Dear Sir, — Though the writer is in complete agreement with the criticism of the Royal College of Art, given in the Memorandum on Art School Education published in your February issue, he feels that the Board of Education and the local education authorities are not dealt with adequately.
The Board of Education pays its grants on attendances. For this reason large classes are desired by local authorities. Numbers appeal inevitably to the average committeeman. Quantity rather than quality would appear to be sought by local education authorities.
From this diffuseness arises the prevalent idea that teaching is almost the only occupation offering a livelihood to the art student. In many schools the training of teachers would seem to be the sole aim in view, and the increasing practice, by local education authorities, of regarding Associateship of the Royal College of Art as the one qualification for teachers has intensified this.
Large sums are spent all over the country in providing classes for amateurs who attend, often with little or no intention of serious study (unless they aspire to be teachers), but merely to get things made for their own use or adornment. Often students of this type use their school as a workshop, and sell what they make.
It is heartening to see that the good work of some schools is recognised in the memorandum. Money that would help to provide the staff and equipment needed to bring these schools, where serious work is being done, up to present-day needs, is too often dissipated in providing classes whose work is quite out of touch with industry.
The writer notes with pleasure the opinion that the status of the schools and of the competent students they produce must be raised. Without this, reform will avail but little. Manufacturers must learn to recognise the schools and co-operate with them. Employers must prepare themselves to offer, in their drawing offices or works, prospects to the promising and capable student comparable to those of the teacher. No able and well- trained designer and executant of, say, twenty to twenty-five years old, will be content with the wages of the ordinary operative.
Education in art, especially on the appreciative side, should be available, possibly made compulsory, for those who intend to qualify for the higher positions in industries in which design plays a vital part.
Much of the trouble besetting art education may be summed up in the saying of an eminent artist to the writer: “In this city they will pay you to teach, but they will not pay you to work.”
BERNARD CUZNER.
Birmingham.
Dear Sir, — I was very glad to read your article on the Reform of Art Schools. A very pressing need, in my opinion, is the reform of the classroom lighting. Most art schools I have been in are singularly lax in this most important item. More often than not high power clear glass lamps in the old-fashioned conical shade hang directly in the path of the student’s vision. In the “lettering” class which I have been recently attending, the glare has been such that only one half of the blackboard has been visible when the master has wished to demonstrate some point thereon.
C. BERNARD MAYCOCK.
Wolverhampton.
Dear Sir, — May I, as an old student of the Royal College of Art, who has had some experience of art as head of an art school and also some practical experience of industry, say how much I appreciate the Memorandum on the Royal College of Art published in Design for To-day? Old students generally realise that they owe a great deal to the college, and have nothing but the greatest goodwill towards it. But many of us who have since been engaged in industry know that the lack of opportunity at the R.C.A. for acquiring an understanding of industrial design leaves a serious gap in the educational life of the country. The college still has the same remote acquaintanceship with industry that it had twenty-five years ago.
If I had any criticism to make, it would be that the Memorandum does not mention the existing schools of painting, sculpture and architecture. The intellectual background for the study of industrial art is very important indeed. From my own experience I can testify that the cultural benefit to design students of contact with workers in the other arts is considerable and should not be overlooked. It may be suggested that the younger architects have a good deal of sympathy with the ideals and aims of the modern industrial designer. By many people they are even regarded as the spearhead of the movement.
If the intellectual background for industrial art is important, the broadening influence also of industry on those training for the fine arts must be taken into account. In this connection it will not be inappropriate to mention the forthcoming Industrial Art Exhibition at the Royal Academy. The success of the attack by able designers on the problems of machine work and of mass production has brought about certain changes of taste and has altered many of the decorative values. It will be interesting to see to what extent the results are appreciated and understood by the eminent academicians who will have the final word in the selection and arrangement of the exhibits.
I have never listened patiently to the people who make a habit of comparing our lethargic mental outlook with the alertness of mind they find on the Continent. The D.I.A. Memorandum definitely brings nearer the day when one will be justified in making an appropriate and disrespectful retort to the complaint that one should look at what Germany (or some other country) is doing for the training of industrial designers
Dear Sir, — I think this photograph of a sign outside the offices of the Copper Development Association at Thames House, which has been designed by Eric Munday, may be of some interest to your readers. The sign was intended partly as an illustration of the possibilities of copper in its various finishes considered “functionally” for such purposes, since the scheme presented certain problems of positioning and lighting.
The tubular copper carriage was designed in such a way that the heavy copper-faced lettering panel is “cantilevered” and needs no elaborate fixing or suspension. Experiment ruled out the use of a brightly polished surface, as the reflected light made the letters illegible. The panel was therefore toned down to a dark matt bronze colour. The letters were picked out in the pale green colour of the “patina” which copper assumes after exposure to the atmosphere, and which can now be comparatively rapidly produced by electrolytic or chemical methods now being developed.
BASIL MARRIOTT, Architectural Adviser, Copper Development Association
A NEW USE FOR GLASS
Dear Sir, — A short time after reading the interesting article on “The Tools of the Table” in the January number, I saw some glass knives at one of the big London stores. I enclose a photograph, and should like to hear what you have to say on the subject of their design. London, W.i. M. Shirley.
(We do not feel that glass is ever likely to be a suitable material for knives, the function of which is firstly to cut, and secondly to spread. Glass has neither sufficient edge for the one nor resilence for the other. It is also obvious that such knives would not long survive the daily ordeal of washing up at the kitchen sink, unless made of glass of an armour plate variety, and apart from their unsuitable material these knives are clumsy in appearance and look as though they would be uncomfortable to hold. There is a tendency among some manufacturers to indulge in “stunts” of this kind which the serious designer deplores. — Ed.)
A NEW STATION
Dear Sir, — You have published so many photographs of new Underground stations which certainly deserved your praise, that I hope you will find room for this photograph of a new station on the Tyneside by the L.N.E.R. It is a very simple affair, but by a rhythmic repetition of two windows, door, two windows, door, and each window with nine lights and horizontal bars exactly in line with those of the doors, the architect has given it unity of composition, which is finished off by the uniform employment of Gill Sans lettering.
I believe the station was finished in twenty-eight days. The only doubt in one’s mind is whether the passengers will appreciate the absence of head cover in all weathers.
