We commented last week upon the " modernist " pictures
at the Exhibition of the Society of Modern Portrait Painters is the following words :- "They seem little better than hastily executed efforts to astonish and annoy, and among the saner exhibits they make the sort of impression that a gramophone would produce If il were substituted for the 'cello in a string quartet."
The pictures now stand revealed as " spoofs." In an interview with a Daily News representative Mr. J. St. Helier Lander said:— "They were dashed off in an hour or two by some of our members just to show their contempt for the abortions that are being foisted upon the public. Our skilled work has been treated for some years past as so much dirt beneath the feet of the critics Our exhibition is either ignored, or dismissed with a word of contempt or derision. Aren't we justified in retaliating ? "
Mr. Kelly, the member responsible for the practical joke, how- ever, gives to it the complexion which it will surely wear to all those whose withers are unwrung. The perpetrators of the joke have been attacked, he says, for breaking faith with the public.
But the painter still, thank Heaven I often paints a picture merely because he wants to. In this instance the painters In
question wanted to paint jokes, and after all " the piotures are very good fun." But we shall be interested to see how mag-
nanimous the many critics who fell into the trap will prove next time the Society holds an Exhibition. It will be a very neat test of good temper and good faith.
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