Post-Impressionism

The influence of the exhibition was seen mainly through Roger Frrand the small group who followed and supported him : Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Keith Baynes, Clive Bell (writer), etc. The effect was a little too immediate to be entirely logical or con vincing.

The painters began to talk of their "reactions." They became self-conscious about the matter. That which should have worked sub-consciously was dragged into the full consciousness of reason and the "reaction" was sometimes, in consequence, of doubtful genuineness and led to the suspicion that it was made to suit the school, so remarkable was the resemblance, at least at first, be tween the works of the different artists. Solidity was aimed at, rhythm was cultivated and, curiously enough, only so-called ugly things provided "reactions" on the group. Colour as an essential means of expression disappeared.

The work developed, the artists gradually becoming more in dividual. They were later combined, with the addition of F. J. Porter, Bernard Adeney, etc., forming the London Artists' Associa tion. This was a scheme by which certain collectors guaranteed the artists a certain income based upon the probability of their sales.

Too Much Encouragement for Young Artists.

The time is notable for certain things whose effect on art, per se, is prob lematical. There is a remarkable increase in the facilities for exhibition, the increase of small art galleries, the support given to young and often quite untrained painters. It is often a case of fools rushing in. In former times a painter had to be qualified to some extent before he could hope to exhibit. Now it is a question of competition to secure something new and naive that can be exploited before it is proved to be utterly worthless. But there is no one employed who is capable of deciding who is worthy of help and the young student is taken from the cradle and "helped" by the Contemporary Art Society, by funds and by well-meaning, but quite ignorant, collectors. And the young student, before he has mastered the rudiments of his art, before he has had any experience, before he has had time even to digest the elementary principles which his master has tried to implant in him, is taken up, fed on the fruits of success and poisoned by his own choked up artistic "lazy colon." A virtue is actually made by a certain

small number of artistic "snobs" of collecting the works of the so-called "naïve" school—a contradiction in terms; a confirmation in folly.

Post-Impressionism, one of the vaguest terms ever used in the strange jargon of art critics, covered a multitude of incompetence. It operated mainly in one direction and that, strangely enough, was supposed to receive its impetus from Cezanne. Cezanne was an exquisite colourist ; the quality which his so-called followers neither perceived nor felt, was colour. Cubism influenced two painters worth mentioning : Wyndham Lewis and W. Roberts. The former, with his brilliant cleverness, exploited a bastard version of Cubism until it ceased to amuse him; the latter de veloped a system of angular construction which, though nothing to do with Cubism in essence, was amusing for a time. That sort of thing meant a small gain and a real loss—a gain of pattern and, perhaps, of strength; a loss of mystery, poetry and truth.

The philanthropic impulse towards young artists, characteristic of the age, is very dangerous. It seems that a young painter re ceives a reward without having earned it and without having proved his worthiness for it. It stultifies development. It has been fostered by the most prominent art masters of the period through a spirit of philanthropy and the desire to make use of what funds are available.

Mural Painting.

Another modern development, and one worthy of encouragement, is the increasing demand for mural decoration. In 1912, a movement, fostered by Charles Aitken, director of the National Gallery, Millbank, resulted in an ex hibition of designs for mural decoration ; many of them sent in for competition. A certain number of mural paintings had been executed before this exhibition ; notably those in the Chelsea Town Hall under the direction of J. S. Sargent and Charles Sims; and others of a more modern tendency by Duncan Grant, Etchells and A. Rutherston working under Roger Fry at the Borough Poly technic. The exhibition bore little immediate fruit, but in 1928 and previous years there have been many instances of artists, particularly young artists, being employed for the mural decora tion of buildings.