MODERN ART CRITIC

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 7

MODERN ART CRITIC

Hostile Reception By Students

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON November 3. Sir Alfred Munnings, a past president of the Royal Academy, a painter of horses, and a critic of modern art, was greeted by 200 hostile artists when he went to open an exhibition in Chelsea. He had to make his way through 100 students outside the Polytechnic building led by a girl on a grey horse saddled with sackcloth and bearing banners "Down with Alfle’’ and "Tipster Alfred Knows all about Form.” Sir Alfred Munnings. after saying he would not make a controversial speech, opened the exhibition by describing many of the exhibits as “shockers,” and said that some of them recalled an exhibit at the Paris Salon by a group of painters who produced a masterpiece by tying a brush to the tail of a donkey named Lo'o and letting her paint at will. The picture, under the title "The Sun Gies Down over the Adriatic,” was subsequently accepted by the Salon desq Independents which represented advanced circles in France 30 years ago. The students did not like the comparison and invaded the platform, where Sir Alfred Munnings calmly produced a hip flask of whisky and offered the' leader a “swig.” When Sir Alfred Munnings left the organisers were anxious to get him »wav by the back door, but he insisted on going out the front way, where he escaped without opposition.