ROYAL ACADEMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23050, 30 May 1938, Page 6

ROYAL ACADEMY

annual exhibition STORM OF CONTROVERSY : 'ARTIST'S RESIGNATION [FROM OtTR OWN CORRESPONDENT] >j||| LONDON, May Ll The annual exhibition of the Royal • Academy has for a long time been one 1 I of the most glamorous erents ushering ll: in London's "smart season." This year i\ the exhibition is not only a glamorous event, it is the centre of a storm ot controversy. As a protest against the rejection oi ; ' ; a picture by. the well known artist Mr ' Wyndham Lewis, Mr. Augustus John, ; perhaps the most eminent of English contemporary painters, has resigned his membership of the Academy. This follows on the resignation some time ago of two other members, Mr. Richard > Sickert and Mr. Stanley Spencer, who ' were unable to agree with the M Academy's general attitude toward modern art. ■ ■ The result is that artists and expert# f' of the two camps are engaged in wordy warfare on the subject of the policy and || practice of the Royal Academy in ' regard to the selection of works of art ■•!§§ for the annual exhibition. The authorities claim that, as the i great majority of the British public look upon the Royal Academy as the ■ supreme authority in all matters connected with art, its duty is to follow a Conservative path, to demand of ex- > hibitors a high standard of craftsman- % ship, and to discourage "innovations" which, though perhaps interesting as experiments, are felt to have neither •* - . value for, nor a healthy influence on. the development of British art. In this connection it is urged that the great value of the Royal Academy lies not in its yearly exhibition, but in its excellent schools where artists of promise obtain free tuition; in its generous scholarships; and in the unique opportunities it affords, to the • general public as well as to artists, for " studying art at the exhibitions which the Academy arranges in London of works of art from European and other countries.