ART BROIL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 130, 4 June 1931, Page 4

ART BROIL

CLAUSEN ATTACKED

SLADE STUDENTS' WRATH

Students of the Slade School,.; University College, Gowcr street, and members of the staff havo boon given an opportunity:, for signing an open lettor to Sir George ;Clausen, E.A., which expresses in .■sarcastic terms the students' resentment;of Sir George's address and individual Criticisms of theirupaiutings, says the ': '-Daily1 Mail."; : Tho letter-also iiiiplies a,, censuro of the 'gob.d:judgmcut of Professor Schwabo, the-principal,;in-choosing Sir George to criticise the students' work. Tho.; s tuden ts' wrath was ..apparently iroused; by Sir George's rather contemptuous remarks about '-Par ■ ISastern art, and by .his warning against the-perni-cious influence of Cezanne and Van Gogh. '.•■'? ■•■V ■ Here is a characteristically; sarcastic ■passage from .the' open lettor in which i;lie writer, who voices the views of tho majority of .the students, turns the tables on Sir George by referring to his manner'of treating his favourite (subject of haystacks: "The wretched little Japs,- poor felinws. could only see out of one eye, apparently, and that one .an• entirely subjective or an entirely .'objective one —you did not specify which variety, if we remember lightly—so 'they could j only, produce '.pictures of pancakes evidently—nicely coloured, of good technique,- you- magnanimously conceded that, but nevertheless ; only pancakes; in comparison, we might1 almost add, to a nicely rounded facial cheese (with the dirt rubbed off-from oue.-half) of a follower of Eembrandt's, or even to a sparkly, marzipan haystack of later ■date [a hit, at Sir George Clausen], and sparkling,.1 of. courso, not only in just two, but in one, two; three whole grownup dimensions, the acme of artistic endeavour." ' The letter goes on to speak pf Sir George's "attitude of amused indifference to certain exhibits which we personally felt to be competently'executed and. consistent in style.' • '•■■■•. "If, as we humbly suggest is the case, you rate yourself1 intellectually not contemporaneous enough to be competent in judging them,; what can have been your point in accepting an invitation to judge them-and-then to overlook them ijore.. of 'less?"'' "' Tho aim of the letter is to,-, obtain Professor Schwabe's signature, which would "be taken as a direct assurance of his better judgment-in the future," as far as the choice of a visiting critic is concerned.