Evening star., 1949-03-06

One of rs color blockprints .
noted Astrtan artist Norberttne
Alfred Fowler's Print Gallery j
Pratt, Matthew Jouett, Waldo and
Asher B. Durand are all repre-
sented.
The exhibition concludes with
life-size. full-length portraits of
Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln
by George P A. Healy.
Husbands and Wives
There are doubtless innumerable
cases where husbands and wives
harmoniously practice the same
profession. although one would
expect the situation to have ex-
lplosive possibilities. Hence the
Barnett Alden displays courage in
rounding up 18 paintings by six
Washington artists who compose
three married couples. Some Of
these paintings have been seen
before. in Washington. but not in
this sort of combination.
Margaret Casey Gates paint
ings, fundamentally traditional.
are imaginative in their themes
and personal in handling. Robert
Franklin Gates. who in the l930s
had an equally individual. tradi-
tional idiom in painting. has been
an experimentalist for some years.
From all the evidence. these two
manage to paint according to their
private convictions, without inf1u-
ence in either direction.
Bernice Cross and James Nc
Laughlin are devoted to tobacco
browns. Otherwise their paint
ings differ. Miss Cross being a
sophisticated primitive and Mr..
Mclaughlin painting still life in
manner all his own, which in some
cases verges on natural primitiv-
ism. However. number Of his
later works I have seen elsewhere
impressed me as better than those
which represent him in this hus-
band-and-w wife show.
Jack Perlmutter's adaptations
of cubism in his interpretations of
contemporary architecture and in
dustrial subjects, certainly catch
the strident clamor and ruthless
purposefulness of modern life, and
at the same time convey buoyant
optimism. One gets the impress
sion that Mr. Perlmutter has the
same sort of sentiment for the
clean-cut angles and lines Of
present = day apartments, with
lighted windows. wash hanging in
/ the moonlight. etc, that others
of us have for Georgian houses
and Gothic cathedrals. Two of
Mr.. Perlmutter's paintings in the
Alden show are new to me-a semi
abstract nude and a lighthouse
leaning at a perilous angle, which
suggests the crashing impact of
the sea. Norma Mazo's three
works in this show do not give
very good account of Mrs. Jack
Perlmutter.
Art Today
James johnson Sweeney will
talk informally on Art Today"
next Tuesday evening at $3.50 at
the Watkins Gallery of American
University. Admission is free. but
due to limited seating capacity,
reservations must be made to at
tend. Telephone Woodley $500,
extension 33. Mr.. Sweeney, who
lives in New York, was a lecturer
on fine arts at New York Univer-
sity for five years, and, more re-
Gently, director Of the department
of painting and sculpture at the
Museum of Modern Art. He is
author of number of books on
contemporary art.
Gateway to the West
st. Louis is going to have an
impressive architectural Jefferson
Memorial, the competition for
which required that it should be
conceived as striking, visible from
a distance in the landscape, and
structure memorable and out
standing. Thirty-five original
drawings from this competition
are now on view at the Howard
University Art Gallery, to remain
through March %. The show,
circulated by the American Fed
Grafton of Arts. is open to the
public 10 to weekdays.
The first prize of $4,000 was
awarded to a group of architects
including Zero Saarinen of Bloom
field Hills, Mich. In the opinion
of the jury of award. their design
fulfills the requirements most ad-
mirably. It avoids repetition OF
existing memorials. such as the
Washington Monument Egyptian
obelisk type) and Lincoln and JEFF
ferson Memorials here (adapta-
tions of the classic temple) and
others. Mr.. Saarinen's magnifl-
cent arch, while of a general type
extending back many centuries, is