STREAMS IN THE DESERT. By J. H. Morrison. Hodder & Stoughton. 4s.
AMONG ITALIAN PEASANTS. Written and Illustrated by Tony Cyriax. Collins 7s. 6d.
THE LONDON
MERCURY
Editor—J. C. SQUIRE Assistant-Editor—EDWARD SHANKS
Vol. I No. 4 February 1920
EDITORIAL NOTES
AN interesting exchange of opinions about modern art took place in the Times last month. The art-critic stated that modern English artists were afraid of ugliness; Sir Sidney Colvin replied that so far was this from being the truth "that the prevalent malady of the time, at least among those artists and critics who arrogate to themselves the title of 'modern,' was a much less becoming form of cowardice—namely, the fear of beauty. Because the beauty-blind may be taken in by prettiness, and because a new fashion in critical theory has come over from France (to perish, as I have seen dozens of such theories perish in their day), nothing, in the circles to which I refer, is attempted or applauded which either bears any resemblance to nature or records any predilection of the mind except for what is shrieking and dissonant in colour and jumbled and jarring, like a kind of insane geometry, in form. Of all things such 'modernity' is doubtless doomed soonest to be ancient, or not to give it so honourable a name, at least obsolete, discarded, and unregretted."
