Page 20 - Studio International - January 1967

tions and we have, I believe, taken the best that has been We have a duty in that respect. You say the work is below
offered to us, but we have not had the scope and oppor- acceptable standards but if we were to exhibit only to
tunity we would have liked. But abstract art, like figura- such standards how much work would there be? I think
tive art, comes in different qualities—good, bad, you must give wide acceptance and let time discover
commonplace, commercial-and it is for the selection where value lies. I feel personally that we have a responsi-
committee to use its powers of discrimination in selecting. bility to sincere and hardworking artists throughout the
country to provide them with a place to exhibit the work
If, on the whole, the Royal Academy has honestly maintained that on which their livelihood depends. But I agree that far
the traditions of an art based on the representation of observable greater discrimination should be made. It is deplorable
facts and on visual sensation are more valuable than any alterna- that some work that is not professional but purely
tives, why should it happen that so many eminent English artists commercial—there is a difference—should get tied up here.
deeply committed to this tradition are not members of the Royal As members of the R.A. there are people who are fully
Academy and do not exhibit in its exhibitions? I think of Francis aware of what young painters—who have been through
Bacon, Claude Rogers, Frank Auerbach and others who, in this their schools—are trying to do. They represent the major
sense, would seem to belong. If, as you suggest, they would be schools in London but they do, still, form a comparatively
welcome, what is the cause of lack of confidence? Several artists small part of the opinion of the Academy. They know
who have been elected as members of the Royal Academy have where serious young talent and endeavour lie and I think
resigned soon after. Why should this be? Would you be able to their views will carry increasing weight in the judgment
modify this state of affairs if you wished to? of the selection committee. Then there are some who
One reason why artists don't allow themselves to be put have no clue to what is going on. Not only does a large
forward as members is that no painters want to commit proportion of the visitors to the Summer Exhibition
themselves to any loss of independence or to feel in any expect the work to relate to the styles of the early part of
way tied to what may appear a conventional attitude. the century but members also expect this. One of the
The painters' very function is to be free and you cannot valuable functions the Academy could perform would be
escape the fact that belonging to any academy suggests a to enlighten the public as to what is the achievement of
certain surrender of freedom. You will be aware that the middle of the century.
many of the artists you are thinking of choose not to I have a firm belief that any work, however outré it may
belong to any society at all. appear at the moment, if it survives, will be found to have
I think that perhaps one of the shortcomings of the a direct relation and continuity with tradition. But it is
Royal Academy-and an understandable one-is that extremely difficult and requires enlightenment in any
members, many of whom are very intelligent men, have contemporary to see that connexion.
not in the past been prepared to give sufficient thought to The greatest service I, as President, could make would
what they could do to make the R.A. a more useful be to make a greater number of people aware of the value
institution. They have not taken seriously enough the of work which they are not at present prepared to con-
duty of sponsoring those artists who, they know, would sider because of prejudice. To many people the R.A.
be prepared to become members, at a point in their represents prejudice. If it could make people think with-
career when it might be of use to them and of some point out prejudice—to get away from clichés-that would
to the Academy. justify its existence. The whole of art is trying to see
Any achievement has some relation to the energy which things fresh and to see that clichés are clichés, to discover
has been directed towards it. Existing members tend to reality without a pre-conceived idea of what reality is.
exert their energy towards their own work but I greatly Any artist who has ever done anything has done that.
hope that, by encouragement, they may be prepared to The Academy unfortunately has had a tendency to
put more thought and energy into making better use of establish and maintain clichés. If it could demolish some
the undoubted resources and potential of the Academy. of them it would go a long way to justify its position.
The affairs of the Academy are very largely in the hands When I was a student at the Slade those I despised most
of the President and members of the Council and, al- were the Royal Academicians who repeated their clichés,
though every member is a potential member of the but it is a fact that many of the most admired modern
Council, when a member is not in that position he tends artists do precisely the same, though not in the Academy.
to think of the Council as the top table with which he has Once an artist is under contract to a dealer he is more
no connexion. As far as it is possible I hope to encourage likely to be dictated to than he would be in the R.A. I
close association of all members in the activities, duties think it is an inescapable fact that dealers can dictate to
and responsibilities of the Academy. their `stable'; the R.A. has at least never tried to do that.
If the Academicians, say at the beginning of the century,
Would you not agree that many works are accepted each year did tend to repeat themselves it was of their own volition-
which fail to maintain any standard of endeavour or performance if through public demand, it was still up to them. Now the
that justifies exhibition in such privileged circumstances? Should dealers can dictate.
the Summer Exhibition be more ruthlessly juried so that, if limited
in scope, it could be respected for quality? Would this encourage You have commented elsewhere on the difficulties and expense of
artists who remain outside, as things are, to submit work? arranging Winter Exhibitions of the kind the R.A. has put on for
The R.A. Summer Exhibition is perhaps the only exhi- a generation. What are your ideas as to the future?
bition where a large body of artists who devote their time First I would like to say that we are proposing to convert
largely to painting and sculpture can exhibit their work. two rooms so that we can show the public, throughout