Patchwork Pioneers

Tulsa's First National Bank is not only well-heeled (resources: $193,879,821), but stylish; it boasts a new $6,000,000 building at Fifth and Boston Streets that is as modern as any in the U.S. Last week it was on the way to getting a mural modern enough to match the building. The bank had asked museums in seven states to recommend muralists for the job, then arranged a jury contest to decide which of the chosen artists should have it. Four finalists, Fred Conway, Peter Kurd, Anton Refregier and Clarence van Duzer, were paid $1,500 each to submit sketches celebrating the Oklahoma land rush. Conway, the most abstract of the lot, last week got the nod--and a lavish additional $25,000.

Conway, who teaches art in St. Louis' Washington University, is an old hand at winning contests; at 50 he has taken three Pepsi-Cola awards as well as the top prize in last year's Hallmark Christmas-card competition (TIME, Dec. 19). The land-rushers in Conway's Tulsa mural were creased into a pastel-shaded composition that looked rather like a patchwork quilt. Like his previous works, it was a tricky, involved and highly original design, decorative though not in the least moving.

The sketches of all four finalists had been exhibited in Tulsa's Philbrook Art Center, and Peter Kurd's frankly illustrative entry had proved the most popular. In picking Conway for the job, the jury voiced a fear that the public might not approve its choice, felt called upon to point out that Conway's work was "in no way modernistic, though distinctly modern."

At week's end, culture-conscious Tulsans seemed to be well pleased with the jury's choice. "At least," remarked one young art lover with a shrug of her mutation mink, "the picture doesn't make us look dead and as if we'd been running too long with the Joad family."

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