Letter: Exciting pictures at an exhibition

Sir: Norman Rosenthal has given enormous pleasure to hundreds and thousands of people through his curatorship of exhibitions at the Royal Academy. Since his arrival it has changed from a stuffy institution to one of vision.

The criticisms heaped upon him by artists and critics who cannot see the horizons of creativity expanding beyond their own favourites is sad indeed (Letters: Anthony Caro, 17 September; Bryan Robertson, 20 September; John Hoyland, 2 October). They only create a negative climate which helps entrench the prevailing conservative rejection of almost all contemporary art.

The Rosenthal/Joachimides American art show demonstrates many of the excitingly extensive range of creative languages which have been explored this century. It shows artists who have not been frightened to work with new techniques to express new ideas. As a painter, I find this enormously stimulating.

The exhibition is an affirmation that like life, art must change to flourish.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN DEWE MATHEWS

London, NW1