Evening star., 1949-03-22

| |
d nom de plume. Please be brief
apply its principle on the floor of the House
1t may be, however, that the word duty Is
foreign one to Representative Mcclure
in which case Connecticut hereafter should
show more discretion in its selection of
Democratic Representative.
A MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRAT.
Painters Rather Than Politicians
To the Editor of The Star:
I am writing regarding an article pub
lished in your paper March IL about Left
Wing Art in Hospitals referring to some
remarks made by George Dondero. Republi-
can Representative from Michigan.
Since I, with the help of my wife. con-
ceived and carried out the exhibition of
paintings at st. Adams Naval Hospital,
would like to state the true facts of the
case.
The idea for this exhibition grew out of
an invitation I extended to several of the
ambulatory patients from st. Adams Hos
pital to view some of my own paintings.
The patients who had never been inside an
art gallery or museum, were surprised that
art was something they could understand
and enjoy, and all of them expressed de-
sire to see more. Believing that there should
be a wider distribution of art and that it
should be taken to people rather than re-
main isolated in museums and galleries, my
wife and I planned the exhibition at the
hospital
We discussed the plan for the exhibition
with hospital authorities and received their
enthusiastic approval. I drew up list of
artists, which also was approved, and wrote
letters to them asking them to participate.
These artists were selected with the idea of
presenting cross section of contemporary
painting being done in the New York area.
1t was our hope that the idea of the
exhibit would take hold and spread to other
hospitals. My wife. the former Henrietta
Bruce Sharon, had great success during the
war with a hospital sketching program
which she organized on a local basis using
commercial artists to sketch the wounded,
and which later became nation-w pro-
gram under the auspices of USO Camp
Shows. This program was also the subject
OF book my wife wrote at the suggestion
Of Navy Public Relations cts Good To Be
Alive" Dodd, Mead. l945). However, our
fine arts exhibition at ST. Adams was in the
nature OF a test and no plans were made for
carrying it further.
Navy Not Responsible.
The hospital authorities sent a release to
the press dated January Is (Which they did
not show to us until later, which included
reference to "other government hospitals"
receiving visit from "the same show" q
physical impossibility since the show was
only scheduled for two weeks and the paint
ings had to be returned to the painters,
galleries. ETC.. at the end Of that time. How
ever, from this. release the inference was
drawn that the Navy was backing the exhi-
bition. This was so far from the case that
the Navy was neither responsible for loss or
damage to the paintings, nor for their
transportation to the hospital The list Of
artists included in this release as "partici-
pating' was the list of artists we invited, all
OF whom did not accept my invitation and
consequently did not participate in the exhi-
bition. This original list was printed in the
January Is issue of The Art Digest, from
which Representative Dondero quoted, and
of the II artists mentioned by Representa-
tive Dondero as "left-wing' only partici-
pated. The artists who actually exhibited
are: Carroll Aument, Eugent Berman, Isa-
belt Case Borgatta. Robert Borgatta, Alex
ander Brook, Bertram Goodman, Robert
Gwathmey. Joseph Hirsch, Mimi Korach
Yasuo Kuniyoshi Reginald Marsh, William
Pachner. Augustus Peck. l. Rice Pereira.
Francois Des Pres, Mary Bruce Sharon, Max
SiSk, L. A. Williams and Sol Wilson.
would like to make it clear that neither
my wife nor I had any political motives in
putting on this exhibition. The artists in
vited, and those who accepted my invitation
and actually did participate, were chosen
because of their paintings not their politics,
and to show as many varieties of contem-
porary painting as possible The work
ranged from complete abstraction to realism
and was pretty good cross section of pres
ent styles. But whatever style these artists
work in does not have anything to do with
their political beliefs. The purpose of this
exhibition was two-fold; one, educational;
the other. therapeutic. We are profoundly
concerned by the number of forgotten men
who still lie in military hospitals throughout
the country. We are also deeply interested
in the spreading of art. Our exhibition, we
believed, helped to solve both of these prob
lens.
Hysterical and unfounded assertions such
as those of Congressman Dondero underline
the fact that in our world struggle against
communism it is all too easy to lose the free
dom which we are seeking to defend
CARROLL AUMENT.
Mr.. Wallace's Talk at Norwalk
To the Editor of The Star:
You carried in your columns recently a
story about Henry Wallace speaking over
radio station Wink in Norwalk, Conn. This
story told how the broadcast was slipped into
the church program unannounced by the
Methodist minister whose church was allott-
ed time for church services And the Nor
walk Ministerial Association approved of this
action, calling it "a courageous action on
behalf of free speech and Worship
AS news director of that radio station until
Just few weeks ago. would like to point
out few things to back up the attitude OF
the manager, DR.. Benjamin Ginzberg. who
labeled Mr.. Wallace's appearance as Trojan
horse tactics
Ever since WNLK went on the air, one
hour on Sunday has been given to the vari-
Gus churches in the area to carry their
religious services This has included all
branches of Protestant churches and Cath