuart Curry, still pursuing JUS
tice, pictures with horrifying real
ism Man Hunt" Horrible views
of beautiful places are Winter
Night at Chartres" and "OySter
Bay, Long Island" But why en-
large upon this phase?
1t is good to welcome back to this
exhibition Lillian Westcott Hale who
has in the past been so well repre-
sented and now shows a painting
Of a young girl lounging in a big,
old-fashioned overstuffed chair
Harriet Ann" Jay Connaway is
here with an interesting picture of
Winter on Monhegan"-R. H. Ives
Gammell, Gertrude Fiske, Cabot
Daniels, Carl Gaertner, Marvin
Gone, M. S: Clinedinst, c. K. Chat
terton and Frederick Taubes are
all well represented.
There are quite a number of
skating pictures-done for the most
part in a naive, primitive style,
some showing excellent feeling for
movement, but supreme when it
comes to painting in oil "in little"
are Lauren Ford, who shows a
fascinating little picture "Appari-
ton of Lourdes, II" and Angelo di
Benedetto whose contribution is a
painting entitled Saturday Morn
ing, Port au Prince"
Abstract and Sur Realistic.
In gallery ! quite number of alb
stract paintings are hung, and here
and there throughout the exhibition
examples of this strange new art
are to BE found. For those who like
them all Is well. Some have good
color, others what may, by some, be
thought interesting pattern. At
least, whether one understands them
or not, they seldom have semblance
to things known, and therefore may
be interpreted according to the in
dividuals fancy. Again effort is
being made to put painting to a use
quite without it's field.
There is one example of Sur-realis-
tic art in this collection. The title is
Mental Geography" and the paint
er o. Louis Guglielmi of New York.
Extremely neatly done, it represents
the stuff of which dreams are
wrought-dreams such as Hamlet
feared or are experienced by mum
dane mortals after too many cock
tails or too good dinner. What
does it all mean? The writer can
not tell.
Still there are several artists, such
as Ernest Blumenshein, Charles
Morris Young, Robert Strong Wood
ward and Gerry Bosch, not to men
ton others, who make valuable con-
tributions to this exhibition. They
may not on the instant declare
themselves, but they should be
hunted out. Quite evidently the COL
lection as a whole is representative
and widely diverse. 1t pretends to
nothing more. The art of our time
is what we make of it. With the
blackout in Europe it behooves us
more than ever before to encourage
the best and so assure the blessing of
perpetuity. AS Edward Arlington
Robinson once said, 1.-THE world must
have its art or the world will be no
fit place for man to live in" But
the art which he had in mind was
that which is and always has been
symbol of beauty. 1t is this which
has come down to us from the ages
and which we are in honor bound to
hand on, unsullied, to ages yet un-
born. AS the National Gallery of
Art evidences our heritage so the
biennial exhibition in the Corcoran
Gallery Of Art gives opportunity for
us 70, take account In this critical