239
UniversityofCalifornia.Inadditiontothisformaltraining,heworkedonhisown
inFrance,Spain,Greece,andItaly,andassistedonDiegoRivera'smuralsinCali-
fornia.HehasbeenanoviceinaBenedictinemonastery,observerandcombatartist
withinsurgentforcesinCuba,officialpainterfortheecclesiasticalcouncilofMount
.•\thos,andamajorintheUnitedStatesArmyCorpsofEngineers.Vidarwasalso
officialcombatartistforthe.\rmyinthePacificTheaterduringthesecondWorld
^Var.
In 1934 hewasdoingmuralandeaselpaintinginCaliforniaandMexico.He
alsocov'eredtheConsistoryceremoniesattheVatican,didworkintheartsforLife
magazine,theUnitedStatesIndianService,andAbbottLaboratories.Heaccom-
plishedpictorialcoverageoftheleprcsariumatCarville,Louisiana.Forthreeyears
heheldtheChalonerFellowship,andin1946-1947wasawardedaGuggenheim
Fellowship.From 1947 to 1948 theDepartmentofFineArtsattheNewark(New
Jersey)SchoolofFineandIndustrialArtwasheadedbyVidar.One-manexhibitions
beganintheearly1930'sandhavebeenheldinParis,Barcelona,andCopenhagen,
aswellasinNewYorkandCalifornia.Hisworkformspartofthecollectionsof
theNationalMuseuminCopenhagen,MuseumofModernArtinNewYork,Newark
(NewJersey) MuseumAssociation, Pasadena(California) ArtInstitute,and the
CaliforniaPalaceoftheLegionofHonorinSanFrancisco.Vidar'spermanentad-
dressisUpperMontclair,NewJersey.VISSER'THOOFT,MarthaH.,TrojanHorse, 34 x48.Illustration—Plate 105
"Apaintercanrarelyusewordssuccessfully...wordsarenotthemeansathis
command.However,onecanattempttoevaluateanddescribeandinterpretapaint-
ing,butindoingsowestillfindourselvesattheoppositepole[from]avisualexperi-
ence.Myapproachtopaintingisinstigatedbytheexcitementofdiscovery,through
whichIcancreateanewvisualexperience.Frequentlyusingfamiliarsubjectmatter,
Iattempttoplacemysubjectinanewfocus,invitingtheobsei'veralsotofindanew
positionintimeandspacetoexpandhisexperience.Theinnereyeoftheartistsees
infinitepossibilities.Consequently,apaintingrepresentshisbridgefromtheinvisible
tothevisible.
"InmypaintingTrojanHorseIwasinfluencedbymychildhoodmemoriesofthe
storyoftheTrojanhorse.However,IhavecreatedtheTrojanhorseintermsofa
mechanicalwarmachine,atthesametimeretainingtheformofthehorse.The
painting,tome,isaparody,exposingtheridiculousmethodsthatmanwilltaketo
killhisfellowmen."
MarthaVisser"tHooftwasborninBuffalo,New\'ork,in1906.Althoughshehad
receiv'ednoformaltraininginart,shebegantopaintseriouslyin 1938 andhas
exhibitedregularlywiththe^VesternNewYork.Artistssincethattime,havingwon
twoprizesattheirannualexhibitionsatthe."MbrightArtGalleryinBuffalo.
Sincethetimeofherfirstone-manshowinNewYorkin 1948 Martha\'i,sser't
Hooftsworkhasappearedwithincreasingfrequencyinexhibitionsofnationalscope:
forexample,thoseattheCarnegieInstitute,WhitneyMuseumofAmericanArtin
NewYork,PennsylvaniaAcademyoftheFineArts,andthecompetitiveshowof
contemporaryAmericanartheldattheMetropolitanMuseumofArtinNewYorkin
1950.Shehasalsorecentlybranchedoutintoanotherareainthearts,havingjust
completedcostumedesignanddecorforaproductionofStravinsky'sHistoiredu
SoldattobegiveninBuffalo.\growingnumberofprivatecollectorsareacquiring
examplesofherwork.ShelivesandworksinBuffalo.