British Committee Appeal
In a letter to The Times of 31 December 1927, the British Committee appealed to the public for a fund 6,000 pounds; British resources had been exhausted at the 1926 Biennale, and another request for Government support earlier in the year had been rejected. The absence of a British representation, the Committee stated, would be
a disatrous calamity when one considers the importance of this great international art market"; "...it is a matter involving the whole prestige of British art that the British pavilion at Venice should be made a permanency, so that the work of our painters may maintain its rightful place in Europe... Our artists have nothing to fear from comparison with artists of any other nation. To deny their works a place in the biennial exhibitions at Venice would be a national blunder.*
The response to this appeal was, however, disappointing.
* (S. D. Paoletti, L'Arte alla IV a Esposizione Internazionale di Venezia, (extract from L'Alto Adige), Trento, 1901 pp.91-93).
(Taken with kind permission from Britain at the Venice Biennale 1895-1995 Edited by Sophie Bowness and Clive Phillpot).
