Summary
IT was a summer of heated criticism at the Royal Academy's annual show in Burlington House, London, and one reviewer in particular had it in for Anthony Green. He sniffily dismissed the painter as a sort of distant descendant of Stanley Spencer "at his most irritatingly whimsical". Green's work, he declared, lacked intellectual content and aesthetic appeal, the implication being that it was cursed with the kind of provincialism favoured by Hyacinth Bucket.
That blast came in 2003. Green, who by then was well established as one of Britain's favourite figurative artists, shrugged off the criticism and remained doggedly true to his brush strokes. Now, at 71, he sees no reason to change. But in London certain critics are at it again, this time scornfully throwing that loaded word "provincial" in the direction of the Glasgow Boys whose scaled-down show is, nevertheless, pulling in enthusiastic crowds at the RA's Piccadilly address. The attendance figure has now exceeded 56,000 and could surpass the 100,000 mark by the end of the exhibition's run on January 23.See the full content of this document
Extract
How the Glasgow Boys Conquered the Capital
In general the reviews for London's edited version of the Kelvingrove blockbuster have been effusive. Yet praise can't entirely mask a whiff of begrudgery from certain quarters. Or, as Green, who lives in Cambridge, puts it, that sneer at the non- metropolitan.
"It's very easy for the English to knock the Scots...See the full content of this document
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