Baltimore artist Herman Maril grew up with the major art movements of the 20th century, incorporating aspects of them into his own distinctive approach. A compact exhibit at the Walters Art Museum, "Herman Maril: An American Modernist," acknowledges many of those stylistic influences.

Maril (1908-1986) studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and subsequently taught for 37 years at the University of Maryland, College Park. Baltimore remained his home, although his summer residence on Cape Cod provided a good deal of his subject matter.

Indeed, the current Walters exhibit of 27 of his works is culled from a larger exhibit at the Provincetown Art Association.

The Baltimore show gives a concise overview of Maril's career, but another 10 or 15 works would have made for a more completely satisfying immersion. It's like spending a half-day at the beach when you wouldn't mind a full day there.

You do get to know the artist, however, from the moment you step into the show. A 1929 self-portrait depicts him at age 21. The limited range of subdued colors in this painting complements the artist's serious expression. Backed by an equally somber landscape, the painting reflects the influence of the so-called Social Realism that many American artists favored through the 1930s.

Maril also was influenced by the Cubism of Picasso and Braque. You can see how that style influences many of the oil paintings on view.

"Construction Crane" (1931) and "Quarry" (1958) are among the paintings in which landscape elements are treated in a blocky manner and the palette is kept to just a few colors.

It's significant that Maril doesn't become overly schematic in his compositions. He slightly varies his coloration and brushwork within what otherwise might become monochromatic expanses of paint. That's why his blocks of color somewhat resemble and yet stop short of the all-over zones of color in the so-called Color Field movement that Mark Rothko and other contemporaries developed by the late 1950s.

Maril is really at his best when he's painting the seashore. Sea, sky and no more than a few other pictorial elements make for paintings that are spare, open and contemplative.

In "Red Boat" (1976), he uses that title boat for a splash of color, but even that bit of red is relatively calm in effect. In "Blue Cove" (1976), the arcing cove prompts your eyes to make a gently curving journey along the shore; a few tiny dabs of paint in the distance indicate buildings, ensuring that nature and not the human presence remains the subject.

Maril did not paint figures often, but there are occasional examples in the exhibit. "Dialogue at Five" (1970) depicts six people on a patio facing the sea. They're not much more than faceless stick figures, so they function much the same as boats, piers and buildings do in his other seashore paintings.

Surely the most endearing example of a painting with a figure involves the artist's black cat resting atop a white radiator in "Languid Cat" (1976). This suitably uncluttered domestic interior contains one of the artist's paintings and a poster-like notice hanging on a back wall. There's also a bookcase off to the side of the room. It's such a quiet scene that it's easy to understand why the cat is so relaxed.

"Herman Maril: An American Modernist" remains through Aug. 30 at the Walters Art Museum, at 600 N. Charles St., in Baltimore. Call 410-547-9000 or go to www.thewalters.org.

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