Seventeen watercolor paintings by Stewart D. Kranz '49 will go on display today at the Copley Art Galleries as part of a two-man show by Kranz and William S. Cox, a Rockport art teacher. The exhibition, which marks the first public appearance of Kranz's work in Boston, will continue through February 26.

One of the most active painters in the College, Kranz is a member of the Harvard Artists' Association and the Buffalo Society of Artists. While in the Army he became known in art circles by his use of plexiglass as a medium of expression. Subsequently, plexiglass etchings by him were hung in a servicemen's exhibition in London, and in two one-man displays in Buffalo. Several of his etchings were reproduced in Life in 1944.

Stresses Mood and Emotion

Kranz's current work is largely experimental, and covers a variety of watercolor techniques and treatments. "In most of my paintings I try to express mood, emotion, and action rather than a strictly naturalistic approach," he explains.

One of the most prominent of his contributions to the Copley exhibition is "Road to the Factory," which he terms "an abstract painting with social significance." It depicts a crowded tenament district, with a road in the background leading into the smoke-belching mouth of a steel mill.

Kranz' entry, "America's Heart" won the James Evans Memorial prize as the best watercolor of the show at the annual Western New York exhibition in Albright Art Gallery at Buffalo last year. During the summer, he taught fundamentals in art at the Buffalo Art Institute, and held a one-man show there of his work.

Kranz was one of the winners in the recent art contest at Winthrop House, and his painting, "Hills of Home," from that competition is now on display in Fogg Art Museum.