QUESTION MARKS IN COLOR

With science pretty much out of this world, and politics "in the realm of surrealism and fantasy, doesn't modern art loom large as a most real and reasonable, concrete and most reputable human activity?" demanded U.S. Abstractionist Ad Reinhardt. No. 15 (opposite) is one of Reinhardt's more seeable creations: usually his colors merge and vibrate so elusively as to cause eyestrain. The 9-ft.-high canvas is also a standout exhibit at what may be the most provocative art show now hanging: "Acquisitions 1957-58" at the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo.

Under the guidance of Director Gordon Smith, the Albright is energetically pursuing a policy of buying the quick instead of the dead, the controversial instead of the safe. If, as seems likely, abstract expressionism establishes itself as the most vital painting of the period, the Albright will become a No. 1 center for serious students of the age and its art.

For most present visitors, the Albright's latest exhibition remains a monumental procession of question marks in color. Hans Hartung's T 55-28 has airy life about it, yet hardly seems to justify Expert Alfred Barr's considered statement that Hartung, 54, a German turned Parisian, is "perhaps the best master of calligraphic abstraction." In 3 Avril 54, Pierre Soulages' black, plank-broad oil smears do not seem a great advance over the similar smears that first brought him attention a decade ago. Donald Hamilton Eraser's Morning Star offers at least a tenuous contact with nature: it seems to represent the crumpled ghost of a sailing ship plowing icy seas into the dawn. Michael Goldberg's Summer House looks more like a frost-adorned window in the dead of a winter night, reflecting firelight against the dark outside.

Apologists for abstract painting like to warn against reading too much into such pictures. They are supposed to be seen "purely as paintings." This is like asking people not to daydream at concerts. Whether it be "pure" or merely obscure, whether "pioneering" or just playing, abstract-expressionism is something to dream and wonder over.

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