Kenneth Stubbs
(American artist, 1907-1967)

photograph of the artist
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In exhibiting the works of Washington's Kenneth Stubbs, the George Washington University Library renders a signal service to the discriminating collector. For here is a sure fire investment to suit any taste.

While the exhibit itself is a small one, it is representative of many years of masterly work and is by far the best group of his work we've seen yet.

The slight, sandy-haired Corcoran Art School faculty member has accomplished much during the past two years -- a prodigious output when compared with his previous effort. This is all the more amazing when one considers that in addition to his teaching and painting, he plans and writes educational films and is presently writing a motion picture script.

If this fine work is any example, we're anxious to see what Mr. Stubbs considers his best -- as he is holding these out for the season's big shows. We have a feeling they will follow the trend of his "Seaside Holiday" and "The Dance," which we feel is the beginning of something that will add to modern painting.

Altho complexly angular and intellectual, they are full of music. Best described, they reveal the long rehearsal, yet overpower you with their sound. The adventurous-minded viewer is left with the remembrance of something rare. Perhaps this is due to the infinite space in these two pictures.

His watercolors, the favorite of the average observer, are reflections of the good times he and his wife had in Europe in 1949, when they spent eight months touring Italy and France and studying Italian Renaissance art and sketching.

Be sure not to miss the drawing of the "Old Franklin Stove" and "After Several Dinners." Rendered in such a masterly way, they are as precious and durable as old Irish Lace.

Indicative of his humor is the case of "Hors D'Ouevres," as he calls them -- preliminary color and ink sketches and a drawing of Tarrasch, the famed chess man. Stubbs is a man who can laugh -- and, believe me, really paint.

Gladys Harrison, Washington Times Herald, October 14, 1951, page 5M