SEA IN BRITISH ART

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 9

SEA IN BRITISH ART

JBpuRCE of inspiration:*

i Mr. Winston Churchill, who was First ■Lor4;-of'■the Admiralty from 1911 to !1915, recently opened the "Sea Power" exhibition at the New Burlington Gallery, says the "Daily Telegraph."* ! "It is when you come to the great issue of power over the sea," he s^d, yb.u-feel you are in contact with |the immemorial past of Britain, alid you feel the romance of the story which has led us from a barbaric and subjected island to our present still respectable position." . (Laughter.) . "There.is a question of whether this exhibition, is. to be 'characterised untfer. the heading of art or propaganda,"'he continued. "I cannot at all see why the two should not be combined, Although they are not always combined. "I noticed the other day in the newspapers that across the North Sea,;sor German Ocean, a very great man (H§rr Hitler), who is certainly a master;jof propaganda, favoured us with his views on art. . < •',

"They were very drastic and formidable pronouncements of which :he delivered himself. Apparently, if yj>u put too much green in your sky you are liable to be handed over to tie Minister for Sterilisation. - Whether there is.any mitigation for the punishment if it is only performed in watgr<lp- I do not know. r

colours, .^. "II you should make the mistake yt putting too much purple in the sea, you are liable to be handed over;'«to the,. Minister of the Interior, to be $ufc in a concentration camp.

j "Now, looking round these walls, vtye have a deeper realisation of all ttjat the British Navy shields us froi*." (Laughter.) •<; Mr. Churchill remarked thathe wondered whether modern ships gave the artist the same chance as the tall galleons and frigates which for hundreds of years ruled the waves—or disputed the. waves. • t \ The function of art, it had been said, was to draw the spark of beauty from the most unprepossessing objects.

"If that be so it presents our modern painters with, an almost inexhaustible theme,".he went on. "For instance, the present.garments .of-our modern age seem to offer to the Rembrandt of the present time or-the'future an;.opportunity of finding beauty in ■ ugliness, a'task at least as 'inspiring ■as'fthat of the eminent scientist of1 Laputa;: who was engaged in' extracting sunbeams from cucumbers."

Of all the countries in the. world Britain was the one which should' attract the attention of .painters.to the jsea and to the great ships-that sailed upon it. In the endless interpretations of those changing forms they would find a source of inspiration and of culture which ought to'contribute to the general movement of our island life. ■•;■.: . . ~''''■