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Reader’s letter: Kiddey should be celebrated, not dismissed




Johno Lee’s open letter to Paul Peacock (News Views, October 3) about “those ridiculous Kiddey Stones project” displays a regrettably dismissive attitude to the work of perhaps the most gifted artist to have been a Newark resident.

I suggest that Mr Lee looks at the exhibition of Kiddey’s work in the town hall and consults the files about him in the public library.

Robert Kiddey (1900-84) exhibited his internationally acclaimed work — some of it alongside pieces by Picasso, Eric Gill and Augustus John — in London, the Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris, and several European countries.

Letter
Letter

Local examples of his skill can be seen at Newark Parish Church, Southwell Minster and Nottingham’s Council House.

Kiddey taught for many years at the Newark Technical College.

Mr Lee should be celebrating his life in Newark rather than carping about the cost of his historic artworks.

Mr Lee apparently perceives some connection between the Labour Cabinet’s freebies and the future of the Kiddey Stones.

Given that his political colleague, Robert Jenrick, has recently received £75,000 from a shadowy outfit based in a tax haven, Mr. Lee might be wise to recall the proverb about people in glass houses. — PHILIP CONFORD, via email.



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