The Critics
1956
oil on canvas
63.5h x 76.2w (cm)
Private Collection (UK)
- David McCann from ‘Richard Eurich, Visionary Artist’ 2003The painting offers up to ridicule a microcosm of fashionable London art society, with all its machinations. These are critics "ready to plug to the hilt, to trumpet, to expound, any movement in painting...which was obviously hurrying along a path as opposite as possible from what had appealed to civilised man through the ages" (Wyndham Lewis, 'The Demon of Progress in the Arts' (London 1954) p.53). Behind the savage treatment lies an honest and intensely felt despondency. In the art world Eurich knew, critical success is achieved through formal innovation at the expense of that combination of tradition and individual talent which T.S.Eliot had championed and Eurich steadfastly refused to abandon.
Provenance & Events
References:
Catalogues
- "Edge of All the Land” Southampton (1994)"; Southampton City Art Gallery / Nicholas Usherwood. [figure pg 52 and comment by Nicholas Usherwood, pg 47.]
- "Lowell Libson Ltd.: British Art"; pub. Lowell Libson, 2016, ISBN 9780992909611, 0992909619
Books
- "Richard Eurich (1903-1992) Visionary Artist"; Edward Chaney and Christine Clearkin (contributions by James Hyman, David McCann and Peyton Skipwith), pub. 2003: Paul Holberton Publishing, ISBN 1903470110 [Cat 34, illustrated]
- "The Art of Richard Eurich"; Andrew Lambirth, pub. 2020: Lund Humphries, 170 colour illustrations, ISBN 9781848221727 [fig 70, pg 92]
Other
- "Making a Masterpiece: Bouts and Beyond"; Adele Carraro, York Art History Collaborations
Reviews
- "A curse on the critics"; online review of 'Richard Eurich RA - visionary artist' exhibition by Richard Dorment, The Telegraph, 12 March 2003 [illustrated]
