Page 22 - Studio International - November 1967

Morris Singer's new foundry Centennial art in Ontario Obituaries
The 1967-8 exhibition season at the Art Gallery of
Walter Neurath
Ontario opened with Ontario Centennial Art, an exhi- Anthony Adams writes:
bition of 178 works from Ontario and Quebec. The
The recent obituary in The Times mentioned the
works, by ninety-two Ontario and Quebec artists,
founding of Thames & Hudson Ltd in a small room
were selected by Bryan Robertson, the director of
in Holborn with a gas fire. I remember that room, as I
London's Whitechapel Art Gallery. Mr Robertson
went there for an interview as a potential production
spent last May in Canada travelling throughout
manager to the new firm. After all these years I
Ontario and Quebec to view an estimated 4,200 art
cannot recall whether I rejected the job or Walter
works before narrowing his choice to the 178 works
Neurath rejected me, but inescapably one is con-
shown. The exhibition is now touring the two Cana-
scious of having missed the opportunity of taking
dian provinces, and in 1969 the works will be
part in a publishing revolution.
donated as outright gifts to established and emerg-
For undoubtedly this is what Walter Neurath initi-
ing art galleries in Ontario.
ated. There had, of course, been other art book
publishers in England (Studio were publishing major
I.C.A. director's resignation art books in the 'twenties) and strictly speaking
Phaidon Press had already pioneered the inter-
The recently-appointed Institute of Contemporary
national art book. But whereas Phaidon had blazed
Art director, the eminent zoologist Desmond Morris, the trail, Thames & Hudson established the practice.
is resigning his post because of his too-successful
In so doing they revolutionized post-war publishing
literarycareer. An I.C.A. announcement reads in part:
and public taste. By arranging world-wide sales of
'Our Director, Dr Desmond Morris, has written an
the same book, through different language editions
important and fascinating book The Naked Ape
making use of the same printing plates for the illu-
which has had widespread success even before
strations, large and lavishly illustrated works were
publication.
made generally available at a relatively low price.
'Owing to the present system of taxation which is
Even so, editions had to be fairly big and their
particularly inconsiderate towards authors and disposal required skillful and Intensive marketing.
The fettling shop at Morris Singer's new foundry at artists in general we are now faced with the proba- Thus, in a combination of cause and effect, the
Basingstoke, opened in mid-October. The move bility that he will be forced to move out of this
from London by this long-established works-it cast country if he is to retain more than an absurdly public became conscious of-and indeed bought-
the Boadicea group at Westminster Bridge and in small fraction of his legitimate and in this case the illustrated book. Art and archaeology became a
recent years has executed commissions for Epstein, unprecedented earnings.' living part of our culture.
Of course the system had disadvantages. To cater
Barbara Hepworth and Lynn Chadwick-has made it
for supra-national tastes texts sometimes tended to
possible to provide facilities for new processes.
Paris awards become abstract and superficial, scholarship had
often to defer to marketing needs. Nevertheless,
Major prizes at the 5th Paris Biennale were awarded
those of us working in similar fields owe a debt to
to Lynn Foulkes (US) for painting and to Detlef
the man who put the commercial publishing of art
74 years ago Birgfeld (Germany) for sculpture. British artists won and archaeology on the map, and whose enterprise
two awards-Mark Boyle one of the five prizes for
extended interest in these subjects beyond the
painting and the Bath Academy of Art the Foreign
waits of the Common Room and the museum.
Award in the Travaux d'Equipe section.
Elizabeth Allen
Patrick Heron writes:
Pittsburgh triennial
Even for those who have been privileged to be in-
Pittsburgh's triennial International Exhibition of volved in the discovery of that extraordinary artist,
Contemporary Painting and Sculpture opened at the Elizabeth Allen, who died this Summer at Biggin Hill,
Carnegie Institute on October 27. It includes painting Kent, at the age of eighty-three, it is now almost
and sculpture from thirty-two countries, and a large impossible to realize that she was totally unknown
proportion of sculpture figures in the exhibition. Six only twenty months ago. Yet it was in October 1965
$2,000 awards are made-four for painting and two that her rag-mosaic pictures first came to our notice,
for sculpture. In addition there are the Bovard Pur- through her young companion, Bridget Poole, Since
chase Prize for oil painting ($5,000) and the William then she has held two exhibitions at the Crane
Frew Memorial Purchase Prize for painting or Kalman Gallery, in London, with athird show arranged
sculpture ($2,000). Selection is made by the Museum at the Fleischer Anhalt Gallery in Los Angeles. But
of Art's director, Gustave von Groschwitz, who says: the nature of her artistic genius (and genius it was) is
'The exhibition includes many new names, parti- as yet unexplained. How was it that this crippled
cularly of younger artists, who are involved in the recluse could make rag pictures, in which it is
recent experimental efforts in painting, in kinetic impossible to be unaware of a host of remarkable
`The Report of the National Art Training School is not sculpture, and in the use of new materials, such as Influences, both from the present and the past? I once
much more satisfactory reading. It is still on the decline. polarized cellophane and fluorescent tubes.' listed Indian Mogul miniatures, Persian miniatures,
The numbers attending are sixty-four less than last early Matisse, Nicholson's Italian drawings, a medieval
year, and the fees £212 less. The females still largely In brief Book of Hours, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Paul
preponderate over the males, and the total number of Klee amongst others, of all of which she was uncon-
students produced as teachers of schools of art was five The Hamlyn Group, one of Britain's biggest pub- scious as far as I could tell. And Norbert Lynton, in
only! This considerable number were all men too, not a lishing organizations, has presented an annual endorsing this list, has added more of his own. Yet
single one of the 33o females having found a place. scholarship of £600 to the Courtauld Institute of Art. her overwhelming qualities were extremely modern.
There is little to show how many of the students at The scholarship will enable a student at the Institute Cubist perspectives, intense colour, and that essen-
headquarters took- up industrial arts, the only record to undertake a research programme which he or she tial flatness of the colour segments with which the
being of attendances at the courses of lectures upon would otherwise have been unable to. In the first mid-twentieth century has identified itself. That she
ornament and decorative arts; at the former of which instance it will be awarded for a period of one year. is the most important naif to have come on the scene
an average of i8, and at the latter 40, attended. This The selection committee will consist of the director since Alfred Wallis I have no doubt: yet naive is the
out of 572 students!' of the Institute, a member of his staff, and the last word I would use to describe such sophisticated,
From a report on an official Blue-book of the Science and Art publishing director of the Hamlyn Group's Art elegant and symbolically potent images as those
Department. Books Division. which Elizabeth Allen succeeded in projecting.
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