Evening star., 1961-11-12

especially gratifying to the a
since it more or less coincide
a prominent art evangelist
whose gospel is simply. out.
side Abstract ExpressioniSm.
no salvation"
AS good a place to start
as any in pursuing this new
direction of intelligibility. is
at the Phillips Collection.
which has just put up an
exhibition of early Paint
ings by Baltimore and Wash
ington Artists from the per-
manent> collection. While a
couple of the early paintings
are early 1860. a date one
would have thought rather
late, the show as a whole
provides e background for the
city-wide trend of communi-
cation in art. The median
date is somewhere in the late
thirties or early forties and
the exhibition thus demon
strates what we cannot hear
too often, American painting
really did exist before Jack
son Pollock and his numer-
Gus solitary discoverers.
The show also demon
strates anew that Duncan
Phillips has an eye like a
pool shark. This has long
been evident in top flight
French and American paint
ing. 1t is just as true Of re-
gional work selected within
the last rs years. a much
more difficult field in which
to have the unerring taste Of
this exhibition.
Then And Now
There is some value is COM
pairing then and now in
painters you know. but ac-
tually the best thing to do
with the show is look at the
pictures and relize again that
admirable things were being
done some years back. Jack
Perlmutter's 1916 painting,
Entering the subway"
rushes you down the tracks
and into the dark. at the
same time noting the broad
bright planes Of city daylight.
Ben Summerford's The Blue
Bottle" is a large arrange
ment of interior planes, all
dimmed down, around the
title object which visually
bounces out of the picture.
From 1948, Marshall, Goch-
nauer's Appalachian" re-
calls how American artists
could once use "assemblage"
for formal art purposes. A
surface Of dark colored sand
suggests both the shapes of
mountains, complete with
moon coming over, and the
land itself seen by a walker.
A few strips Of weathered
wood and some pebbles add
cabin and walk.
A constant in the show Is
interest in and control of
paint surfaces, but this is al
ways integrated with fully
developed composition and
often with interest in subject
as we'll. Richard Miller's
"Eggbeater and Urn" has a
richly varied surface, a
strong composition and is
still an effective still life.
Herman Maril's Coal" 1885,
fits in with the general So
cial awareness of that year.
Two women are picking up
waste coal in a child's wag-
on; but the social message
is transcribed and raised to
a different level-and at the
same time enforced - by the
large planes Of sky, land and
buildings against which the
women scavenge.
James McLaughlin's Win
dow Shelves" 1943, poses in
terror signs of hope, such as
fruit and growing plants,
against a grubby city street,
but the idea of hope is most
fully expressed In the light
coming from between clouds,
all carried by carefully tex
tured paint.
Some of the loveliest paint
ing goes on in small and un-
pretentiouS works, Edith
Richmond's Barn" and Sa-
rah Bakers Strawberries and
Peaches. Both pictures make
sensitive use of paint surface
to bring out the essence of
the subject.
Freedom Rings Anew
In short, the exhibition
shows the freedom American
art used to have to look at
something other than itself.
1t is very good news that
freedom is returning. The