THE SUNDAY STAR, Could the Washington,® D. C. League SUNDAY. APRIL «. 1982 C-5 Books in Review Os Nations Have ¦ Shelby Foote's Novel Woven Around Preserved Peace? Art A HISTORY OF THE Battle of Shiloh Wins High Praise LEAGUE OF NATIONS Washingtonians SHILOH v By F. P. Walters. (Oxford; two By Shelby Foote. (Dial; $2.75.) vols., $11.50.) Win Art Awards Reviewed by Carter Brooke Jones Reviewed by Francis P. Douglas In Maryland Show One of history’s It was on a Sunday, too, thoughts as if the omnipotent unsolved—- By Florence S. Berryman exactly 90 years ago. that one God and unsolvable—riddle is: If were recording them. the For the first time in the his- of the decisive battles of the There are long flashbacks, United States had been a no member of the tory of Maryland annuals, Civil War began. and there is no effort to develop League of Na- tions would War n Washington artists were invited Tomorrow, on the any character fully, and yet a World have anniver- been prevented. to submit their works to the sary of the second and final day surprisingly good idea of what twentieth, opens these emerges Mr. Walters, formerly deputy which this of the battle, “Shiloh,” an im- men were like afternoon in the Baltimore Mu- pressive novel woven around from the sketches. Beyond that, secretary general of the League, seum Art. despite does not give an answer. But of Consequently, the costly fight, is being pub- the diffused and iso- many of our most active artists he does give a and lished. lated descriptions, we have at clear bal- are represented in the show, the end a anced account of what the Because of the plethora of remarkable grasp of and a large number have re- what happened to the league accomplished and where- recent writings about what armies. ceived awards. Not a few Faithful to in it failed. The reader may History. “Washington” artists, < m many Southerners still insist on form his own judgment of course, calling War the whether Maryland m the Between We learn from Johnston's aide we made a mistake in holding have addresses. States, I in play- of the general’s plan destroy One and ten paint- feel tempted, to aloof. Mr. Walters goes only so hundred Gran’t ings, 15 pieces jjß SRjk m J ,, ing up another book on the army at Pittsburgh far as to say the abandonment of sculpture and subject, to say: Here we go Landing, driving it into the of the league by the United 15 drawings and prints, com- has River, before pose of again. And yet no one who Tennessee Buell, Nations was a blow whose ef- one the largest local writing with an army equal size, a feeling for sensitive of fects can scarcely be overesti- exhibitions held in Baltimore and for the imaginative color- could reach that point in Mis- —Bern Keating Photo. mated. in recent years. It was selected ing of the black-and-white sissippi. The Confederate lead- SHELBY FOOTE, by a New York jury: John I. H. overlook er in surprising Grant The league’s achievements outlines of history can succeeded Author of "Shiloh." were Baur, curator of painting and this novel. and the first day the Union many—including settle- sculpture at the Brooklyn Mu- mam: is ment of the Anglo-Iranian oil Mr. is a Mississippian forces were driven in wild con- seum; Robert Gwathmey, paint- Foote fusion. But Johnston dispute of 1933. The major great - grandfather was er. and Minna Harkavy, sculp- and his breakdown came with the fail- fought with the Confederates fatally wounded, and the strate- Mr. Whyte Sounds Off on American tor. gist Beauregard, who took ure to halt Italian aggression at Shiloh. But you’d never over, First prize went to John up against Ethiopia. The infamous Chapman Portrait Mrs. Thornton W. Owen, painted by know that if the publisher didn’t did not follow the attack. Big Business and Its Big Red Devils Lewis for his “Red of Bruno Beran, Unfortunately the Hoare-Laval agreement, truck- recently shown at Galleries, Group tell you. There is nothing par- for Southern- IS ANYBODY LISTENING? Nets,” a well-organized com- IFA in Portrait Exhibition. Buell night ling to Mussolini, torpedoed the position A one-man by or sectional in his con- ers, arrived that and By William (Simon of deep reds and vi- show Mr. Beran will open this afternoon at the tisan his troops crossed the Tennes- H. Whyte, jr. <6 Schuster; $3.) program of sanctions which had ception of the battle and its brant blues with well-placed New Georgetown Gallery. see and attacked at dawn. The by promised well. The ultimate re- w'hite effect on various men. The Reviewed Mary McGrory sult, areas, representative of Confederate threat to the whole according to Mr. Walters, the work by fictional characters through Most people who find life dull European intellectuals have was a go-ahead which he is well express their emotions, the foreground, West was ended. How these signal to Hitler. known in District exhibitions. reac- joined by lush whose eyes the two fateful days or enterprise just tended to think of us and Russia tions, personal feelings, green. events sifted down to soldiers stifled sound Our Failure. Herman Maril’s in are viewed are both Confeder- as “two technocracies that think “Family Group” forms invented, or here and there is brought out off against a swollen, man-eat- The reader probably will con- received top derived from In contrast to these, it seems ates and Federals—if anything, themselves antagonists (and) the second award. their private vision. other from Metcalf, from Capt. Foun- ing Not clude that had the United States artist is In to me Mr. Stamos’ paintings, there are more on the Union Federal Government. are dragging in the This Baltimore also words, they speak personal tain, adjutant of the 53d Ohio; humanity as a member given sup- a with their amorphous shapes side. so Mr. Whyte. same direction of all-out familiar to Washington gallery language with almost Pvt. Dade, rifleman of the 6th dehumaniza- port to the sanctions against visitors. as many and misty merging colors, ap- Over Every Scene. From the tion.” It's not so surprising “dialects” as there are artists. Mississippi, and others. The Italy they almost certainly would Other Washington pear thin and flat. Two of Actually the battle itself is rather unex- when you read Mr. Whyte’s artists to This adds up to author has been faithful to pected have been successful. But that win awards included Reuben a tough them, “Garden in Athens" and the author’s protagonist. It source H chilling chapters on corporation proposition for the average lay- history—he has embellished it of Fortune presupposes that not only would Kramer for his bronze, “Wom- “Altar” should have their titles hovers over every scene, some- without ¦ B wives. “We can control a man's have been man to cope with. One can changed. distortion. magazine environment in we a member but, in an in Chair”; Frank Yee, gran- Each painting would times in full fury, sometimes This is Mr. Foote’s fourth business and we the face of hardly blame him for finding carry comes his in- Wh lose it entirely when he isolation sentiment, ite sculpture, “Mother and Son”; more conviction with the at a menacing lull, affecting novel. “Shiloh” deserves to rank 'lf crosses a co-operative and not this sort of painting so much other’s title. telligent in- the threshold of his home,” an a reluct- Jack Perlmutter, abstract every move and every memory as one of our distinctive stories dLJt U ant one. esthetic gibberish. Thinking of Mr. Lippold’s are It’s as if diet me nt of executive moaned to him. That’s painting, “Television Antennas”; sculptures of the men involved. of battle. Whether you say, as Eve these works as personal expres- wire constructions that could being weighed American big L not half so bad as the revela- Mr. Walters’ judgment is that Silverman, large water sions, one their lives were some will, that it is in the tradi- Jfc color, “Newport finds some strident, be better appraised by some on# —ended, handicapped or spun b u s i ness. tion that far from showing a the ultimate defeat of the Mill”; Stanley with harsh color tion of Stephen Crane or of League Jacobson, non-objective paint- contrasts: versed in geometry. out harmlessly at the whim of which, he B healthy resistance to the iron was not due to any others are garrulous, spread some one else, the technic is shortcomings in the ing, “The Zere- out *** * monster. pattern of conformity urged Covenant Room”; Andrea on large (one this impersonal the author’s own. There are ga, canvases is about ducing Amer- upon them by the system, many but because the provisions of painting, "Babe Ruth,” and feet) Only a few are many fine touches, such the 6 by 8 when their “mes- Visiting Artist men dealt as icans to sell a young wife Covenant were not applied. Marguerite Burgess, “Feathered French these briefly. One of when a straggler says of joyously yields sages” could better have been with and their birth- to it. The impotence of the opposi- Friend,” a painting shown in Charles Cerny, a native of them, Lt. Metcalfe, an aide to others who have run away put into inches. But if one right of indi- Whv‘*- jr. The only heartening thing tion to our joining the United February at the Whyte Gallery.