Studio: international art (82.1921)

STUDIO-TALK

DESIGN FOR A SHOWCARD
BY HISS S. OSBORNE

(Central School of Arts and
Crafts)

STUDIO-TALK.

{From our own Correspondents).

LONDON. — An attempt was made
during the discussion of the Finance
Bill in the House of Commons recently
to secure exemption from the obnoxious
Entertainments Duty of exhibitions of
works of art held by an art society where
the net profits are not distributed by way of
dividends, but the clause moved by Mr.
Ormesby-Gore to give effect to such
exemption was defeated. The Royal
Academy exhibitions, it seems, are already
exempted because they are held in connec-
tion with and as part of a course of instruc-
tion—that is to say, " gate-money " from
these exhibitions goes to maintain the
Royal Academy Schools ; and it was sug-
gested on behalf of the Treasury that other
art societies could earn exemption in the
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same way. But is it not also true that the
Royal Academy pays no rent for that part
of Burlington House which it occupies, and
thus has a great advantage over other art
societies, whose members in their sub-
scriptions pay a considerable amount for
facilities of exhibiting their work i The
Academy shows, moreover, enjoy a social
prestige which the others do not possess ;
many people go to them because it is the
proper thing to do. Apart from all this,
however, it does seem to us that this
Entertainments Duty as applied to art
exhibitions is a mean imposition scarcely
justifiable even during the war and utterly
indefensible at the present time when so
many art workers find it difficult to get a
living—mainly because of the merciless
taxation of those from whom their support
is normally derived. 000

Drawings like the three by Mr. John
Austen, R.B.A., which we reproduce on the
pages following the reproduction of his
tempera painting Peacock and Dragon, are
apt to evoke the name of Aubrey Beardsley,
but to those who insist on seeing in decora-
tive drawings of this type the influence of
that amazing draughtsman, we may appro-
priately quote some words written by Mr.
Joseph Pennell when introducing him to
the world in the first number of this maga-
zine nearly thirty years ago. " Although,"
said Mr. Pennell," in all of Mr. Beardsley's
drawings which I have so far seen there are
signs of other men's influence, I know no
reason why this influence should not be
apparent if the inventor of what we may
consider the type is a worthy man to
imitate." There are, of course, in Mr.
Austen's drawings points of resemblance to
Beardsley's, but he is not more imitative
than Beardsley was himself. Decora-
tive by instinct, he is very sensitive to the
beauty of line; and his Peacock and
Dragon, which appeared in the last exhi-
bition of the Royal Society of British
Artists, shows that the gift of colour, too,
plays a not inconsiderable part in his
artistic equipment. 0000

Remaining open till the end of the
present month, the Summer Exhibition at
the Grosvenor Galleries contains an in-
teresting collection of paintings and draw-
ings by contemporary British artists.
Prominent among the paintings is a work