THE ART OF DUNCAN GRANT.
Duncan Grant. By Roger Fry. (The Hogarth Press. Ss. 6d. net.)
WE hope that the title, Living Painters, given to this volume, is meant to imply that it is the first of a series to be published. It challenges comparison with Messrs. Senn Bros.' similar productions in the Contemporary British Artists Series. The monograph is considerably shorter—perhaps a little too short —but it is signed. We do. notlike the half-anonymity of initials in Messrs. Benn's series. There are not so many reproductions, but they are more pleasantly arranged. It is difficult to choose between the series.
The inevitable rivalry between them must be all for the good. Considering that Messrs. Benn Bros. were the-first in the field, it is surprising that they had not already captured Mr. Duncan Grant. This young painter is certainly one of the most considerable English artists, and one who, moreover, has some Continental recognition. The present survey of his work shows an interesting progress from purely formal designs, primarily linear, always, however, suggesting the lyric note, to a more representative and more complex attempt at three-dimensional organization. The exquisite, nicely balanced harmony of colour, which is so distinctive a mark of Mr. Grant's work, is, of course, lost in the half-tone repro- ductions, but something of the formal patterns and the quality of his paint remains : enough to convince anybody unfamiliar with his work that it commands attention. This, after all, and to act as reminders, is the most that repro- ductions can ever do. But it is a very great deal. Mr. Fry's short note is, as we would expect, stimulating and penetrating. He speaks feelingly of Mr. Grant's decorative powers, and we cannot too strongly endorse his expressed wish that such painters should be given a wider scope in this type of work, either in the theatre or in the decoration of private or public buildings. Mr. Grant has already had some such opportuni- ties with the most admirable results, but if ever we are to relieve painting of the tyranny of the easel picture, if ever we are to recover something of the sweep and splendour of the past, such opportunities must be multiplied, and must be more judiciously given than they are at present. ,To gaze at the ceilings of our theatres, the walls of our restaurants, the laying out of our streets is daily evidence of an appalling hideousness, and, while there are such artists as Mr. Grant comparatively unemployed, of an appalling wastage of opportunities. We must hope that both these series will help to educate a public taste that will demand the employment of our best artists in public works, and will damn the heresy that holds the artist's place to be the easel.
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