Re-establishing the Tradition
SIR,—It happens that the bush telegraph had been unusually active before the opening of the Looking Forward exhibition in Whitechapel. That the " hares " it promised were not in fact released may certainly be taken as cause for congratulation as much as complaint. It is pre- cisely because one distrusts novelty-at-all-costs that aspects of the new cry for " realism " are suspect. It has been clear for two decades that painters and sculptors are retreating from the excesses and extremes of the first thirty years of the century; a greater degree of " realism " has been the only direction left in which they might react. But art is free, and exists at many levels. Some inventive innovators produce better work than some artists working within an existing tradition, and vice versa. It will be a sad day when the limits of art are restricted in any direction; that way lies the ideological symphony and the burning of the books. I am sure the tradition will re-establish itself during the second half of the century without undue prodding.—Yours faithfully,
153 Sussex Gardens, Paddington, W.2.
M. H. MIDDLETON.
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