Pittsburgh's 28th

With usual fanfare, the 28th annual Carnegie Institute International Exhibition of Paintings opened last week in Pittsburgh. On Founder's Day the afternoon before the doors were opened to the public, prize winners were announced. By that time the jury had dispersed. Painters and critics, never much pleased at Carnegie juries' selections, began to snarl, declaring that the canvases were picked by admen and suitable only for reproduction in Sunday supplements. This year no great name was accorded a prize. The first award was won by Felice Carena of Italy, whose picture The Studio was largest in the exhibition. It depicts the interior of an Italian atelier as it probably never appeared. Although it is oldfashioned, shrewd critics observed its prize-winning attributes--size, arresting subject matter, the "important-work" appearance of a tour de force. Felice Carena, little known in the U. S., is an officially recognized painter in Italy, an instructor in Florence's Academia di Belle Arte. He was born in Turin in 1880 and studied largely by himself. His painting has traversed the usual "periods," Romantic, Classic, Modern. The Studio, though recent, gives little hint of his later manner. First prize at Carnegie is $1,500. But this year a special prize of $2,000 was donated by Albert Carl Lehman, Pittsburgh steel man, for the best purchasable painting. Painter Carena also won this prize, and his picture was bought by Donor Lehman. William J. Glackens, U. S. painter and illustrator, won the second prize ($1,000). His Bathers, Ile Adam, hot in color and thin in texture, is composed in a lively, anecdotal manner. Georges Dufrenoy. French conservative, won third prize ($500) for a richly colored, rather thickly painted still life of brocade, a vase, a fiddle. Paris painters, recalling Carnegie's previous recognition of more salient French painters (first prize, 1927, to Henri Matisse; first prize, 1928, to Andre Derain) were considerably puzzled by this award. Edward Bruce painted an Italian pear tree, leafless, in full blossom. This canvas won first honorable mention and $300. Meticulously Painter Bruce had picked out each bud against a leaden sky, producing a pleasant, symmetrically composed picture, eclectic, Japanesque. It is not particularly remarkable, but Edward Bruce has not long been a painter. U. S. merchant, banker, lawyer, he quit business in 1922, aged 43, and retired to Italy to study under U. S. Painter Maurice Sterne, who was a member of this year's jury of award. Conspicuously absent from the exhibition are the works of greatly famed artists. Among the well known names represented were: Sir John Lavery, who paints interiors, genre and Lady Lavery; Jean Louis Forain, famed French satirist; Bernard Boutet de Monvel, chic portraitist, one-time fashion artist for Publisher Conde Nast (Vogue, Vanity Fair). Many of the painters are hitherto unknown to the U. S. One of them--Mme. Tamara de Lempicka --attracted much attention with her monotone grey Portrait of Doctor B(oucard), as meticulously drawn as a machine design. Mme. de Lempicka is a Polish woman who lives in Paris.