The Camden Town Group in Context

 The Camden Town Group are holding their winter exhibition at the Carfax Gallery. This association of young men contains some of the most talented artists of the day, who are on the way to making a name for themselves. In addition, dignity and importance and the traditional attitude are secured to the group by the presence in it of celebrities as celebrated as Mr. Augustus John and Mr. Walter Sickert. The group has no dominating theory to exploit, and manifests its energies in as varying fashions as are exemplified by the Piccassoism [sic] of Mr. Wyndham Lewis and the jewelled impressionism of Mr. Lucien Pissaro [sic]. Mr. Wyndham Lewis’s “Danse” is a frank imitation of the cubist convention, with a touch of Futuristic ferocity about the strenuousness of its lines. Although the artist cannot very well be said to have added anything of his own to the convention which he uses, his obviously ardent belief in the mode in which he works betokens sincerity, and is evidence that when he does “find himself,” the discovery will be gratifying. Determined disciples make resolute masters. The trimmers, being convenient people who make life easy for the art critic, are popular as a rule, for the ready-made picture can be matched with a ready-made formula. Artists like Mr. Wyndham Lewis are apt to arouse what are called the worst passions of the critics, which, however, are tolerably mild except in the case of two or three veterans of controversy it would be pleasant but unwise to mention, in whom still burns that charming anachronism, the volcanic temperament.