Portraits of prominent people in characteristic sur­roundings, by a San Francisco artist who states “I like to paint people, and, I hope, a bit of their souls,” and who boldly develops the Japanese technique of composition in flat planes.

One need not know the sitters to en­joy the cunning and consummate ar­tistry behind these paintings, developed with a minimum of modeling, two di­mensional composition, and lines inter­secting in such a way as to create a special kind of depth, successfully com­bining intimism with decoration.

This is St. Amand’s first one-man show in a public museum, and it is fitting that it be at this museum which, by its very name, pays homage to the French. Because his painting has a wit and a sophisticated charm that con­veys the atmosphere of the urbanite much in the manner of, atlhough not identified with, the early poster art of Pierre Bonnard and Toulouse Lautrec.

––E. M. Polley