THE Thirties is an ambitious exhibition and one which has taken the Arts Council and the Victoria and organise. sculpture of the period and architecture, graphics and decorative art but it also covers design as it was reflected In transport, industry at the time. All this plus a documentary section entitled 'Society Observed'.
'modernism') with straightforward nostalgia and so provides something for everyone.
fascinating. time but the amateur days were over and the BBC could claim 5 million licenced receivers in 1932. The advance of the popular newspapers took place in the 30's and it was a boom building. It was the beginning of the development of the mass media into the powerful, sophisticated force for controlling ideas that it is today.
Weaknesses advertising posters are certainly entertaining.
downright hilarious the Whitehouse Westbury tothat of the stern faced lantern-jawed Australian cricketers.
clearly demonstrated in the decade was a time of misery for the mass of people.
1932; the dole was cut; millions lived in slutt COLORS the speaking.
screened by ATV next Tuesday at opm.
Albert Museum more than four years to Not only does it cover painting and communications It is worth going to see. It combines a survey of in design [the battle The picture of the mass media it gives Broadcasting was still young at this time for cinema Advertising too was in its infancy in the 30's, much more self conscicus, and the display of Shell In the documentary section there is much that is. from the photograph of the Ramblers Association West of England Rally at But the weaknesses of the exhibition are most 'Society Observed' section which aims to reflect the social concerns of It is not at all apparent from this section that the Unemployment reached nearly four million in "Before the Monsoon' is a trilogy of three one-hour films, two of which have already been screened, on India. Directed with passion and flair by Michael Grigsby they break with traditional documentaries by letting the people do all One of the central figures is Ashok Kumar (above), an engine-driver who is a militant of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The last film will be Nor is it apparent that against these conditions. In 1931 12,000 sailors of the Atlantic Fleet at Invergardia passed resolutions against pay cuts; in 1932 there Birkenhead against the means test; in Hyde park there was a succession of huge demonstrations by the in : bellas acmanals work resulted establishing control with fixed; there was the crushing defeat of Mosley's black-shirts at Cable Streetjand there famous hunger marches.
Out of 245 exhibits in this section we are offered only a couple of pictures of the Jarrow marchers and one of these is a 'witty' painting of a bourgeois couple in evening dress looking down from their window on the arrival of the marchers in London.
people fought back WEA were riots demonstrations 2,000 police. : In gunfire and bayonets were the To be fair, there is some representation of the work of the Ashington Group which began as a class in art appreciation, members of which are miners and the Artists' Association whose exhibition was Artists against war and fascism'.
But these themes are not dominant in exhibition. The reality of working class This is partly because most of the photographs in the exhibition were originally taken from the Daily Herald between 1931 and 1939 and the romantic rustic scenes were all part of the editor's own campaign against 'modernism' Attempts could have been made to go beyond the editorial emphasis of the Daily Herald. example the decade resounded with pit disasters.
recurred on the pages of the Daily Herald.
more acculalcy marchers.
the the classes. It was a decade of class Britain as well as internationally.
with the situation today. most first major Lamning, the £2.95. life is For Instead of one or two cheerful photos of miners waiting to go down the pit, there could have been photos of the rescues and pit-head vigils which For that matter why rely on the Daily Herald for the depiction of reality? Surely the Arts Council could have collaborated with the National Museum of Labour History to represent social conditions The Bede Gallery would have let the Arts council display the banners of the hunger reason, the result romanticised view of the 30's. Despite increasing social mobility as represented by Shell's posters and BP Ethyl ads, there remained a huge guif between conflict, in the powers that be are afraid of us drawing parallels THE OTHER BOOKSHOP NEW TITLES In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta, Allison and Busby, £1.95 Season of Adventure, by George Allison and Busby, One Azania, One Nation: The National Question in Africa, by No Sizwe, Zed Press, £2.95.
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