DOI Heft:
No. 236 (November 1912)
DOI Artikel:The inaugural exhibition at the new Grosvenor Gallery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21158#0165
The Grosvenor Gallery
The inaugural exhibition
AT THE NEW GROSVENOR
GALLERY.
The directors of the new exhibition rooms at
51A New Bond Street have certainly shown some
courage in their choice of a name for the place.
By calling these rooms the Grosvenor Gallery they
have imposed upon themselves the duty of living
up to a very high tradition and they have openly
invited comparisons with a gallery which has a
very important place in art history. That they
should have done so is to be taken as a good
augury for the future of their undertaking; they
have adopted a position from which they cannot
well recede and they have by implication committed
themselves to a policy which should lead to notable
results. If this policy is properly maintained the
new Grosvenor Gallery will be a very welcome
addition to the London art centres; it will fill the
gap which has been caused by the conversion of
the New Gallery to baser
uses and it will provide an
appropriate home for many
art societies which, lacking
galleries of their own, are
always more or less de-
pendent upon chance for
finding suitable places for
holding their exhibitions.
The new building is ad-
mirably adapted to its
Purpose. There are four
rooms and a long corridor,
all well proportioned and
pleasantly lighted and
arranged so as to set off to
good advantage the works
exhibited in them; and
•Te place is decorated
throughout with just that
degree of sumptuousness
which gives a satisfying
'repression without being
over-insistent. The gallery
ls not so large as to require
a wearisome number of
"orks to be placed in it to
fill 't sufficiently, but it is
certainly large enough to
allow a society with a quite
considerable members’ list
to do itself justice and to
make its aims fully
intelligible. The judicious limitation of the wall
space should make the exhibitions which are held
in it more in accordance with the modern de-
mand, and more expressive of what is best in the
art of our times. There will be no excuse for
exhibiting bad things in rooms so discreetly
planned, no reason for padding out a good show
to make it spread over an excessive wall area;
an adequate collection of picked works can be
displayed under the most favourable conditions
and in the way that will bring out its good qualities
most convincingly.
If the inaugural exhibition can be taken as an
illustration of what we are to expect at the
Grosvenor Gallery, art-lovers have certainly ample
reason to rejoice over so definite an addition to
their opportunities of enjoying what is best in the
art of the moment. The directors, it seems, from
their “ foreword ” to the catalogue, intended their
choice of current British art for the opening show
to be taken as a profession of faith and as evidence
'43
The inaugural exhibition
AT THE NEW GROSVENOR
GALLERY.
The directors of the new exhibition rooms at
51A New Bond Street have certainly shown some
courage in their choice of a name for the place.
By calling these rooms the Grosvenor Gallery they
have imposed upon themselves the duty of living
up to a very high tradition and they have openly
invited comparisons with a gallery which has a
very important place in art history. That they
should have done so is to be taken as a good
augury for the future of their undertaking; they
have adopted a position from which they cannot
well recede and they have by implication committed
themselves to a policy which should lead to notable
results. If this policy is properly maintained the
new Grosvenor Gallery will be a very welcome
addition to the London art centres; it will fill the
gap which has been caused by the conversion of
the New Gallery to baser
uses and it will provide an
appropriate home for many
art societies which, lacking
galleries of their own, are
always more or less de-
pendent upon chance for
finding suitable places for
holding their exhibitions.
The new building is ad-
mirably adapted to its
Purpose. There are four
rooms and a long corridor,
all well proportioned and
pleasantly lighted and
arranged so as to set off to
good advantage the works
exhibited in them; and
•Te place is decorated
throughout with just that
degree of sumptuousness
which gives a satisfying
'repression without being
over-insistent. The gallery
ls not so large as to require
a wearisome number of
"orks to be placed in it to
fill 't sufficiently, but it is
certainly large enough to
allow a society with a quite
considerable members’ list
to do itself justice and to
make its aims fully
intelligible. The judicious limitation of the wall
space should make the exhibitions which are held
in it more in accordance with the modern de-
mand, and more expressive of what is best in the
art of our times. There will be no excuse for
exhibiting bad things in rooms so discreetly
planned, no reason for padding out a good show
to make it spread over an excessive wall area;
an adequate collection of picked works can be
displayed under the most favourable conditions
and in the way that will bring out its good qualities
most convincingly.
If the inaugural exhibition can be taken as an
illustration of what we are to expect at the
Grosvenor Gallery, art-lovers have certainly ample
reason to rejoice over so definite an addition to
their opportunities of enjoying what is best in the
art of the moment. The directors, it seems, from
their “ foreword ” to the catalogue, intended their
choice of current British art for the opening show
to be taken as a profession of faith and as evidence
'43