Exhibitions: International Watercolor Exhibition, 22nd Biennial

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  December 31, 1962: The relationships of styles and trends in contemporary art, as well as examples of more traditional work, will be illustrated in the 22nd International Watercolor Biennial at The Brooklyn Museum from February 19 through March 25,1963. Apart from the United States, the Exhibition will feature works from Sweden and Yugoslavia, neither of which has ever participated in the Watercolor Biennial since its beginning over 40 years ago.
  
  Mr. Axel von Saldern, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, travelled extensively through Sweden and Yugoslavia to make the selections which include works by younger painters as well as by established artists. “These two countries have been selected,” he said, “because they both show in their art fruitful and creative ideas that contrast favorably with those found in our own country.”
  
  The Exhibition will be open free of charge, and a catalogue, priced at 50 cents, is being published to accompany the show. The watercolors, with few exceptions are for sale at prices ranging from $50 to $3600.
  
  On February 18 from 9 to 11 p.m., there will be an invitational preview for the press, Museum members and their guests.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1953 - 1970. 1962, 077. View Original

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  February 19, 1963: New ideas and trends in the watercolor medium will be illustrated in the 22nd International Watercolor Biennial to be shown at The Brooklyn Museum from February 19 to April 28. This major exhibition includes 166 works by 132 living artists.
  
  As in previous years, two countries apart from the United States have been chosen to participate in the show. This year, Sweden and Yugoslavia have been selected, both for the first time since the inauguration of the series in 1921. “These two countries have been selected,” Mr. Axel von Saldern, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture states, “because they both show in their art fruitful and creative ideas that contrast favorably with those found in our own country. Without a long established tradition In this particular medium, they nevertheless demonstrate aptly the countless possibilities of expression inherent in the watercolor technique that are available to the creative artist.”
  
  In making his selection, Mr. von Saldern travelled extensively through Sweden and Yugoslavia. He visited the artistic centers of Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmoe in Sweden and worked closely with representatives of Swedish museums and cultural organizations. For the selection of recent watercolors in Yugoslavia, he went to Belgrad, Ljubljiana, Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Dubrovnik.
  
  Among the 31 Swedish artists represented in the exhibition with 46 works, are such famous masters as Sven Erixson, whose painting style is expressionistic and loose, Max Walter Svanberg creates fairy tale-like images of utmost complexity in his technical execution. Verner Molin’s work tells of the trolls and spirits that inhabit the country. Younger painters such as Carl Fredrik Reuterswaerd and Oeyvind Fahlstroem, who presently lives in New York, have found new ways of working in abstract and non-objective patterns that are strikingly convincing. A large group of equally young artists in Stockholm and Goteborg have further developed the images of the Hungarian born Endre Nemes whose abstract configurations are well represented in this Biennial.
  
  Included in the Yugoslavian section, comprising 31 artists with 50 works, is the noted primitive, Ivan Generalic. Painters of such renown as Milo Milunovic, Director of the Academy in Belgrad, and Milan Konjovic, the outstanding expressionistic artist living in Sombor near the Hungarian border, have their works displayed side by side with examples of artists of a younger generation. Slavko Maric, born in 1935, explores anew the possibilities of geometric abstraction while the already internationally well-known Mladen Srbinovic and Edo Murtic experiment in freer abstract styles.
  
  In the group of 70 artists chosen to represent the American scene, each with a single work, are painters like Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Philip Evergood, Joseph Hirsch, Larry Rivers, Karl Schrag and John von Wicht. Included also are sculptors Leonard Baskin, Alexander Calder, Chaim Gross and William Zorach.
  
  Among the younger artists are Benny Andrews of Atlanta, Georgia; Hilda Arp, a Brooklyn Housewife; Colette Bangert of Columbus, Ohio; Robert Freimark of Doster, Michigan; Sidney Goodman of Philadelphia; Ron Gorchov of Chicago; Paul Jenkins of Kansas City; Arthur Kern of New Orleans; and Robert Andrew Parker of Norfolk, Virginia.
  
  The Exhibition is open free of charge, and a catalogue, priced at 50 cents, has been published to accompany the show. The watercolors, with a few exceptions, are for sale at prices ranging from $50 to $3600.
  
  On February 18 from 9 to 11 p.m., there will be an invitational preview for the press, Museum members and their guests.

  Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1953 - 1970. 1963, 005-6. View Original 1 . View Original 2