Evening star., 1962-01-21
In its roughly concentric

o am. to pm; closed Sunday
In its roughly concentric
rings away from ground zero
Again, there is only a sim
gle splatter painting and it is
miles removed from the lush
ness Of jackson Pollock. Syl-
via Lukens' Vertigo" splat-
ters and scatters paint drop
pings about on raw canvas
pleasantly enough to JUSTIFY
a new category, "drip-dry''
paintings.
Artistic Order
But the lift and the bang
OF the show are in the sheer
assuredness of almost every
painting. With the possible
exception of Miss Lukens.
there Is not one bona fide
action painter represented,
While a large proportion of
the paintings is abstract, ev-
erything manifests a concern
with order. Artistic order is
perhaps more easily come by
through nature, but all of
the painters at the Corcoran
are profoundly involved with
order whether they see it in
one Of the many faces of real
ity or discover it solely in the
space Of the canvas as it gets
divided into areas of color
and shape.
Color itself is one of the
virtues of the regional paint
ers here on view and the
statement is not as redundr
ant as it may sound. The top
prize-winning painting, for
example, Chair" by Robert
Gates, does not compel be-
cause it is a reasonable re-
production in paint of an old
wicker chair.
It is that, Of course, and
much of the interest comes
from the play between COM
ponents Of the chair and
components of the painting.
More interest, though, comes
from the relationship be-
tween the form of the chair
and the space around it; and
still more comes from the
seemingly arbitrary color
scales the artist has inte-
grated with the weave of the
chair.
Controlled Lyricism
The two paintings are COM
pletely different, but a SINH
lar attraction exists in Leon
are Maurer's Museum Case
No. g." The subject is three
or four vessels in such a case.
They are seen close to. The
case itself is not seen. The
vessels palpitate in glowing
color, intricately composed
and affecting the air around
the vessels and the base on
which they stand as well as
the objects themselves. Like
so many pictures in the show,
this painting is masterful,
made with total control and
through that control achiev-
ing a lyric splendor seeming
ly far removed from the very
notion of control.
Or consider Arthur Hall
Smiths "Solar Requiem"
This large picture received
Miss Breeskin's painting
award. Interpret the title as
you will, it does fit the pre-
dominantly dark work. The
dark, however, is structured
and the structure is tighten
ed by modulated color, rich
reds on the bottom, through
blues to black, white and
grays along the edge of the
solar disk or the horizon
which is the top. The paint
ing is beautifully done, COM
pletely abstract and finally
very moving to look at.
There are literally dozens of
other paintings in the show
which, in their different ways,
are equally effective. Some
have been exhibited here in
recent months, such as Theo-
dore Kliros's passionate "Ag-
incourt," Jacob Kainen's poet
ic portrait of an artist, Joan
Erbe's Apocalypse" Helen
Rennie'S dashing "McMurdo"
and Thea Winger's gently
haunting "Winterreise."
New Depths
Others are new, at least to
one fairly faithful viewer,
and all have the quality of
newness. If you have seen
them before, they reveal new
depths from being in so large
a company of their peers.
Lowell Nesbitt's Waterfall"
seems to be a somewhat new
departure for the artist, a.
combination of a solid alb
Straction of the subject with
a pattern Of bright rectan-
giles. Among those concerned
with the meaning of a place
are Herman Maril and Will
liam Walton. The formers
seaside scene creates a flat
nakfny.Ia AYYh l..