Evening star., 1950-10-01

The Workshop Center of the
Arts inaugurated its fall season
yesterday with three exhibitions
which will remain only through
next Thursday. Foremost is a
show from the Museum of Modern
Art, New York City. of II paint
ings of the sea by Goth century
European and American artists
who have depicted the sea itself,
life on the beach and under water.
The paintings represent eight
nationalities and various trends
characteristic of contemporary
painting. H.
The impact of the sea on the
sensibilities of artists of different
countries as well as temperaments,
all of them strongly individual,
has produced a group of paintings
of considerable variety. Some
were painted as long ago as World
War I, others as recently as last
year. Visual aspects. moods, pre-
occupation with isolated details,
emphasis on pattern or color, all
embroider the theme with varia-
tions.
One Of the most engaging works
is Henri Matisse's Interior With
Violin Case" overlooking a sea
warmly blue under a bright sun,
which makes patterns of light
through a balcony railing. Painted
in 1917, it is colorful and eloquent
of summer days in a carefree
place.
% Picasso's Sea.
PicasSo's women by the Sea"
(girls playing ball on a beach,
emphasizes patterned areas of fiat
color and anatomies rearranged
in such a way as to induce apo
plexy in people who visualize this
sort of subject in terms of the
Miss America" contest.
A somber mood is dominant in
Max Beckmann's "Scheveningen, I"
with its deep Prussian blue sea
Illuminated with orange. Ele-
mental loneliness of sea and shore
pervades John Piper's Cliff at
Polperro." John Marin's Rocks
and Sea, Maine" has the rugged
ness of New England in it's toneful
colors and rough shapes.
Andre Mason gave his beach
scene abstraction the material
authenticity of real sand added to
the oil paint. An abstraction by
Kurt Roesch. painted in warm
orange. brown, yellow and earth
red suggests autumn to me, not
the seashore. It has a few boat
and fish-shaped forms, but with
out the title. I doubt if these
would register as part of a
nautical subject.
Familiar Subjects.
Several paintings stress the ap-
pearances Of the subjects. as they
would seem familiar to the av-
erage person, with added over
tones from the artists more
penetrating observations. They
include Edward Hopper's large
painting (owned by the Corcoran
Gallery of people in a small sail
ing vessel on a vast expanse of
cottony blue ocean. Walter Stu
empf1g's, Cape May with its
bathers and flimsy, garish build
ings at the waters edge, and
Leonid's far-reaching Shrimp
Fishermen" seen from a height.
The second show. composed of
large color reproductions. is also
from the Museum of Modern Art:
18th Century Leaders of Modern
Painting from Courbet and Corot
to the Post Impressionists.'
The third exhibition presents
recent work by eight Washington
artists on the Workshop faculty:
Jack Perlmutter. Jacob Kainen,
Marguerite Burgess, Laura Doug.
las, Ernest Lothar, Ben Abramo-
witz, Lucille Evans and Norma
Mazo.
These exhibitions may be seen
from to 5 daily.
The American Federation of
Arts, with headquarters in Wash
ington, is the oldest of a number
of organizations which send ex-
hibitions on tour throughout the
United States and abroad, having
inaugurated such a service In its