Sibling rivalry
Sir: I refer to the letter, alas from my broth- er David Gordon (Letters, 27 February), the Chairman of the Contemporary Art Society.
In his letter he invites Spectator readers to disapprove, so exposing the prejudging ingredient of determinism which Giles Auty so rightly deplores (Arts and letters, 20 February). Figurative painting? It's not worth canvassing. A block of concrete? Tell us more. Tilted five degrees and encasing the dandruff of the artist's rejected lover? Oh yes. That's groovy. That's constructive. We must shortlist it immediately for the Turner Prize.
Figurative expressionism has been put into the cold, suffering constant disdain from Serotaland, from where, it would seem, the Contemporary (is it truly?) Art Society seems well-entrenched, sufficiently so for its chairman to send out his own fusillade, perhaps as some form of ground rent.
Mr Auty's arguments (serious and worthy of serious consideration) are unassailable because they are factually correct, and though I am myself an ardent devotee of abstract expressionism, I applaud his polemic. It is time that the modernist cura- tors and their determinist cohorts started to encourage a return to the widest dimen- sions of artistic endeavour.
Charles Gordon
Globe House, Temple Place, London WC2
Previous page
