Abstract

Art

In the winter, the Royal Academy sacrificed its exhibition to the needs of the wounded, and for some months its galleries were given over to the work of the Red Cross. But now the Red Cross has made way for art again, and the summer exhibition has opened to the public as usual. In May, for academicians could no more imagine London in May without an Academy than London in May without lilacs and laburnums in the parks. Unfortunately, the spirit of change does not reveal itself where it is most needed. The exhibition is much as it has always been except for the prevalence of khaki on the walls and the number of war pictures, and khaki has the most depressing effect upon the British portrait painter, and war so far has not helped to enlarge the vision of any British artist or to inspire him to the masterpiece.