ART
LET me recommend the R.B.A. Winter Exhibition in Suffolk Street. The R.B.A. has now become by far the most adventurous of the Royal Societies, and has staged quite the most lively collection of sculpture since Battersea Park. Of the main streams in Europe today, those deriving from Rodin and from the non-figurative con- tingent are least in evidence. The younger generation look rather to Maillol's neo-classicism or, through Moore, to primitive carving.
At the Victoria and Albert may be seen the six decorative panels on themes of regency architecture, commissioned from John Piper by the Ministry of Works for the British Embassy in Rio do Janeiro. These are rich in colour, even richer in texture (certain bravure passages of underpaint and glaze are very luscious), but, to my mind, lacking sufficient content in one or two cases for their size. I found myself, for instance, very conscious of the lack of humanity in these deserted streets and corners—a thing I have never felt of Mr. Piper's smaller works. Romanticism enlarged in scale inevitably draws added attention to its theatricalism, and these panels may best be compared with their author's scene painting. Apart from their intrinsic merits as a decorative attempt on a large scale—uncommon in this country—they constitute a most important precedent in quite a new field of official patronage, and one which,
Previous page
