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Contemporary Art Society Report 1938-39

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Contemporary Art Society REPORT 1958-9 THE CONTEMPORARY ART SOCIETY For the Acquisition of Works of Modern Art for Loan or Gift to Public Galleries President: LORD HOWARD DE WALDEN Chairman: SIR EDWARD MARSH, K.C.V.O., C.B., C . .M.G. Treasurer: THE HoN. ]ASPER RIDLEY 440 Strand, W.C.2 Joint Hon. Secretaries: LORD IVOR SPENCER-CHURCHILL g Chelsea Embankment, S.W.3 ST. JOHN HUTCHINSON, K.C. 3 Albert Road, N.W.I Committee: SIR EDWARD MARSH K.c.v.o., c.B., c.M.G. (Chairman) The Earl of Crawford and J. Maynard Keynes, c.B. Balcarres J.B. Manson Sir Muirhead Bone Ernest Marsh Miss Thelma Cazalet, M.P. The Hon. Jasper Ridley Sir Kenneth Clark, K.C.B. J. K. M. Rothenstein Samuel Courtauld Sir Michael Sadler, Sir A. M. Daniel, K.B.E. K.c.s.I., c.B. Campbell Dodgson, C.B.E. Earl of Sandwich A. M. Hind, o.B.E. Lord I vor Spencer-Churchill St. John Hutchinson, K.C. C. L. Stocks, c.B. Assistant Secretary: MR. R. C. IRONSIDE . Printed in England at The Curwen Press Speech by the Chairman at the Ninth Ordinary General Meeting of the C.A.S. held at the Tate Gallery on 18 April 1940 ' Ladies and Gentlemen, This is, I think, the fourth time it has been my duty to address you on this annual occasion. My second and third speeches were nothing but attempts to disguise the fact that they were the first one over again, for I had little to do but rehearse the objects of the Society, which were as simple and salutary and stale as the Ten Commandments, and apt to wear thin. But now those blessed humdrum days are over, and I have more variety in my subject. Before I embark on our war-time activities, I must speak of a great loss and bereavement which has befallen us in the sudden early death of Mohtague Shearman. His sensitive, informed and enthusiastic love of the art of painting, his wide knowledge of men and affairs, his native energy and his charming and sterling character, formed a combination which made his work as our Honorary Secretary invaluable; and he will be remembered by all of us with sorrow and affection. He left a final and signal mark of his devotion to our cause by bequeathing to the Society the privilege of choosing six works from his splendid collection of modern pictures, French and English, which is now to be seen at the Redfern Gallery. The Sub-Committee which was entrusted with the choice took the view that fine as many of the English paintings were, preference should be given to examples of the French School, which, in the ordinary course, we have far fewer opportunities of acquiring; and after much searching of heart in presence of so many rich treasures, a selection was made of six pictures, all of which may safely be described as masterpieces: a Sisley, a Toulouse-Lautrec, a Matisse, a Utrillo, a Rouault, and a Vuillard. These will be 3 offered to the Tate Gallery, and if, as seems highly probable, they are accepted, they will greatly strengthen the representa- tion of the six masters, and keep the name of Montague Shearman green in the memory of lovers of painting. I should like to say a word about another benefaction to the Nation in which, although the Society is not directly concerned, it has good reason for satisfaction. We have not forgotten Lord Henry Bentinck, who was for so many years our perfect Chairman, and it is pleasant to know that under the will of his widow-herself a painter of considerable talent, which I think would have been recognized if she had not been too modest to allow her works to be shown in public-the pick of his fine collection has passed to the Tate Gallery. On Mr. Shearman's death our former Hon. Secretary, Lord I vor Spencer-Churchill, and Mr.St.John Hutchinson, very kindly volunteered to act as Joint Hon. Secretaries for the time being. It will fall to the Committee at the meeting which follows this one to mak.e .a permanent appointment. I have not the gift of prophecy, but I may confide in you that I should not be surprised if this arrangement were to be confirmed; and in the interest of the Society I hope this will be so. I need not waste your time by dwelling on the emergency which sprang on the world of Art, as well as on all the other worlds, including the World in general, with the outbreak of war. It looked at first as if every artist except the comparatively few who were chosen for war work must be overwhelmed in ruin. Nobody would have either money or peace of mind to buy pictures; and the teaching jobs, on which so many depend for their butter if not for their bread, would be cut down to the bone. But after a few months of thick black cloud a silver lining became visible. The danger was more and more clearly realized, the Press played up nobly, and rubbed it well in that the civilization we were fighting for would lose much of its value and all its bloom if the Arts were allowed to perish. The stunned dealers came to, and during the past three or four months a 4 number of admirable shows, both 'one-man' and composite, have been held, with equally surprising results both in sales and public interest. One of the first was just before Christmas at the Leicester Galleries, where small pictures of uniform size and the uniform price of five guineas sold like hot cakes, whereby many painters were enabled to afford a bit of holly for their Christmas pudding. I should like to say in passing that in the opinion of good judges, we have now a crop of young artists of high promise, the like of which has not been seen for many years; and it is very encouraging to find that there is a large and growing market for their works, provided that they are of moderate size and priced fairly low. In the more official sphere high hopes may be placed in the newly-established Central Institute of Art and Design, which is to deal in the most comprehensive and practical manner with all the multifarious ways in which all the Arts can be made to contribute to the needs, both material and spiritual, of this exacting time. The.fact that the initiation of this great enter- prise was largely due to Sir Kenneth Clark is a guarantee that our Society will have an opportunity of contributing to its work in the measure of its powers. I now come to the Society's own activities. Fortunately, we found ourselves at the outbreak of war in an unusually strong position, The first eight months of last year were, on the whole, prosperous for us. Several of the dealers, particularly Messrs. Tooth, who gave their clients special facilities for joining us, and the Leicester and Storran Galleries, took a sympathetic and helpful interest in our work, and the publicity which they gave us added over seventy new members (and I will interpolate here something that happened later- Messrs. Agnew, withgreatgener- osity, gave us a percentage on their exhibition of contemporary pictures, which produced the handsome sum of £81). I am sure you will agree that we are very fortunate in our good relations with these great powers in the world of Art. At our second meeting after the outbreak of war, we were in possession of a 5 quite considerable surplus, and it was agreed that the moment was one for spending freely rather than building up a reserve. In addition to the normal £500 for the titular buyer, Mr. Ernest Marsh, five sums of £150 each were entrusted to five members of the Committee chosen by lot. On these gentlemen, not having myself drawn a lucky number, I look with a green eye. Apart from purchases, our main activity has been in holding or contributing to various exhibitions. We started in the last months of 1939 with a room at the Leicester Galleries con- taining a selection from the works in our current stock available for our usual travelling Exhibitions. This, of course, afforded nothing like a just representation of our riches, by far the greater part of which are given away almost continuously to the pro- vincial galleries; but with that allowance made it was a very creditable little show, and met with a good deal of appreciation. Next came an exhibition at Oxford, in which the Ashmolean Gallery, under its distinguished Curator Mr. Parker, co- operated with the Society, whose powers were delegated to Sir Muirhead Bone. The pictures were sent in by invitation, and were for sale; and though, alas, the sales were not very numerous, the attendance was good. The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cam- bridge, under its energetic director Mr. Louis Clarke, was stirred to emulation, and is at the present moment showing a collection of seventy or eighty pictures lent about half-and-half by this Society and one of its members. I understand that it has aroused great interest in Cambridge. We have also made loans to the very fine exhibition now holding at the National Gallery under the title 'British Painting since Whistler'. This undertaking, which was made possible by the inexhaustible zeal and good will of Sir Kenneth Clark, is surely one of the most satisfactory signs of the times.
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