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d.c. gazette
November 8, 1972
Vol. IV NR. 3

14

ART
Equity show
ANDREA O. COHEN

IF art critics are not shredding their files, many are publicly apologizing for what New York Times critic John Canaday has called "the pretentious twaddle" that has characterized much of art criticism during the last ten years. Hopefully, as recent art is re-evaluated and freed of narrow elitist prejudices, a reappraisal will also be made of Washington art of the last decade. This would doubtless finally dispel that obvious piece of flummery which holds that the only art worth bothering with in Washington is hard-edged color field painting.

Testimony to the fact that Washington art includes ingredients other than the bars, stripes, chevrons and other insignia of the Color Schools, is found in the Washington Artists Equity Exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery through November 19. Artists Equity is a national, non-political, non-partisan organization, which was formed in 1947 to help professional artists resolve economic problems. According to Washington Chapter President, Marcella Comes, "the only collective identity of the 47 participants in this exhibit is their mutual desire to further their profession and earn respect for their professional achievements." Among the concrete achievements highlighted here are some which have so far received scant recognition. Moreover, the visitor to the Corcoran may overlook this show for the more flamboyant exhibition of tapestries by Sonia Delaunay or the lure of the second floor exhibition, "The Irish Imagination: 1959-1971." Those of us interested in Washington art, however, should give the Equity show closer attention, especially since it is the first group show of Washington artists to be shown at the Corcoran since 1967.

One's first impression here is of color, but not just the uniformly flat, unmodulated and pure color we associate with the Color School. Color is used here in as many ways as there are shades of difference between the exhibiting artists. Color is in the air in Washington, and is central to most everyone here who paints. Perhaps it's because the city is still full of open, unspoiled places, covered with trees and grass. Buildings are low. You can still see up to the sky. Or maybe color is in the air among painters just because, quite unconsciously, one absorbs it from another.

The only bonafide Color School artists among the exhibitors are printmaker Terry Parmalee and 78-year-old painter Alma Thomas, who had a retrospective exhibit at the Corcoran this fall after a solo show at the Whitney in New York last spring. Yet Ms. Thomas too is unorthodox. While accepting the principles of abstract painting, she has always used them to express the joy she derives from nature. She has never used masking tape, and puts on daubs of soft-edged, bright color in straight lines or a circle. Alma Thomas was the first graduate of Howard University's art department and taught art at Shaw Junior High for [[strikethrough]] 38 [[/strikethrough]] 35 years before retiring into painting full-time. Appropriately, she is represented in this show by a painting called "Springtime in Washington."


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Alma Thomas

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Nancy Cusick

A more etheral gladness is expressed in Nancy Cusick's warm-colored figure-like forms, cut from thin layers of tissue, arranged to look as though gently floating.

"October Here" by Anson Campbell is beautiful, totally abstract and highly evocative. It conveys the delicacy and quiet glow of this most ephermeral of seasons. A subtle burnt sienna painting with darts of orange light and spurts of black, "October Here" is a deceptively simple-looking painting.

Clare Ferriter's painting "Cock Fight" shows a distant relationship to Anson Campbell's and is also very successful.

A sharp contrast is provided by the startling movement of Frank Bunts' op-colored painting