ART
Picasso. At Slatter's Gallery, 30, Old Bond Street.—Sir Hugh Walpole's Collection, 2nd Edition. At the Leicester Galleries. Picasso. At Slatter's Gallery, 30, Old Bond Street.—Sir Hugh Walpole's Collection, 2nd Edition. At the Leicester Galleries.
VICTORY having been declared throughout Europe, Picasso has broken out in the West End of London. " The twanging of the exquisitely cracked guitar," as Wyndham Lewis once put it, may be heard from Bond Street to Leicester Square. An early one at Wildensteins, six further up at Lefevre's in the " School of Paris " exhibition, referred to a couple of weeks ago, fourteen, mostly late ones, further down. at Stances Gallery, a rather grubby bunch at Bilbo's, and no less than nine from the collection of the late Sir Hugh Walpole. It seems to be almost a cartel. The exhibition at the Slatter Gallery is entirely composed of Picassos from the Willoughby collection, and it contains an important canvas of the immediately post-Guernica period called "La Nipoise." This picture is one of a series of portraits of women, starting with the hysterical, screaming, tear-grooved heads of 1936, the result of Picasso's reading about the Spanish civil war. These derived in colour from Van Gogh's portraits and in drawing from Grunewald's weeping Madonnas. By 1937 the image had ceased weeping about Spain, and "La Nicoise " has achieved a fixed grin, removing it somewhat from Grunewald and also from journalism. However, all Picasso's mastery of the arabesque may be seen in a pen drawing called " Verre et Frise " in the same exhibition. Mr. Robert Melville, Picasso's Baedeker, contributes earnest notes to the cata- logue. Sir Hugh Walpole's choice of Picassos was from among that artist's most decorative work, the cubist harlequins of the early 'twenties, the neoclassic graces, and the Romanesque " sculptors and models " of 1933. They show Picasso at his most tender and delectable.
The second edition of Sir Hugh Walpole's collection is delightful, and bears an even more personal stamp than the first, though perhaps it contains fewer masterpieces. Even so, the little Renoirs are breathtaking, Sickert's "Blackbird of Paradise " is one of that artist's finest achievements, and the big Degas charcoal drawing is magni- ficent. Sir Hugh's flair is admirably shown by his collection of Paul Klees. A few years ago the Leicester Galleries staged a fine exhibition of Klee, to which Sir Hugh repaired after lunch on the private view day. He at once purchased half-a-dozen of the very best before adjourning to the studio of a young artist, to whose support he was generously contributing, and from whom he received a couple of oils, three watercolours, and a cup of tea. This was the way Sir Hugh liked to spend an afternoon, and to anyone who may think such promiscuous purchasing lacks discrimination, I recommend that he looks at the Klees in question, five of which are contained in this exhibition. They are superlative examples. Among many fine English things in this show are the Graham Sutherland oil, a first-rate Henry Moore drawing done before he became quite so busy, and Epstein's " Isobel," one of his most splendid bronzes. Sir Hugh's Sickerts alone would have made an excellent one-man show, and the visitor should not pass over the several excellent,
Previous page
