Kenneth Stubbs
(American artist, 1907-1967)

Exhibition by Ten Washington Artists in Armed Services

Ten Washington artists now in the armed service are holding an exhibition in the gallery of the Arts Club during January. The majority of the 15 works shown are not, however, of war scenes but of those witnessed in peacetime before the onslaught on Pearl Harbor disrupted normal life.

Chief among the artists contributing is Comdr. Charles Bittinger, head of the Navy's Camouflage Section Bureau of Ships, with whom are serving Everett Warner, Eliot O'Hara and others equally well-known.

Commander Bittinger is represented by a large painting, done some years ago, of the "Library of the University Club, New York"--a detailed rendering of a handsome interior so realistic that the observer may feel he is actually standing in the room. Everett Warner has contributed one of his excellent paintings of industrial subjects, "The Viaduct." Eliot O'Hara shows "P. Street Bridge," a water color done on wet paper and radically simplified.

Sheffield Key, another of the same group, has two canvases on display, a quiet, peaceful "Georgetown View" and a landscape "Somewhere in Virginia," while William F. Walters, likewise of the Navy contingent, exhibits "Rock Creek Bridge," a familiar subject in oils, effective and realistic in rendering

Lt. (j. g.) Mitchell Jamieson was one of four young painters commissioned by the Navy Department in 1942, as officers-artists, to be sent to sea to record incidents in the combat areas. He has two works in the current exhibition, a water color "Storm Clouds," "Oran" and a pen and gouache drawing, "Sunday Morning at Sea"--the latter especially noteworthy because of the vividness with which the scene is transcribed--iron-red ink lines overlaying a composition in black, white and gray. Kenneth Stubbs', seaman, first class, paintings reveal his versatility. His oil portrait of "Catherine" depicts a meditative young woman, of warm coloring, leaning upon a table covered with a red cloth, against a cool background in which a ruined arcade gives a surrealistic flavor. His other painting is a high-keyed water color, "Old Wharf," done with a delicate tinge of cubism.

Sergt. Oke Nordgren has two landscapes, one of them called "Section Hands." Both show lonely stretches of beautiful country and have a feeling of peace and quietude. Pvt. Gustav Trois' "Summer Landscape" depicts a humble house in the woods and is painted predominantly in fresh light green.

Pvt. Jack Berkman's two oils are the most modern paintings in the exhibition. One is a protrait of his wife, the other an arresting study of musicians called "Marijuana," referring presumably to the drug some swing players are said to smoke in order to obtain mad tempos generally beyond the reach of a normal performer. At any rate, Pvt. Berkman has captured the sultry frenzied essence of such music in his distorted little group crowded around their instruments. It is very effective.

A one-man show by Pietro Lazzari occupies the Arts Club's reception and dining rooms. Several flower paintings in tempera were shown in his solo exhibition at hte Whyte Gallery in November. The majority of works in the present display are large outline pen drawings, some of them done as recently as New Year Day.

Florence S. Berryman, Washington Star, January 9, 1944, page C-6