ART CRITICISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22326, 28 July 1934, Page 18

ART CRITICISM

A TILT AT JARGON The Archbishop of Canterbury has had a tilt at the language of art.criticism, and speaking at the Royal Academy this year he said: “In. its 160 years the Royal Academy has become an established institution. Like other English established institutions, such as the House of Lords or the Bank of England or Lord Derby, it is occasionally criticised. But the Royal Academy shares the privilege of threatened lives —it lives long and prospers. Our modern art critics seem to me to be acquiring a special technical language of their own. I am not .sure that I always, or indeed they always, understand what they mean.— (Laughter.) I hazard the suggestion that by a judicious use of phrases—l had almost used the blunter word jargon—even I could write an essay on art which would deceive the very elect. . _ “ If only industry would recognise the claim and value of beauty there would be a uew and hopeful era before us. Our great industries are enlisting the services of great artists. Gradually even our railway stations are being converted into excellent picture galleries. If there is one industrial building in the world which we might suppose would have repelled the advances of art, _ it would be the Battersea Power Station, _ and yet we behold the genius of Sir Giles Scott investing even it with the real nobility of art.”