Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-10

graphic art has an ancestry reach
ing back several thousand years
into the past. The Ancient and
Honorable Lineage and Present Sig
nif1cance Of the Comic Strip" may
now be studied at the Arts Club
through next Friday. Said to be the
first comprehensive exhibition as
sembled of this art, it was organ
lied by the American Institute Of
Graphic Arts and first shown last
spring at the National Arts Club,
New York City.
The exhibition is we'll hung at the
Washington Arts Club, enabling the
visitor to study it chronologically
One follows the development from
mosaic standard excavated in Ur
OF the Chaldees, through mural
scenes in strip form painted on
tomb chambers of ancient Egypt.
Akin to them is the Magyar fresco
from prehistoric Mexico.
Christian art of the Near East
employed the strip method of tell
ing Bible stories as did later Euro
pean Christian art. Among many
early works on view Gin reproduc-
tom is series of pictures of Adam
and Eve from the Bamberg Bible,
a Carolingian manuscript of the
9th century. Three scenes of the
story of Salome are taken from a
Romanesque illumination earlier
than 1900 AID. About the same
period is the famous tapestry of
Queen Matilda, telling very graphi-
cally the story Of the Battle of
Hastings, when England was sue
cessfuuy invaded for the first and
last time I066).
Picture sequences from a number
OF block books OF the 18th century,
which Instructed the unlettered peo-
pie in religious lore, illustrate a
medieval form Of the comic strip.
In the 18th and 18th centuries, the
strip looked more like our own, in
work by England's famous carl
caturist of the Napoleonic era,
James Gillray; in DR.. Heinrich HofY-
MAINS "Struvelpeter" Qs4I, in
Rodolph Toepffer's "Mr. Vieux
Bots" 1880, in Gustave Dore's
History Of Holy Russia" (l854), In
illustrations by Cruikshank and
Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz,"
who look very much like the Katzen-
TANNER Kids, who were born" in
1899.
The American comic strip as we
know it, began in the 1905, with
Swinnerton and Outcault. Also on
view is strip by Nicholson, the
earliest of the pretty stenographer"
theme. Wallace Morgans Fluffy
Ruffies' and Winsor McCay's Little
Memo are examples of 30 years ago
or earlier. Bud Fishers Mutt and
jeff" began in 1914, George Nc
Manus' Bringing Up Father two
years earlier. Buster Brown"
Happy Hooligan" and others of that
era, will surely be familier to every
one over .35.
Many of these strips are on view
in the original drawings, as are also
the contemporary comic strips which
occupy the Art Clubs reception room
walls. The beautifully drawn
Prince Valiant" has earned its Gre
ator, Harold Foster, a reputation
as perhaps the greatest artist work.
ing in the comic strip medium. Mil
ton Caniff's adventure strip, Terry
and the Pirates" is another we'll
drawn comic by q competent and
intelligent artist. Billy De Beck,
on the other hand, claimed he al
ways put blanket on Barney
GOGGLES Spark Plug" because he
cant draw horse"
Work by Walt Disney and many
other present-day favorites in the
press and magazines as we'll as the
comic strip books and advertisement
sequences bring the history OF this
popular art up to the present mo-
ment. The exhibition Is highly
recommended.
O'Hara at the
Corc0ran.
An exhibition of Eliot OHaras
watercolors done In Russia in 1928
opens today at the Corcoran Cal
lery OF Art and will be reviewed next
week. This Washington artist is
an outstanding exponent Of the me-
dunn and has written a number OF
excellent texts on it.
Pan American Union
Shoes Ph0f0ernbhs.