The People's Choice

The public, which may not know much about art but knows what it likes, had two chances to show its taste last week. One chance was at Manhattan's Downtown Gallery. Mrs. Edith Gregor Halpert, who runs the gallery, knew that famed paintings do not always sell, wondered why.

She got together seven highly rated paintings by well-known American painters (Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Peter Blume, Bernard Karfiol, Julian Levi, Katherine Schmidt, Charles Sheeler, Niles Spencer) that had never found a buyer.

Mrs. Halpert called her exhibition What Is Wrong With This Picture?, invited gallery-goers to fill out a questionnaire telling what they thought was wrong with each one. No two gallery-goers agreed. Of the Kuniyoshi one amateur critic wrote: "Feeling of left thigh seems vulgar"; another: "I do not like the position of the figure, nor the color of the flesh."

On the other chance to show its taste the public did better. This one was a show at the Guild Artists Bureau, Manhattan's main clearing house for advertising and magazine-cover art. The Bureau's President George Baker was quite sure there was nothing wrong with his pictures. They were all pictures of beautiful women, some by leading U.S. illustrators.

Mr. Baker called his show a sexhibition, invited visitors to cast their ballots for winners in the following categories: 1) Best company on a desert island, 2) Best company on a desert, 3) Best company, 4) Best, 5) Whew!!! By the time the show closed the visitors had voted a curvilinear nude by free-lance advertising Artist Harvey T. Dunn winner in all five categories.

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