1990 SELECTORS   

Roger de Grey 
David Poole 

Peter Palumbo 
Odette Gilbert 

Giles Auty 
Brian Sewell 

The Mall Galleries
London

Major prize sponsored by

 

If Dr Pangloss was right that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, there would be no dissent in choosing works of quality. We should know that today's masters would be the same masters in all the arts in a century's time. As it is, one may virtually rely on there being quite different judgements by posterity so that painters, sculptors, composers and writers adopted as the darlings of our years will have disappeared into the great fog of failure that is to be the fate of all creators bar the most minute part of a minority.

One day in the summer of last year, a number of professional painters was considering the plight of an artist, thought by others to be among the best if not actually the best of today and yet almost unknown. It is because, said a sapient member of the group, he works on a small scale. Another of the group was reminded of a sculptor whom he thought was the measure of any since Rodin. Also fairly unknown and working, too, on a small scale.

Anybody may quickly refer to the small scale of the large majority of accepted masterpieces just as those painters did and logically they must come to the conclusion that the best of today will be more easily discovered by a large exhibition of small works. This exhibition and, even more, its successors will help as never before to concentrate the mind on likes and dislikes, on good and bad, on style and the lack of it.

The organisers had the hope that the unknown would mingle with the famous and be seen as no worse, that the public would ignore names and buy their choice, that at last there would be some representation of art to suit the domestic situation. This hope was echoed and supported by the altruism of the sponsor who lent his private purse and professional abilities to ensuring that this wonderful opportunity for the buyer and for the artist would be a success. Without his initial impulse, would the Evening Standard have done so much to ensure that so many knew about it and would there be a magnificent prize so ingeniously as well as so generously contrived to go to an unknown artist worthy not only of the financial assistance to his career but of the great acclaim to go with it ?

The Discerning Eye was conceived, underwritten and organised by Michael Reynolds, Ian Laing, and the Federation of British Artists respectively who would like to record their appreciation of the enormous amount of work put by Giles Auty, Odette Gilbert, Roger de Grey, Peter Palumbo, David Poole and Brian Sewell to make this exhibition reality and thank the Evening Standard for its enlightened support in providing the New Discovery Art Prize. They would also like to thank Atlantis Warehouse for their award, Barwell and Jones for the wine at the Private View, Dennis Double for photography and Rustin Clark for their patience in compiling this catalogue.

 

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