Atlanta's Annual

Deep in Dixie--some five miles from Atlanta's best residential section--Negro coeducational Atlanta University this week made double news. The opening of its fourth annual art exhibition (the only U.S. show exclusively for Negroes) was a sociological as well as an artistic phenomenon.

The Atlanta Annual at first (1942) got a lukewarm reception from Atlanta's white citizens. Local newspapers paid it little or no attention. But a few of the city's strong-minded art lovers gave it a good hand. For one, burly Editor Ralph McGill offhandedly plugged the show in his Constitution (which believes in giving Southern Negroes at least their minimum constitutional rights). After several prominent whites had spoken at its opening ceremonies, the all-Negro Annual gradually became an Atlanta institution. Now one of the South's outstanding art events, it hands out $1,400 in prizes, tries to keep its show down to a carefully chosen group, this year rejected some 50 exhibitors.

The new collection of 82 paintings by 48 artists proved that there is a worthwhile U.S. Negro art. The canvases were strongly flavored with expressionism and romanticism, but most had a primitive quality peculiarly their own. Painted in savage splashes of purple, red, black and brown, many contained writhing, weaving forms which suggested the rhythm of a voodoo ritual. Favorite subject matter: Negroes. Favorite theme: racial consciousness and antagonism. Some outstanding samples:

African Youth, a sleek, Congo-inspired head of a wide-eyed Negro child (see cut) by Sculptor William Artis, now an Army sergeant.

Portrait of Clair, a sensitive, Mona Lisa-like, copper-colored girl (see cut), won the show's first prize ($300) for Boston Artist John Wilson.

Carter's Little Filling Station, a colorful, almost odorous roadside scene (see cut) by Pauline Clay, was strongly reminiscent of the loamy, lopsided landscapes of Thomas Hart Benton.

Two Girls (see cut), a lithograph by Margaret Goss of a blank-faced blond girl and a deadpan colored girl sitting side by side on a settee, was the high point in race-consciousness-with-humor.

In past years, Negroes have done all the buying of paintings (at one-third to one-half the price of comparable works in Manhattan galleries). At the Easter afternoon opening this year, Negro gallery-goers outnumbered whites by about 3-to-1. But one prospective white purchaser nibbled.

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