Evening star., 1960-01-05
Defend Corcoron

The Corcoran Gallery OF
Art has been an important
center Of creative activity in
the fine arts in this commu-
nifty for many decades. 1t is
disturbing to friends Of the
Gallery to see 1t attacked in
q scurrilous manner without
any justification. I am refer
ring to q letter that appeared
in The Washington Star on
December 80 by Francis c.
Peters Of the American Arts
League. His letter implies
that the Gallery and its
director are somehow trying
to dictate the taste in art,
are seeking to prevent COM
petent artists from having
their works displayed in
public and are encouraging
a degenerate art form.
A list Of the artists who
have been selected to jury
the Washington Area shows
over the last few years should
be sufficient evidence that
Mr.. Peters is talking through
his hat. The works exhibited
in the shows have been Sc
lected by nationally known
artists Of great competence
whose work and tastes
embrace an extremely wide
range Of styles and subjects.
These jurors include Lamar
Dodd. George Grosz, Nikolai
Cikovsky. Andrew Wyeth,
Karl Knath, Xavier Gonzales,
Robert Brakeman, Mitchell
Jameson and Jack Levine.
Only one or two Of these men
might be classed as an ex-
treme moderniSt. One Of
them. Andrew Wyeth, is a
realist; one, Robert Brack-
man, is a portraitist; and two
of them, George Grosz and
Jack Levine, are satirists. It
is plain for any fair-minded
person to see that the man
agement Of the Corcoran
Gallery has made q sincere
effort to make the selection
OF works as universal as
possible.
! suspect that II some
artists in Washington do not
submit their work to the
area shows it is because they
are indeed out Of step with
the times. because they are
too precious to have their
works compared, or feel
otherwise insecure. There are
many first rate artists in the
area who regularly submit
works to the area shows
regardless Of who is the juror.
Many of them get in the
shows regularly.
The public, as well as the
artists Of the Washington
area, should be grateful to
the management of the Cor
coran Gallery for its success
full efforts in the past years
to stimulate the creative
efforts Of local artists in the
widest possible range Of taste
and style. 1t is to the credit
Of the Gallery that it has not
yielded to the dictates and
pleadings Of special groups,
and that 1t realizes that 1t
must be the artists them
selves who create the fashion
in painting not the critics,
not the public. not the gal
leries, and not organized
groups Of self-styled profess
sional artists.
Clare Ferriter.
In his letter to The Evening
Star Of December 20, Francis
c. Peters, President Of the
American Art League, Inc,
compares the Corcoran's An
nual Area Exhibition to the
Metropolitan Art Exhibition
(Which he presumably helped
organize). Whereas, in his
words, the Corcoran Area
Exhibition sacrifices first
rate competent artists to the
altar Of questionable novelty.
giantism, and eroticism." the
Metropolitan Art Exhibition
was beautifully balanced :.
with tribute to all partic-
ipants and malice to none.
Mr.. Peters furthermore re-
commends that the Corcoran
select works Of art based on
quality and fine standards Of
painting which have stood the
test Of time"
Ultimately the selection Of
works for such exhibitions is
made not by the organizers
but by q jury consisting Of
one or more experts that are
attempting to be impartial.
In the case of the Fourteenth
Annual Area Exhibition, with
which Mr.. Peters seems to be
so dissatisfied, 1t is unlikely
that the Jury bore malice"
towards any exhibitor, or at
tempted to do anything but
select works of art based on