Art: Trite, Stale, Vapid

That hoariest and most complacent of U. S. art groups, the National Academy of Design, is now holding its 103d annual exhibition in Manhattan. Academic has become synonymous with trite, stale and vapid in the vocabulary of artistic contumely. The present bulky show justifies the synonymy. There are 462 paintings, drawings, etchings, engravings, prints and pieces of sculpture on view. Most of them would be easily understood by the unexacting eyes of the billboard public.

Jes Schlaikjer’s South Dakota Evening, which won the first Altman prize of $1,000, is a smouldering, vivid-color scheme, a boldly massed composition.