Art: What's a Bargain?

In Texas and Illinois last week, art lovers set out to bring good paintings and lithographs within reach of the average family's pocketbook, but their ideas of a bargain were as different as a ten-gallon hat and a tapered fedora.

¶In Chicago, the Renaissance Society took over a hall at the University of Chicago, filled it with 439 works by such recognized artists as Rainey Bennett, Abraham Rattner and Milton Avery—everything from bold abstract posters to realistic etchings, watercolor landscapes, and oil paintings. Within the week, 1,000 students, teachers and young married couples, some from as far as 50 miles away,...