American Realism Abroad

The exhibitions of U.S. abstract expressionist paintings on view at the Brussels World's Fair (TIME, June 16) and making the rounds of major European cities as "The New American Painting" show (TIME, Aug. 4), have aroused some ahs, some boos and a great deal of hullabaloo. Tourists, critics, even State Department officials have suggested that these works give a one-sided--and distorted--glance at the U.S. world of art. This week a new European show of American paintings is stressing another side--realism.

On loan from Manhattan's Whitney Museum, 22 realistic paintings (among them: works by Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Maurice Sterne, Reginald Marsh Charles Sheeler) are on view in the ancient French Riviera chateau fortress of La Napoule. Sponsored by the La Napoul( Art Foundation-Henry Clews Memorial the show, titled "American Realism in the Twentieth Century," is aimed at bringing Europe "another page of American art history." Said one U.S. cultural attache in France: "At last we have something to show Europeans besides abstract blotches and curlicues."

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