I saw the Mastry exhibition in Chicago last June and have been talking about it ever since (Report, 16 March). It is one of the most moving and politically important exhibitions I have ever seen – his painting School of Beauty, School of Culture, with its reference to Holbein’s The Ambassadors, is a great painting and a strong political statement in itself. The canvasses are huge, bold and insistent of the right of black artists to be shown – particularly relevant in Chicago now. More importantly, we need to see this exhibition in the UK, and now, not in 50 years’ time at the inevitable retrospective, like America after the Fall, currently at the RA, which is excellent, informative and moving, but very much “Oh that’s how they saw it”. Marshall’s work is how he sees it now, and we need to see that here, in these difficult times. Perhaps some of your readers who work in galleries could arrange it?
Chris Wallis
Stockport
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