Fashions and passions
Richard Shone
BRITISH ART SINCE 1900 by Frances Spalding
Thames & Hudson, f10.50
This is the first general survey of 20th-century British art to have been pub- lished here for nearly ten years. Its appear- ance is timely. British artists are currently grappling with European colleagues at the Hayward Annual; Richard Long and Gil- bert and George are being given weighty retrospectives abroad later this year; the British Surrealist movement has just been handsomely treated by the Mayor Gallery; and early next year the Royal Academy (ie. Norman Rosenthal) will tell us what it thinks of British art in a survey covering the same period as the present book. While there is usually plenty of modern British art on show all over the country at any given time, publications on it are thin on the ground. There is, for example, no book in print on Sickert or Ben Nicholson; only catalogues for Auerbach or Hodgkin; no- thing easily available on Camden Town, Bloomsbury or British Pop Art. In what other country would such a situation occur involving artists or groups of comparable significance? Admitedly most of the art critics writing now show such a cynical contempt for both old and new that they hardly encourage an atmosphere of inves- tigation and enthusiasm — witness the almost universally trivial 'critical' reactions to Renoir and Reynolds, let alone the current Hayward Annual. You have only to hear the comments on exhibitions on a programme such as Critics' Forum to rec- ognise the insulting ignorance with which art is generally treated in this country. Happily there are dim signs of improve- ment, certainly among publishers. All the more reason then to welcome this informa- tive, judicious survey of British painting and sculpture from the death of Whistler in 1903 to Julian Opie, born 1958. When I published in 1977 a similar book on British painting of this century — and I wish Frances Spalding better luck with her's than I had with mine — I was attacked for personal inflection on the one hand and a striving for fair-mindedness on the other. It is an almost inevitable reac- tion. While one reviewer bewails the abs- ence of a favourite painter from the illus- trations, another spits over the presence of three pictures by X when Y (ten of whose works he happens to own) has only one. `Fashions and passions', in Herbert Read's words, are bound to interfere; one has only to think of Graham Sutherland or Can Richards, for example, to see the sharp trick a few years can play on an artist's reputation. So that in suggesting any possi- ble bias on Frances Spalding's part, I am conscious of revealing my own. Luckily, her run-down of the main figures, move- ments and events is clear-cut and objec- tive.
It cannot have been an easy task. One can imagine her despair at having to select so rigorously from the droves of accom- plished artists who surround the few indis- pensable 'greats' of her narrative. Her book is compact — 40,000 words and 211 integrated illustrations — in a format which the publisher doubtless sees as handy and which many might think of as small. Her text is essentially a gallop across country. She takes in the leading sights and vistas but gives variety by shooting down a by-road to tell us, for example, of Bawden and Ravilious's house-hunting experi- ences, of Paul Nash in a hotel roomy' Toulon or of Ben Nicholson's exhilaration near the Gare Montparnasse after a visit to Mondrian. Such details prevent the narra- tive from becoming too dry and inflexible. But the stranglehold of this brisk pace (presumably prescribed) allows few 1110- ments of expansion. The author avoids generalisation but is good at drawing paral- lels and making connections between artists across the rapidly passing decades. References to European and American art are brought in at the introduction of each new movement. While many artists bene- fited from a good dose of foreign influence, particularly at the start of their careers, few went on to forge a personal vision; those who did, such as Spencer and Nash, Bomberg and Burra, are usually seen as upholders of some quirky and eccentric Englishness. Frances Spalding has general- ly avoided this trap, thus releasing such artists from too parochial an assessment. Space restricts her to brief glances at lesser figures and it is here that one begins to play the game of in-and-out. There are some threadbare patches. Considering that the author's last books were biographies of Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell, her com- ments on Bloomsbury are perfunctory. Of course she may be suffering withdrawal symptoms though she sees clearly enough Fry's importance as mentor and catalyst. What critic now compares with him in enthusiasm, conviction and accessibility? Limitations he certainly had but they are far outweighed by his grasp of a wide range of art, lucidly conveyed. From the same period there are one or two surprising omissions such as Henry Lamb; a little later Cecil Collins, John Armstrong and John Tunnard are overlooked. Of those artists associated with the `neo-romantic' movement in the 1940s, excellent resumes are given with the exception of Keith Vaughan; of him all we are told is that he was 'another artist also associated with this group' and are given as an illustration a classic nude assembly of 1956. Not very helpful, and nor are we directed to his published journals, a marvellous book essential to understanding many of the dilemmas faced by British artists of his generation. She does not distinguish clear- ly enough between the achievements of Auerbach and Kossoff, one so much better than the other. I don't quail at the omission of Tom Phillips and Euan Uglow; others may, particularly for the former. On the other hand, pictures and space are accorded to several artists who have re- cently been resurrected such as Meredith Frampton, Francis Davison, Percy Horton and Clive Branson, none of whom has appeared before in similar surveys. This is all to the good and makes up for some of the hardy perennials from Alan Davie and Roger Hilton, Moynihan's Royal College group, Lewis's Edith Sitwell and Burra's Harlem.
But the real test remains the text and at its best, Frances Spalding is a reliable and suggestive cicerone. Anyone wishing for a succinct account of, for example, Moore and Hepworth in the 1930s could do no better than to turn to her clear exposition of their points of contact in youth and their divergent ways of seeing in maturity. As to her account of British art in recent years, it is bound to be more speculative. She pays lip service to the text-and-photo boys, there's a grisly Brisley, and Gilbert and George get two colour jobs; with a rush at the figurative revival and a wink at the `new' sculpture we are on the final page. How this chapter will look a decade from now is anyone's guess but it certainly ends this useful book on a lively and optimistic note.
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