Architecture at the Academy
I WONDER how the people who wander into the 1 architectural room at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition judge what they see there. Do they decide that they like a painting of a power-station at dusk, say, because it would look nice on the landing, or because the building itself would look rather well at the bottom of the garden? Have. they the faintest idea in what way the room filled with paintings and models of buildings is intended to entertain or edify them? If so they are better informed than the organisers of the Exhibition. In the past year or two the hanging committee has said it has no notion if it chooses a building because of the quality of its picture or model, or because the building itself is pleasing to look at and planned to do its job well. (Very often the committee has been given no indication of what a building will look like in the street scene when it is completed.) As a rule every building submitted is exhibited, It is surprising, therefore, that so few architects submit their work (there is an average of seventy entries a year from a profession of 20,000 people). It is even more surprising that the work submitted is so good. What has happened to the Royal Academicians whose neo-classical facades dominated the architecture room a few years ago? Only three of the exhibits at this year's show could be fairly ,described as inferior architecture. The improvement coincides with the increased interest being shown in architecture in newspapers and in radio and television pro- grammes. Good architects are becoming more publicity-conscious, but no one can explain why the fuddy-duddies are disappearing from the Academy.
Although this year's architectural room will give the visitor a fair impression of good modern architecture, I think he deserves a little more help. There is nothing in it to tell him which of the buildings exist, which must still face plan- ning committees or public inquiries and which have been rejected and will never be built. The Academy would do well to cash in on the interest being shown by progressive architects—especi- ally as it is still being shunned by progressive painters. It could even try to enlarge the exhibition and show it later in the year, com- plete with explanatory text. The architectural publications would certainly be willing to help with such a project.
I do not suggest there will ever be a time when the Summer Show addict will use the word 'sin- ister' as confidently about, for example, an LCC school by Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis (exhibit no. 1058) as he has learned to do about the painting of Carel Weight. Nor will the man who stands in front of a MacTaggart, saying 'that man certainly knows how to use paint,' acquire the habit of strolling up to the Shell building by Sir Howard Robertson (exhibit no, 1036) and praising his knowledge of how to use Portland stone. But at least he should be enabled to see what a building is and if, when and where
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