Page 21 - Studio International - January 1967

the year, some of the major treasures of the Academy. has been given to the American contribution. It is most
One room for the Constables', one for the best of the important that we should be able to evaluate the thought
Gainsboroughs' and Reynolds', together with the and achievement of both continents. We must have the
Michelangelo Tondo. I hope this will become a reality advice of those best aware of developments in the arts
in the immediate future. since the beginning of the century. If we cannot present
The programme for 1967 has been the subject of major the connexion between the great discoverers of the late
disappointment and is now under active consideration by nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries and what is
a well qualified committee. The bicentenary of the Royal being done today we would utterly fail in one of the
Academy falls in the next year, 1968, and that will essential responsibilities of the Academy.
probably justify a retrospective of the 200 years. In the course of my career I have made friends with a
I would like to avail myself of those most informed about great many people whose advice I greatly value and I
the achievement of Europe, including this country, in the very much hope I may still call on them, not only in
last twenty years. The Academy must give its attention regard to the improvement and greater use of the Sum-
not only to the past but to the immediate past; I would mer exhibitions but also in this matter of the winter
like to organize an exhibition that would give the programmes. Because I have the judgment of these
interested public the opportunity of seeing what has been friends I have confidence in this institution. I hope it will
going on in Europe as it is essential that we should coun- not worry about its image but that its image will be
ter-balance the overwhelming weight of attention that constituted by what it achieves. q

Mural painting by
W. T. Monnington, P.R.A.
1964 University of London
Students Union, Malet
Street, London
Far right
Conference Room of the
Council House, Bristol.
With ceiling by W. T.
Monnington, P.R.A. 1956
Below
Ceiling painting (direct on
to plaster) c. 80 x 40 ft by
W. T. Monnington, P.R.A.,
1956 for the Conference
Room of the Council House,
Bristol. (Architect:
E. Vincent Harris, O.B.E.,
R.A.)