ART
The London Group and the New English
THESE two group exhibitions are open at the same time this year—the London Group at the Leger Galleries, Old Bond Street, and the New English Art Club at the Suffolk Street Galleries. The London Group is improved by its smaller size—enforced by the war-time absence of some regular exhibitors and by the smaller gallery. The Royal Academy, as the years go by, chooses a few artists from among the Group's members—timidly, and rather late. However, free personal expression in art is easier to get across (in this country) than it was when the London Group was founded in 1913, and so the Group's power has been dimmed with the years. It is still of use as a nursery for promising painters, and " arrived " ones ought to stand by it regularly. Several do so : among them, Raymond Coxon, Edna Ginesi, R. 0. Dunlop, A.R.A., Ivon kitchens and R. V. Pitchforth. There are few surprises and not much war influence: but Cannon Street, B.C., by Hans Feibusch, is a good war painting. Kenneth Martin, Lawrence Gowing, Morland Lewis and K. M. Faussett-Osborne are other artists who show to advantage.
The New English Art Club shows far too many works. Who could expect to find interest in every one of three hundred and forty-two new pictures, non-academic and non-" modern "—as almost all of them are? It is among the drawings that most of the interest is to be found. Two water-colour drawings by Paul Nash stand out; so do two river scenes (though they are much more retiring) by Philip Connard, R.A. A small head of A. S. Hartrick by Vincent Lines, a dancer in costume, Grigorieva, by Diana Murphy and Getting Winter Fodder by +homas Hornell have documentary interest as well as merit. There are many
square yards of boredom to tire the eyes in the rooms of oils, but
it is worth persisting in order to find a few small pieces of distinction. John M. Meade's Terrace on Landsdowne is one
of these. It shows an appreciation of minor English architecture and a real feeling for paiht. There are other rewarding pictures— such as those by Ethel Walker and Lord Methuen—but between them a great deal of near-modernism and ill-judged ingenuity.
JOHN PIPER.
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