THE ETROPOLITAN NEWS FOR A,M* PaPerB December 6, 1950 MUSEUM OF ART RELEASE FIFTH AVE.at 82 STREET • NEW YORK PRESS VIEW: 10 A.M.--4 P .M., Tuesday December 5, 1953 KNATHS, LEBRUN, KUNIYOSHI AND HIRSCH WIN PRIZES IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM COMPETITION; FUTURE EXHIBITIONS OF AMERICAN SCULPTURE, PRINTS, WATER COLORS, AND DRAWINGS PLANNED NEW YORK, December 6 - Prize-winning paintings in the nation-wide jury competition sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art are Basket Bouquet by Karl Knaths, Provincetown, Mass. (1st Prize $3,500); Centurion's Horse by Rico Lebrun, Los Angeles, Cal. (2nd Prize $2,500); Fish Kite by Yasuo Kuniyoshl, New York City (3rd Prize $1,500); and Nine Men by Joseph Hirsch, New York City (4th Prize $1,300). Honorable Mentions were given to Ethel Magafan, Woodstock, N.Y. for Lonesome Valley and to Sara Provan, New York City for Bird, Fish, Fruit. Members of the Jury of Awards were William M. Milliken, Cleveland, 0.; Eugene Speicher, New York City; and Franklin C. Watkins, Philadelphia, Pa. The prize-winning pictures were selected from 307 paintings by American artists from 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii, which will be on view in the exhibition AMERICAN PAINTING TODAY—1950, from December 8, 1950 through February 25, 1951. "The response to the Museum's program by American artists as a whole has encouraged the Trustees in their determination to continue in the eeme direction and to give equal opportunity to artists working in other media," Francis Henry Taylor, Director of the Museum said in reviewing the results of the Museum's first nation-wide competition in American Painting."It is therefore proposed to hold a comparable exhibition of American Sculpture in December 1951> to be followed by a national competitive exhibition of Drawings, Water Colors and Prints in December 1952. The terms of these competitions together with the amounts offered in prizes will be announced in January. "Coincident with the exhibition program, the Museum will continue in its acquisition of appropriate works by contemporary American artists for Its permanent collections," Mr. Taylor went on. "Existing funds for the purchase of paintings, prints, water colors, and drawings will be used, and a sum up to $1SO,000 allocated out of unrestricted purchase funds will be used over a five- year period for the improvement of the Museum's collection of American sculpture." -000- NOTE; BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF PRIZE VIMESB ARE A1TACHEP. BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF PRIZE-WINNING ARTISTS IN AMERICAN PAINTING TODAY—1950" Karl Knaths, Provincetown, Mass. (1st Prize $3,500) BASKET BOUQUET BORN: Wisconsin, 1891. EDUCATION: The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and New York and Provincetown schools. EXHIBITIONS: First one-man show was held in New York in 1942. AWARDS: First Prize - Carnegie Exhibition 1946; Purchase Prize in Temporary American Painting Exhibition, University of Illinois, 1948; 3rd Honorable Mention Carnegie International, 1950. Rico Lebrun, Los Angeles, Cal. (2nd Prize $2,500) CENTURION'S HORSE BORN: Naples, Italy, 1900. EDUCATION: Studied to be a banker but while doing so attended night classes at the Naples Academy of Arts. Served in the Italian Army during the First World War, In 1925 he settled in New York as a representative of a Neapolitan stained glass factory. Lebrun painted frescoes in the New York City Post Office Annex for the Government and taught at the Art Students League in New York. Later on he became an instructor at the Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. He was granted Guggenheim Fellowships in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938. AWARDS: Prize unidentified in the Art Institute of Chicago's Abstract and Surrealist Show in 1947. Yasuo Kuniyoshi, New York City (3rd Prize $L,500) FISH KITE BORN: Japan, I893. Came to U.S. in 1906. EDUCATION: Los Angeles School of Art and Design; National Academy of Design; Studied at Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller. Travel in France and Italy I925-I928. AWARDS: Guggenheim Fellowship 1935, traveled to Mexico; Prizes—Los Angeles Museum of Art, 1934; Golden Gate Exposition, San Francisco, 1939; Carnegie Institute, 1939, 1944; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1944, medal 1934; Harris Medal, Chicago, 1945; La Tausca Pearls Exhibition, 1947. REPRESENTED IN: Museum of Modern Art; Carnegie Institute; Whitney Museum of American Art; Brooklyn Museum; Newark Museum; Albright Art Gallery; Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover,Mass.; Art Institute of Chicago; Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc. Exhibited nationally and internationally. Instructor in Painting and Com­ position, Art Students League. Joseph Hirsch, New York City (4th Prize $1,000) NINE MEN BORN: Philadelphia, 1910. EDUCATION: Scholarship to Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art;Woolley Fellowship to Paris; Lippincott Award; two Guggenheim Fellowships; Fulbright Grant. WORKS EXHIBITED AND OWNED BY: Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum; Metropolitan Museum; Corcoran Gallery; Boston Museum; Walker Art Center;Library of Congress. Ethel Magafan, Woodstock, N.Y. (Honorable Mention) LONESOME VALLEY BORN: Chicago, 111., 1916. EDUCATION; Studied with Frank Mechau; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center with Peppino Mangravite. WORKS EXHIBITED BY: Carnegie Institute; Corcoran Gallery; Metropolitan Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; National Academy. AWARDS: John and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship In 1947,' Tiffany Award, 1949. Sara Provan, New York City (Honorable Mention) BIRD, FISH, FRUIT BORN; New York City, 1917, EDUCATION: Columbia University; Cooper Union. EXHIBITED: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; National Academy of Design; Laurel Gallery, N.Y.; and A.C.A, Gallery, N.Y. .