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Article: East meets best
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- April 3, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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London's Whitechapel Gallery was founded to improve poor people's
lives through fine art. As it reopens after a two-year refit, Tom
Lubbock still senses an old idealism
Pictures "raise blessed thoughts in me - why not in you, my
brother? Believe it, toil-worn worker, in spite of thy foul alley,
thy crowded lodging, thy ill-fed children, they thin, pale wife,
believe it, thou too, and thine, will some day have your share of
beauty". This is Charles Kingsley, Victorian Christian socialist,
improving the slums with culture. He spoke with the voice of his
time. Oh, those crazy Victorians. They were such unbelievable
believers.
Nobody has put that much faith in art before or since - and not
only ...