Evening star., 1963-01-20
ARTS AND ARTISTS
18th BiennioI of American
Pointing at Corcoron Gallery

is mere aimless doodling with
the same old flaps. Almost
every one has a black paint
swatch on it, apparently
sprayed, but the flaps are
more loosely arranged and
they do not begin to cover
the whole surface. AS a re-
suit, whatever urgency the
artist was once able to con-
vey vanishes completely and
we are watching the result
of half-interested play with
canvas flaps.
On this level, or perhaps
a step below it, you find
Mr.. Marca -Relli's and Mr..
Smiths choice for first prize,
Thursday" by Jack Twor-
kov. Two large green areas
are painted over with a loose,
bright red grid, sloped a bit
toward the right. Maybe it
meant something a decade
ago; it could have meant,
for instance, an artists de-
light at painting nothing but
paint. Today it suggests only
an artist painting nothing
but paintings of nothing but
paint and there's a world Of
difference between the two
things.
Requiem
Whatever the artists per-
sonal intent in the title,
there is something appropri-
ate about Grace Hartigan's
use of Requiem" for her
quiet abstraction in predomi-
nantly purple tones. The re-
QUEEN Is for the whole move
ment of what was advanced
in the 1950s. It's retrograde
today and the life has gone
out of it. 1t is a decided
sign of hope that Miss Harti-
gan, one of the younger ad-
vance painters in the last
decade, is now moving back
toward an early manner of
hers based on piles of fruit
and vegetables at the green
grocer's. Requiem" has a
firmness and order too long
missing from her work.
With Miss Hartigan's with
drawal from the advance, we
begin to discover the
strengths Of the exhibition.
For the Biennial is by no
means merely the record Of
the last grasp of abstract
expressionism.
No Successor
The show does not reveal
what comes next" in the
whirligig of art fashion, prob
ably because nothing does.
There isn't any successor"
to action painting. The
merry-go-round has broken
down and high time, too.
Pop Art" this seasons New
York nominee for heir ap-
parent, didn't make the
Biennial at all. What is re-
vealed is quite a few painters
concerned with their art as
an art, not solely as a per-
sonal expression, concerned
with canvas as the ground
for a picture to be created.
not as IAN arena in which
to act" AS you might ex-
pect. a lot of the best stuff
in the show is by artists
who we're making pictures all
along, even when 1t was OBJ
solete.
"A Woman in the Sun" by
Edward Hopper. for example.
is a picture the artist has
painted several times
through the years: A nude
woman stands at her bed
looking toward a flood Of
light coming in from an un-
seen window. The light makes
a horizontal swathe across
the floor, bathes her body.
Light glistens also along the
sill Of second window, on a
hilltop seen through that
rear window. and pulsates In
the far blue sky. The woman.
caught at the intersection Of
these. two bands of light,
is the loneliest creature on
Gods earth. Hopper is not a
suave painter and the harsh
ness Of his paint application
emphasizes the harshness
Of the sun, looked to for hope
In the morning.
Night Figures
Then there is a monu-
mental painting by Rico Le-
brun, happily purchased by
the Friends Of the Corcoran
as their gift TO the Gallery.
The figures of might Fig
ures" are two headleSs, arm
les presences, looming out OF
darkness that glows here and
there with unidentified
lights. The giant seated
forms are at once ancient