Shows in Manhattan

Last week the following newsworthy things were to be seen in the following Manhattan galleries:

15th Century Portraits. Bartolommeo Colleoni was a 18th Century gangster who earned undying fame by making a shrewd contract with the Venetian Republic. He agreed to lead the Venetian army against Milan in return for a large sum in cash and a statue of himself on horseback in the middle of St. Mark's Square. The statue was finally erected blocks away, but it was by Verrocchio. It is now generally considered the greatest equestrian statue in the world.

Another great portrait of the 15th Century mercenary (scowling as usual, in a velvet cap and gold brocaded tunic) was the highlight of a loan exhibition of Renaissance portraits at the Knoedler Galleries. By Giovanni Bellini, it is the property of Lord Duveen of Millbank. There were plenty of other masterpieces to remind the public of the treasury of Old Masters still in private hands in Manhattan. Among them: Castagno's Portrait of a Young Man, lent by J. P. Morgan; another young man, by Botticelli, lent by Clarence Hungerford Mackay; Fouquet's John, Bastard of Orleans, lent by William Goldman.

Walters' Iceland. Eighteen bright, loosely painted landscapes made up a show at the Kleemann Galleries. Most interesting fact about them was that they were views of a land almost unknown to the U. S.--Iceland. Enthusiastically Explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson wrote a long foreword for the catalog and elaborate footnotes to explain how well Artist Emile Walters had caught the brilliance, clarity and absence of perspective in the Arctic landscape.

No Icelander is Artist Walters. Born in Canada, a sometime cowboy, baseball player, he is a brother of Cinemactor Bill Cody. Icelandic is his wife, Lecturer & Author Thorstina Jackson Walters. But on the trip that produced the cold and airy landscapes on exhibition last week, Artist Walters traveled alone to be sure that his impressions were his own.

Southport's Taylor. For a socialite young woman to take up sculpture as a diversion has been traditional since Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney first started modeling. For a socialite young woman to become a good sculptor is definitely news. Such news broke last week when Mrs. Wynne Byard Taylor gave her first one-man show at the Georgette Passedoit Gallery. Critics who had never heard of her before were charmed by a number of figures in mahogany, walnut, bronze, pottery, modeled with sure fingers and considerable masculine purpose. In particular they inspected approvingly a leering bronze faun with the shoulders and back muscles of Sculptor Taylor's brother.

Ruddy, personable Wynne Byard Taylor is the daughter of famed children's specialist, Dr. Dever S. Byard. After studying at Barnard College for two years, she preferred sculpture to a formal debut, worked under Antoine Bourdelle and Archipenko. Her husband, Engineer Edward Taylor, has also a doctor father. They live quietly in Southport, Conn, with their two children who are seldom sick. Like most serious artists who do not need to sell their works to live Sculptor Taylor has no eye for publicity. The day before her exhibit opened she dumped a truckload of statuary at the gallery door, hurried back to her Southport studio, has not returned to her show since.

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