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A 1920 Jan Gordon talk on Modern Art - "A Fierce Battle of Words!"

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Jan Gordon  (1882-1944) often wrote on the development and appreciation of modern art . For example, in the introduction to the Preston Harrison collection of modern French art  and in the discussion of Picasso in "Modern French Painters ." His writings on the transition from academic naturalism to modernism are also discussed here . The Nottingham Journal of Saturday 06 March 1920 reported on a talk on the subject he gave in Nottingham, which resulted in a lively interaction with the audience. Here is the account: MODERN TREND IN ART.  Mr. Jan Gordon’s Exposition in Nottingham. A Nottingham audience and Mr. Jan Gordon, the well-known art critic, waged a fierce battle of words in Circus-street Hall last night over the merits of the art of to-day. There was, he said in his lecture, no such thing as modern art. Art was for all time, and through all ages it sprang from the same sources. The artist was the man who saw most clearly in the world, and the realistic artist