The fame of 32-year-old Henry Koerner's harsh paintings had preceded him home from Europe (TIME, April 28). Critics expected his first Manhattan exhibition to be good. It was.
In Germany with the U.S. Army and Military Government, Koerner had painted ruins and ruined people. Now, back in Brooklyn, he concerned himself with a less apparent wasteland. Among the best of Koerner's new pictures was Subway, a familiar scene made into a nightmare of sharp realism. Koerner used one anti-realistic stunt: he vastly enlarged the head of the desperate man in the rear of the car (see cut). "That man wants to get...