Evening star., 1947-03-30
313 Paintings Included in Corcoran's
20th< Biennial Opening This Afternoon
By Florence S. Berrymon

The Twentieth Biennial Exhibition
Of Contemporary American OIL
Paintings, which was inaugurated in
the Corcoran Gallery OF Art with q
private; view and reception last eve
ming and which will be open to the
public beginning this afternoon, en-
bodies a return to prewar size ano
practice. Whereas the biennials OF
1943 and 1945 were largely restricted
to invited works, because of war con-
ditions, the current edition is partly
invited, partly open, with larger
proportion Of juried paintings thar
the recent Pennsylvania Academy's
annual had.
The goth biennial Is composed OF
S13 paintings by as many artists
and occupies the atrium and II gal
leries on the second floor. Just how
widespread the geographical distri-
button is, 1t is not possible to say
for many paintings came from New
York City agents. However, those
artists whose own addresses are
given represent Is States and the
District. There are % paintings by
artists of Washington, nearby Mary
land and Virginia. Pennsylvania
and Illinois have the next largest
representation One or more works
have come from Arizona, California
Washington and Oregon, the Rocky
Mountain region, the Midwest, and
New England. Only the South seems
poorly represented.
The Corcoran Gallery's purpose in
presenting the biennial, set forth
in the catalogue by C. Powell Min
nigerode, director emeritus, is to
show work which accurately reflects
the trend of contemporary painting
in this country; which illustrates as
completely as possible what Amer
tcan painters of today are doing;
which is broad and truly representa-
tive in its scope and character, and
which includes the best available
works exemplifying the different
schools and phases of painting as
they now exist"
A Left-of-Center Trend
There are limitations, of course, to
the complete realization of these
objectives, but no more than exist
in equivalent situations. Selections
representing the Judgment of the
five artists who composed the jury
= were made from works the Nations
artists chose to submit (in the pres.
ent instance, about 1900; and the
same jury invited from dealers an6
exhibitions in other cities, additional
works Which they felt would round
out the picture of present-day paint
ing. Yet many outstanding contem-
porary painters are not represented
some no doubt for reasons of their
own.
A generally hft-of-center trend in
these exhibitions has been notice
able for some years. The present
biennial continues in that direction
as have other major group shows
this season (e. g., Pepsi-Cola. Carne-
gle, Pennsylvania Academy, Whitney
Museum and, to some extent, the
National Academy. The fact that
the Nation turned right last Novem-
ber has had no appreciable effect
OH 5he artists, who continue to &c
their individual ways. Nor should
one forget that esthetic radicalism
Is fashionable. This is not to imply
that artists are simply following the
mode" But some of them, especially
the younger, are bound to be influ-
enced by the high esteem in which
works in modern idioms are held
in professional art circles. The gen.
eral public, of course, has never
been sympathetic to progressive
art.
The jury's effort to make the bien-
nial true ross-section of today's
painting is obvious from the number
OF traditional paintings included
Qualities the public looks for in
painting (to judge from popular
choices) are clean-cut craftsman
ship, clarity of statement and recog-