Under the Four Winds: Under the Four Winds

From Venice, TIME'S Art Editor Alexander Eliot cabled: THE world's biggest and best roundup of contemporary art occurs every two years in Venice. Last week red-cockaded carabinieri paraded, a splendid procession of gilded gondolas wound across the lagoon, and officials made speeches as the 27th Biennale opened in Venice's Public Gardens. In the tree-bordered pavilions bordering the lagoon, a jury representing nearly all of the 32 participating countries mulled over the thousands of paintings and sculptures.

They pondered a chamber full of half-reptilian horrors and nocturnal landscapes by slick old Surrealist Max Ernst, and voted him one of the three...

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