To show Italians that "we are good citizens and a serious company," Jersey Standard Oil's Italian affiliate decided to run an art contest with $3,000 in prizes. Last week Esso Standard Italiana picked the winners, handed out the prizes for the best paintings on "Art and the Petroleum Industry."
"We didn't tell the artists what to paint," explained Dr. Aldo Alberti, Esso's contest director. "We just gave them hints. After all, oil is part of every landscape. A gasoline pump to the modern eye is like a tree."
Thirty-four canvases, submitted by some of Italy's best painters, ranged from complicated abstractions...
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