The Arts in Britain

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 308, 18 May 1945, Page 15

The Arts in Britain

MAKE no apology for continuing to comment on the BBC talks (heard direct on alternate Sundays at 6.15 p.m., Pacific Service) on the present-day position of the artistic life of Britain, for few people will have heard them and they have such an extraordinary

interest that they should be more widely known. Perhaps Athe various speakers, persons of distinction in the critical world, are unduly optimistic, but the note of rebirth and reassurance is common to all; all sound excited in the literal sense — stirred by a hew movement and a new life. The last talk I heard dealt chiefly with the work of CEMA, which body co-ordinates and distributes to the people at large the work of the various artistic bodies — stage, ballet, opera, etc. But two remarks especially stand out; one, that the artist seemed newly aware of his social responsibilities; the other, that the tendency of painters, novelists and film producers was all in the direction of emphasising the human subjects rather than their background and. environment. When one reflects that "social responsibility" in the last has generally meant depicting the Man as completely dominated and crushed by the Street, the heart tends to leap up. Perhaps we are embarking on a new development, a sort of indystrial humanism-but one fears to speak too soon.