Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-02-02

cAulDlClOu Ut TIE Aus CluD through
Friday. AL of the painters are as
ISOLATED with the Phillips Memorial
Gallery, having been students and
in some cases instructors and fire.
quent exhibitors there. -Four are
also Corceran School alumni. But
the influence of the Phillips Gallery
Art School is the major one. Most
of the work is experimental in
character. -
Each artist is represented with
six or seven paintings, hung not as
individual collections, but as one
large group show. 1t seems to me
that Margaret Gates makes the best
showing, with the most even level
of accomplishment. Mary Watkins
and John Gernand also have some
good selections. But certain paint
ings in the groups by the four others
seem thin and inconsequential, or
done in haphazard way.
Romanticism pervades Margaret
Gates monochromatic Row of
Trees" Moon and Mailbox, Beach
at Night" and Park at Evening"
with lights winking in the mist.
Her Street in Winter" too, sue
cessfully conveys a feeling of at
mosphere. ,.o >.
Mary Watkins, whose solo exhibit
ton has just closed at the Phillips
Gallery, shows here a different
group, including her cheerful After
Tennis and Exotic Aroma, the
latter trifie obvious but preferable
to the incomprehensible expressions
of some of the other painters In
the show.
John Gernand's poetic, markedly
personal talent is seen in such
typical paintings as Bouquet,
Summer" (owned by the Phillips
Gallery and Harlequin with
their fresh but subdued colors and
predominantly gray tonality.
Robert Franklin Gates, now on
the art faculty at American Uni
versity, shows experiments in cub
ism and other modern idioms. Ber-
nice Cross, who teaches the Phil
lips Gallery painting class, is repre-
sented with paintings typical OF
her sophisticated primitive ap-
proach. Marguerite Burgess "Har-
Dor" impressed me as the best OF
her group. Harold Giese shows
works in several media, among them
crayon and wash, in which his
Early Moon" stands out.
First Solo Exhibition Here
BY Lucille Evans
Lucille Evans, q Western artist
now living in Washington, is hav-
ing her first solo exhibition 'here
at Community Education Gallery
through February Is. 1t comprises
II or IL oil paintings and an equal
number of wax paintings" (pol-
ished crayon pictures). The two
groups differ so greatly as to give
an impression of being exhibitions
bv two artists. The oil paintings al
ford evidence of an unusual talent;
but the crayon works struck me as
unintelligible and devoid OF beauty
of either form or color. There is
no reason, of course, why she
should not experiment along va
rious lines.
In her oil paintings, Miss Evans
unveils dream world which
seemed to me to have a strong In
fusion Of Freud, a dash OF Arthur
B. Davis and her own sense OF col
or. The Davies aroma may be en-
tirely coincidental, as he died more
than q decade ago, and Miss Evans
grew up and obtained her art edu-
cation in California, where she
could not have seen much, If any,
of his work. However, her wrath
like nudes in landscape will surely
recall his Arcadian fantasies to all
who know his paintings. Her aim
she says, Is ITO reach the inner
meaning of each of life's phases
Since few of us accomplish such
an objective, we are not in a posi-
ton to Judge whether she ap-
proaches it in her paintings. But
they are interesting and thought
provoking.
Born in Ogden, Utah, Lucille
Evans while still child, went with
her family to California. She studied
at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles,
has exhibited att he museum there
and also at the San Francisco and
San Diego Museums. She has had
solo exhibitions in Beverly Hills
and New York City.
Il +
rs Americans Offer Art
Readily Suited to Homes
art for the Home" has been the
theme Of the Barnett Alden Gallery