Studio: international art (89.1925)

SOME REMARKS ON RECENT ENGLISH PAINTING

to breaking point the comparative value
of Post-Impressionist French art. I ad-
mit that the kernel of the movement is
reactionary rather than revolutionary; a
serious attempt to break away from purely
imitative inanities, to recapture the sim-
pler treatment of design characteristic
of the Quattrocento and to combine this
with the expression of solidity which had
been fully explored by the masters of the
High Renaissance} though often veiled
in the subtleties of their art. Reaction,
moreover, against purely vulgar forms
of story-telling pictures led their criticism
to an exaggerated disregard for content,
which would place a mere piece of orna-
mental jugglery on the level of a picture
equally ornamental and far more ex-
pressive of emotion. I have still seen no
evidence of Mr. Bell's abandonment of
this position, but Mr. Fry seems to me to

be returning to a sounder view, and I am
equally glad to recognize in his recent
pictures a return to the material that
nature offers, combined with a handling
undoubtedly strengthened by the experi-
ments of recent years. I think that
many other artists of the intellectual vein
(for it is chiefly they who have been
affected by the new theories) are realising
that their interest in abstract forms can
be conveyed equally and far more subtly
in nature's own dress than as mere
skeleton structure. I would refer to a
picture such as Sandling Park, in Mr.
Paul Nash's recent exhibition at the
Leicester Galleries, as evidence of this
development. The more abstract style
is perhaps better suited to the sterner
conventions of an art like woodcut, and
I have seen no more harmonious example
than Mr. John Nash's Interior of a Wood.

4

" ROCKS AT LE LAVANDOU '
BY ELLIOTT SEABROOKE