Art and industry
Sir: I was saddened to see my friend Gavin Stamp mixing viciousness with ignorance in equal measures in his commentary on the `Art and Industry' exhibition in the Spec- tator (27 February). Although the integrity of his views and observations (to say nothing of his erudition) may be judged by the fact that there are three errors in the spelling of proper names in his piece, I am still further comforted that Mr Terence Conran and I were correct in assuming that industrial design was an interesting enough subject to be worthy of wide public discus- sion, as the antiquarian Dr Stamp has devoted a hitherto unprecedented four col- umns to the subject.
The viciousness speaks for itself, but the sublime range of Dr Stamp's prejudice and misapprehension needs more space than is available here to correct. Observers of Dr Stamp's bewildered and confused passage through the 20th century will have expected such a piece (and will have anticipated that its criteria would be either false or er- roneous). That Dr Stamp holds in revulsion anything which he considers 'modern' is his own business; that he cannot judge dispassionately the efforts of a new charitable enterprise should be a matter of concern to your readers. Had he not been enjoying the substance of the hospitality which he mocks in his article Dr Stamp would have been able to read, or to hear, that the exhibitions which will take place in The Boilerhouse are not necessarily meant to be about 'good' design, but are intended, instead, to make available to students and to young professional designers informa- tion, images and ideas which would before have been inaccessible. To judge by the miserable tone of his piece you would think that Gavin Stamp had been asked to pay for this all by himself.
Although I hope that Dr Stamp's Gothic quirkiness will for ever remain a characteristic of your journal, I am bound to say I think there is a tragic substance in the boyish, knock-about quality of his prose. The snobbishness about machines, about popular culture, the mean- spiritedness about enterprise, the squeamishness about commercial success, the fear of the future and the mockery of idealism are all essential to Dr Stamp's view of the world. These same values, it seems to me, have combined to bedevil the develop- ment of a realistic and prosperous industrial culture which it is the purpose of the new Conran Foundation to encourage.
Your readers may be interested in a final paragraph which comments on the preci- sion of Dr Stamp's journalism: the Italian desk light which he describes in his article has never been available from any Habitat store. Additionally, our next exhibition, about a Japanese electronics company which invests heavily in Britain, was my idea alone. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Terence Conran. Would that Dr Stamp would be the same and leave the modern world to those who understand it. Stephen Bayley
Boilerhouse Project, The Conran Foundation, Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7
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