Sirs:
As a pupil of one of Munsell’s pupils, I feel an obligation to point out that Darby Bannard (April) is a shade off in his description of a shade. Though a shade is produced, as he points out, by adding black, this does not grey the color; it darkens it, i.e., lowers the value. Because paint-store paint is almost always chalked-up with white, the addition of black to these mixes does, by coincidence, result in a greying of the color.
—Allan Blizzard
Asst. Professor of Art
Scripps College, California
Sirs:
Darby Bannard is just the man I’ve been looking for. Can I arrange to hire him to paint my bathroom?
—Danna Knego
Los Angeles, California
Sirs:
Our sincerest congratulations to Artforum for your timeliness in presenting two excellent articles on Edward Kienholz (April) just as the furor over the Los Angeles County Museum exhibition broke. As you know, the general public was given no opportunity to examine Mr. Kienholz’s work prior to the disgraceful, cynical and publicity-oriented attack on the exhibition by local politicians. Your articles helped to make clear the shameful manner in which the work of an artist of acknowledged stature was shamefully exploited.
The fact that the exhibition was permitted to open was not, under the circumstances, a triumph. My own visit was ruined by the circus atmosphere the controversy had created, and crowds of sensation-seekers gave the entire exhibition a seamy, disreputable quality. Thanks to cheap sensationalism, Edward Kienholz has still to experience a retrospective of his work in a sane atmosphere.
—Leslie Wenger
Los Angeles, California
Sirs:
Your refusal to devote a single word to Commissioner Dorn’s charges, and instead presenting two articles on Mr. Kienholz’s art was an exquisite demonstration of the proper amount of attention each deserved.
—Adya Bryant
Hollywood, California
