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Tuesday 2 December 2008

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Velvet revolutionaries

Andrew Lambirth

Wednesday, 5th March 2008

Modern Painters: the Camden Town Group
Tate Britain, until 5 May

A handsome catalogue (£24.99 in paperback) has been produced to accompany the exhibition. I have not yet had time to read it thoroughly, but from skimming and dipping I gained the impression of a slightly grudging undercurrent. It’s almost as if the distinguished authors were apologising for spending so much time and energy in writing about artists who were neither particularly radical nor particularly modern. There seems to be something of a contradiction here: on one side, the exhibition makes an argument for the modernity of the work (viz. the show’s title), on the other it denies it. This is the wrong approach. Surely the great strength of Camden Town painting is its modesty, half-conservative, half-innovative, but also tough and solid, frequently delectable in colour and texture, and therefore lovable. There should be no need to apologise for such sterling values. Modernism is rarely lovable, which makes it more suited to the museum than the drawing-room. Camden Town paintings have brought light and warmth to many a domestic interior and I trust will continue to do so.

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