Art: American Realism Abroad

The exhibitions of U.S. abstract expressionist paintings on view at the Brussels World's Fair (TIME, June 16) and making the rounds of major European cities as "The New American Painting" show (TIME, Aug. 4), have aroused some ahs, some boos and a great deal of hullabaloo. Tourists, critics, even State Department officials have suggested that these works give a one-sided—and distorted—glance at the U.S. world of art. This week a new European show of American paintings is stressing another side—realism.

On loan from Manhattan's Whitney Museum, 22 realistic paintings (among them: works by Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Maurice Sterne, Reginald Marsh Charles...