Observations placeholder
Ironside, Robin - Satyr Offering an Apple to a Spaniel
Identifier
018238
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
After the war, there came a moment when Robin’s loathing for the bureaucracy of the Tate and his passion for writing and painting set up an unbearable conflict inside him. He became increasingly driven, and art alone dominated his life. He suggested to the Tate that they raise his salary to a decent wage, saying he’d leave if they didn’t; and when they did he resigned all the same.
A description of the experience
“The administrative needs of this very important but unhappy institution are such that, within its doors, I must largely renounce the pursuit of knowledge and that official occasions for enlarging my appreciations elsewhere hardly, if ever, occur,”
“Museum directors who, in their natural eagerness to compensate for their predecessors’ exclusive support of an obsolete representational manner, are perhaps unaware that to purchase a picture because it bears no resemblance to nature or because its resemblance to nature is perfect may be two courses equally mistaken.”