Wot! No Art? - ACE081.6

Building new towns after 1946; models and finished houses. Buildings and open spaces at Harlow. Auguste Rodin’s Eve (c.1881), Barbara Hepworth’s Contrapuntal Forms (1951), Henry Moore’s Family Group (1954), Lynn Chadwick’s Trigon (1961) and Ralph Brown’s Meatporters (1973), with voices over discussing the last two, all acquired by the Harlow Art Trust. Reg Butler, in his studio; his VO says that the public’s reaction to contemporary sculpture is also how the public relates to him: Girl and Boy (1950-1951), Family Group (1948), etc; he now recognises some of the criticisms levelled at his work at this period. The public saw such work as "…reflections of a mutilated reality". Francis Bacon’s Figure in a Landscape (1945). Commentary says that artists were concerned with formal problems which led "to pure abstraction". Two abstracts. Victor Pasmore’s neo-Impressionist Suburban Gardens (1947), and his abstract Square Motif, Blue and Gold: The Eclipse (1950), Abstract in White, Grey and Ochre (1949), Spiral Motif in Green, Violet, Blue and Gold: The Coast of the Inland Sea (1950); commentary quotes critic, Douglas Cooper, who suggested that some painters turned to abstraction to conceal their "obvious ineptness as figurative artists"; Pasmore’s riposte. Newsreel item, Royal Academy Take Back Old Rebel [January 1950]: shows Stanley Spencer, a Self Portrait, and the artist getting up in the morning and going out with his easel on pram. The Port Glasgow Resurrection (1947-1950); commentary says that Spencer was acclaimed "artist of the year" by the popular press, who nonetheless criticised the style of his work. Newspaper cartoon, "If you ask me, the hole is the best part of it." Sculptures by Henry Moore; Moore at work in his studio, plastering over metal skeleton. Family Group (1945-1949), Barclay School, Stevenage, itself built from prefabricated parts; tour of the school showing architectural and decorative details; one of Julian Trevelyan and Mary Fedden’s murals for Wheatley Road School, Welwyn Garden City. Mural by Ceri Richards, boarded up.