Evening star., 1943-05-16
AT
Exhibition of Fine
Landscapes Ends
Tour at Howard
Bv Florence s. Bergman.

~
Seeing America through artists
eyes is the theme of an exhibition
which opened last Monday at
Howard University Art Gallery, to
remain until June 7. Entitled
Through the American Landscape"
1t comprises oil paintings, water
colors, mural sketches and pastels
which were reproduced in book by
Kaj Klitgaard. published two years
ago by the University of North
Carolina Press.
The author. a native of Denmark
who has lived in the United States
since 1914 Except for such intervals
as his service in France during
World War I and several trips to
Europe). was awarded a Guggen-
helm Fellowship in 1887. for the pur-
pose of writing about a journey
through this country, and specifi-
cally about regional landscape and
Its painters. The result was
Through the American Landscape"
Forty original works were selected
as illustrations, from the output of
artists in various parts of the coun-
try. Some were already in perma-
nent museum collections: others
were borrowed from art dealers, and
third group from the artists them
selves. Twerty-six of the originals
are included in the exhibition which
has been travelling since March. 1912,
undc auspices of the American
Federation of Arts. Howard Uni
versity's engagement is the final
showing in a tour of seven States
and the District of Columbia.
The esthetic journey started in
Bearsville, upstate New York, the
home of the author and his wife,
Georgina Klitgaard. a noted land
scape painter. Her large Oil, Land
scape With Blooming Tree" a sketch
of country in springtime, with a
beautiful cloud-filled sky, represents
that region, as does also Henry
Mattsons Early Summer" with it's
lush dark greens and waterfall,
somewhat reminiscent of The
Rocks" which won for him the first
prize in the recent Corcoran BIZ
ennial.
New York State, in fact, seems to
have inspired several of the exhibi-
tion's best paintings. There is
Snow Valley" by the late Emil
Ganso. a superb winter landscape
with depth and distance, and the
somber beauty of a cloudy midwin-
ter day. John Taylor of Woodstock,
N. Y, is represented with another
Winter Landscape" in watercolor;
its bare. brown trees and hills COW
cred with smoky evergreers are
stark against the snow-blanketed
ground.
From New York the author trav-
eled through Virginia and the Caro-
linas. through Georgia and Alabama,
OF which Anne Goldthwaite's paint
ing of Negro and Mule" moving
along at leisurely pace, seems
typical. In Louisiana, Mr.. Klitgaard
found John McCrady's Judgment
Day. representative of Negro emo
tions and beliefs, an Imaginative
scene extensively populated with
saved and lost souls.
The vast State of Texas is repre-
sented several times, the most i'm
pressive work being Alexandra
Hogue's "Erosion-Mother Earth
Laid Bare" a large canvas which
appears to be naturahstic at first
glance, but in which the eroded
earth Is seen to resemble a recum-
bent woman. Ut was shown at the
San Francisco FairD Jerry By
waters Cattle Country, West
Texas a pastel. depicts the peaceful
fatlands, with an interesting sky.
Moving up through the Middle
West, one encounters THE Butte"
by John Stewart Curry of Kansas.
who has won fame painting the
landscape, people and activities of
his State. Thomas Benton of Mis-
souri, shows Horses Against the
Sky a windswept scene in browns
and gray blues. After seeing Ar
mold Blanch's painting of The Da-
kota Badlands,' Mr. Klitgaard said,
"Mystically. almost, they seemed less
bad because he had made a good
picture of them"
Land, Sea and Fog" water
color by Standish Backus, jr., brings
glimpse of Southern California
farmlands. Thence. one is taken
swiftly to New England, in violent
mood, as depicted in Virginia Ber-