British Council British Council Visual Arts

An exhibition of paintings from the British Council collection, originally mounted under the programme of Anglo-Hungarian cultural exchanges. A Czech version of the catalogue, with an introduction by Ronald Alley, was published to accompany the show.

<

Reviews

The exhibition was opened in Bratislava by Mr Michalicka, Slovak deputy Commissioner for Education and Culture… Press publicity was, however, disappointing. 'I am sure' wrote Mr Wesley Wells, Cultural Attaché, 'it was largely owing to the general impression that the exhibition was not as new or exciting as many people had expected. We heard frequent criticisms that the youngest painters were not represented, that there were no Bacons, and that the exhibition was pleasant and interesting but no exciting. I have now had opportunities to see a good deal of painting here and it is obvious that any caution that may have been exercised in selecting these paintings was misplaced as far as Czechoslovakia is concerned.'

the British Embassy reported (16 April 1964)

The predominant reaction of the largely sophisticated Romanian viewers at the opening was one of great interest and pleasure at seeing modern paintings publicly displayed. A few, who seem to have kept remarkably well informed on recent developments in Western art, even expressed regret that more 'up-to-date' British painters - for example Francis Bacon - were not represented and that the paintings of others such as Alan Davie and Victor Pasmore did not include their most recent works.

Shots of the opening ceremony were shown on television news on 9 April and a longer version has since been on cinema newsreel. So far, however, the paintings shown in these have all been pre-abstract ones. Similarly the few press reviews to date have mentioned only the 'safe' painters, while the canvas most frequently reproduced has been Lowry's Industrial City