Evening star., 1950-01-22
Art and Artists
Fine Portraits by Kortheuer and Johnson
Please Lovers of Traditional Fare
By Florence S. Berrymon


the Massachusetts Women's Re-
publican Club.
Mr.. Kortheuer, a native New
Yorker, who studied art at the
National Academy and the Art
Students League, went to Cali
fornia in the mid sos for 9
brief sojourn. then moved to
Charlotte, N. c., for nearly a dec
ade. painting portraits and teach
ing at the Mint Museum. In l948
he opened a studio in Boston,
which is now his home.
&*
Old GEORGETOWN
A memorial exhibition of paint
ings by Wynne Johnson. long a
Washington artist and member
of the Arts Club, who died in 194s
in his mid-50s, fills the Arts Clubs
gallery. The show of 20 works
mostly oils, is a retrospective
ranging from portraits he painted
soon after completing his art edu-
cation, to distractions done in his
last year.
Born in Richmond, Mr.. Johnson
studied at the Corcoran School of
Art, later at the National Acad-
emy. He became chief of the Sec
ton of illustrations, Division of
Information in the Agriculture
Department. He exhibited with
the Society of Washington Artists,
and the Landscape Club, also in
the Corcoran Biennial.
He liked especially to paint the
old houses of Georgetown, the
canal and other landmarks. 1t is
said that friends were convinced
that when Mr.. Johnson painted
an old house, it was an infallible
sign that the building was soon
to be torn down or remodeled
and that it usually was.
The paintings are simplified
and some have a poster-like fat
ness of surface. The buildings are
not distorted, however, and visi-
tors will find the pleasure of recog-
milton strong in them. There is a
particularly good water color of
the gate house at Oak Hill; a
sunny glimpse of Harper's Ferry,
and a contrastingly bleak and
lonely House on Cherry Hill"
romantic in mood.
y
Art and Industry
American induStry'S patronage
of art during the 1940's was suffi-
GENTLY extensive to arouse hopes
in some quarters, that business
would take the place occupied in
former centuries by royalty and
nobility. the church and wealthy
collectors. For reasons too numer-
Gus to list here, there has been a
noticeable drop in industrial pa
tronage, in the past year or two.
But the results of earlier business
and art connections are still being
displayed to the public, and may
eventually, one hopes. spark a new
movement along similar lines.
An exhibition Of documentary
oil paintings, water colors and
drawings, from the collection Of
Standard Oil Co. (New Jer-
sey), on view through January at
Howard University Gallery Of Art,
portrays the far flung activities of
this essential industry. The ex-
hibits depict the production. re-
f1ning and transportation of oil
and its uses from the arctic to the
tropics. Fifteen American artists
most of them nationally famous
were given complete freedom to
interpret their assignments as
they pleased. The project began
in 1914, and the collection has
been shown at museum and uni
versity galleries throughout the
United States and Canada.
AS is the case in many other
tie-upS between art and industry
some artists manage to record
their subjects in pictures with
esthetic quality, possessing values
apart. from being mere records
Other artists are unable to get
away from the merely illustrative
However technically competent
their interpretations have no last
ing appeal.
X u X X
After the Mouse
Bewilderment will probably be
the chief reaction of most laymer
to the exhibition of Is paintings
by Jack Tworkov at the Whyte
Gallery through January. This