THE YOUNGER

BRITISH ARTISTS

LEONARD APPELBEE“THE HADDOCK
BY BRYAN ROBERTSON IT is time that some statement was made on behalf
of the younger British artists : a brave company, full of exciting promise; all of them carefully probing in different directions. ‘Carefully probing’ almost implies an over-cautious attitude towards experiment, which would give a false impression of their vitality and their adventurous approach to traditional values in British painting. Many of them have been recognizably influenced by older men. It is significant that in prac
tically every case the influence, or to put it better, the incentive to explore, has come from a mature British artist. Nowadays, as a whole, British artists are very conscious of their national heritage; and the younger painters, cut off for so long from European influences,
are maintaining this tradition in a healthy and virile way. This prevalent emphasis on a ‘nationally con
scious’ school of painting is sometimes rather worrying; the results have been magnificent but occasionally it sug
gests that British painters are erecting artificial barriers against outside influences—a dangerous practice. The famous School of Paris was great only because it was truly international in feeling and outlook.
The main guiding influences of many of these younger painters have been Graham Sutherland on one hand and various artists of the Euston Road Group on the other. Sutherland’s genius has exerted a strange, magnetic power over several of them; although his influence has appeared in varied guises. The