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His one example: a sentence in The Painted Word mentioning that Franz Kline once painted such social-realist subjects as "unemployed Negroes, crippled war veterans and the ubiquitous workers with open blue workshirts and necks wider than their heads." Hughes says, "In fact, he never painted such pictures. Either Wolfe is making them up or he cannot distinguish between Franz Kline and Ben Shahn."
A look at Kline's work suggests a third possibility: namely, that the museum mail-order art survey course your man Hughes took included only one line about Kline (probably "Franz Kline —20th-cent. Am. abstract expressionist"). It's no doubt news to Hughes, but Kline went through a period of realism, including social realism. This is a painting by Franz Kline (not Ben Shahn) called Ex-Servicemen and the Unemployed (1941). As your man says, "One example will do for all." I'm afraid that leaves us with just one elementary howler: the one named Robert Hughes.
Tom Wolfe New York City
Robert Hughes comments: "Kline was a figurative painter to the end of the 1940s. The point, however, is that Wolfe presented Kline 'in the '30s' as a party hack, 'dutifully cranking out' paintings of social-realist cliches at the dictation of unnamed 'drillmasters.' No such body of work by Kline exists. To support his thesis, all Wolfe can produce is one picture from the 40s—and even it is too expressionist to fit the strict canon of social realism."
Why No Clamor?
By its own formularies, the Episcopal Church [July 7] is described as the "mystical body of thy Son," not as an arena for the joustings of feminists. The altar is consecrated to "the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving," not to mock celebrations of Holy Communion by in-validly ordained women priests.
It is noteworthy that we hear no clamor from these women to enter an Episcopal convent, where the work is total self-sacrifice and unceasing prayer —never with public display and constant news media coverage.
Harold E. Carter Huntington Station, N. Y.
A Marshall Plan for Abe
The most realistic approach to a solution of New York City's financial crisis [June 23] would be for the city administration to declare war on the U.S. —and lose. Washington could then pour millions of dollars into the city to reconstruct it. Vive "the mouse that roared!"
JeffDexter Beacon, N. Y.
Shake, Bake and Bite
After Poseidon Adventure, I fear cruising on an ocean liner. After Airport and its followup, I cringe at the thought of flight. Towering Inferno gives me indigestion before I arrive for dinner at my favorite restaurant on the 62nd floor of the U.S. Steel Building. Jaws [June 23] now forces me to abandon my vacation spot on Cape Hatteras in favor of the safety of the Allegheny River. Ah, the brilliance of Hollywood! In one short year it has transformed Americans into cowering paranoids whose only security is found in the tenth row of a darkened cinema.
Tom Steiner Pittsburgh
Yes, Director Spielberg should have used the tank rather than the open seas, for, as anyone knows, pool sharks seldom forget their cues.
John H. Esperian Vienna