‘The Best in the Worst of All Possible Worlds’: Lewis and the Institutions

Abstract

This chapter examines Lewis’s evolving critical position in later life in light of his own professional exchanges with some of the institutions governing the art world. The chapter is structured around three case studies, documenting Lewis’s interactions with three key institutions: the Royal Academy, in particular the controversy surrounding their rejection of his Portrait of T.S. Eliotin 1938; the BBC, which became a key source of patronage for much of Lewis’s later work; and the Arts Council, which he saw as a repository of the values of Bloomsbury, enshrined in the form a new establishment. In particular, this chapter focuses on Lewis’s long critical essay on the Arts Council, published in The Listener in 1949. At this point some correlations between Lewis and Bloomsbury, for so long obscured by rivalry and self-promotion, can be clearly detected; for instance, both Lewis and Keynes were committed to a model of art founded upon autonomy and professional expertise. At the same time, certain unexpected divisions are also made evident, with Lewis emerging, at this late stage, as distinct from Keynes and the other representatives of the Arts Council, as the advocate of equality, opportunity, and transparency in the arts.