British Council British Council Visual Arts

An exhibition of paintings and drawings selected by John Rothenstein, William Coldstream and Allan Gwynne Jones. The selection included works by Royal Academicians: Charles Connard, Augustus John, William McEvoy, William Orpen, Walter Sickert; by members of the New English Art Club: Muirhead Bone, Gwen John, Wilson Steer and Henry Tonks; by the London Group: Graham Bell, Mark Gertler, Lawrence Gowing, Duncan Grant, Victor Pasmore, Matthew Smith. There was also an independent section which included works by Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore, Robert MacBryde, Ben Nicholson, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Graham Sutherland. A catalogue was published to accompany the show. No ISBN number.

The South African Association of Arts toured the exhibition to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg, Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg. A small section of the show travelled to Southern Rhodesia during September and October 1948, and was shown in Bulawayo, Salisbury, Umtali and Gwelo.

Reviews

A special preview of the exhibition was held at 43 Portland Place on September 9th and 10th 1947 for the benefit of the Press. The following notice of the exhibition appeared in The Times on 20th September

The exhibition of contemporary British paintings and drawings which the British Council is sending to South Africa has put together a number of important works from private and public collections, and would be well worth showing publicly in London if this came, as it does not, within the scope of the council's work.

No doubt there are some signs of effort or even strain in such large compositions as Mr Duncan Grant's Interior 1935, Mr Lawrence Gowing's Portrait and Mr Victor Pasmore's Flower Barrow

A small collection of drawings from the Slade School gives us an idea of the startling virtuosity which Orpen, Tonks, Mr Augustus John, My Wyndham Lewis, and others were once encouraged to practise there.

Reports were received from the Professor of Netherlands Culture at the University of Pretoria who claimed that the exhibition was not representative of contemporary British painting. This was also expressed by the art critic of the Johannesburg Star, who deplored the omission of work by Nevinson, William Nicholson, John Nash and Innes, and the inclusion of only one work by Stanley Spencer.