ARTS COUNCIL POLICY SIR,—In his review of the admirable exhibi-
tion of Mondriaan at the Whitechapel Art Gallery Mr. Basil Taylor. states that this exhibition reflects unfavourably upon the exhibition policy of the Arts Council 'at any rate in terms of twentieth-century art.'
It would be fair to recall that concurrently with Mondriaan the work of Giacometti was being shown at the gallery in this house and that in recent years the Arts Council has arranged one-man shows of Chagall, Dufy, Sir Jacob Epstein, the late Fernand Leger, Marcks, Moore, Morandi, Munch, Sutherland; and also exhibitions of German graphic art, the lithographs of Picasso, the sculpture of Matisse, young painters of the Ecole de Paris, contemporary Italian art (two exhibitions) and a mixed show of 'Twentieth Century Master- pieces' which contained works by all the artists listed by Mr. Taylor as deserving to be seen in this country and also four paintings by Mondriaan, two of which are now on view at Whitechapel.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the responsi- bility for the presentation in this country of twentieth-century art will continue to be shared with the Arts Council by other bodies whose interests lie in this direction, such as the Whitechapel Art Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, both of which have received from the Arts Council considerable sums towards the growing costs of this kind of enterprise.—Yours faithfully,
PHILIP JAMES, Director of Art Arts Council of Great Britain, 4 St. James's Square, London, SW I
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