One of the most impressive shows of the season was the exhibition of “Picasso in Chicago” which was held at the Art Institute. Selected from private and public holdings it was a superb display of 183 paintings, drawings and prints. His sculpture, having been seen to advantage in the sculpture exhibition of last summer, was not included. The number of Picasso’s works in this city, and their overall quality, is singular.

The direction taken by much of today’s art is in sharp contrast with that (or those) followed by Picasso. His considerable authority was evinced by the fact that so many artists

Two shows of local artists gave indication this spring of both the degree of activity and of the quality of work being done here. The group of artists known as PAC, which is an outgrowth of the old Phalanx group, has as its aim, exhibitions. A storefront on Halsted, like many of those used by painters for studio space, has been painted and lighted, and has become a cooperative gallery. The “Six Formalists” show was good in spite of the misleading title.

Only the group of small paintings by John Cannon, in black and white, had any legitimate claim to the “Formalist” title. This young artist has

In keeping with a tendency that seems to have importance, locally at least, that an identity is conferred by the name of the group, five young artists showed at the Hyde Park Art Center under the lead, “Non Plussed Some.” Irrational and oblique, it defined their attitudes which included a distinct attraction to the commonplace and the banal, but treated with zest and imagination.

Despite the title of the show there were considerable differences of personality displayed. Sarah Canright’s paintings in mellow greyed, almost clay-like colors, were segments, in some instances presented serially, of

The Pro Grafica Gallery showed the drawings of Ted Halkin. It was a remarkable group of works characterized by sparkle and dash. This is said in the light of Halkin's earlier work, such as the relief paintings of the 1950s, which were figurative and illustrative of his own private world of mythology; the sculpture constructions were an outgrowth of the reliefs and then the abstract (although still highly evocative) laminated wood sculpture from the 1960s. His most recent works are a series of as yet unexhibited paintings of which here recent drawings from the last eight months are indicative.