Art: Jumping on the Jury

The Corcoran Gallery in Washington staged its 21st biennial exhibition last week. Designed to be a cross section of contemporary U.S. art, the show should have been as exciting an event as most of the Corcoran's past shows. Actually, it was no such thing.

Of the pictures on exhibition, 174 had been invited by the Corcoran jury. They included more or less competent work by most of the noted U.S. painters. But there was nothing surprising in the lot. The other 13 pictures in the show—culled from 2,000 entries in open competition—were no better...