BRITISH ART IN THE ALLIED NATIONAL CENTRES

By ALFRED A. LONGDEN, D.S.O.

Director oj Art, The British Council

T

HE increasing demand for works of art both at home and abroad must be extremely heartening to our many painters who, in spite of endless wartime duties, manage to find time to cover whatever canvas is forthcoming in these rationed times.
Possibily we do not realize the essential freedom which we enjoy in this country, which contributes so much to the peace of mind of the painter who can go almost wherever he pleases and paint and draw in spite of restrictions. It is a fact that an official permit is required if one draws near “a protected place or area” but I have only, so far, met one artist who was disturbed and that was near the docks in Belfast. My friend was only drawing a tumbled down street
when a silent, flat-footed bobby put his head over a wall and said “What manner of man would you be?”
Our artists exhibit and sell as and how they please. Not so in Germany. There the Chamber of Fine Arts busies itself as “trustee of confiscated Jewish art property” and by virtue of this decree no purchases or sales of Jewish-owned objects d’art can take place without the consent of the Chamber. In “The Goebbels Experiment”, published by John Murray, one is informed of the strict supervision, by this Chamber, of all Art Exhibitions, artists being compelled to sub
mit, in advance, three copies of their catalogue and to
obtain an official permit so to exhibit. The Political director of this branch of German culture, we are
Michael Rothenstein “The Iron Dump’’ Water-colour (From the collection of Mr. W. A. Evill)