Arts: Off the Subject

Eric Gill’s War memorial for Leeds University, England, recently unveiled by the Bishop of Ripon, has aroused as much comment for being ” off the subject” as Sir William Orpen’s painting To the Unknown British Soldier. Gill’s work represents Christ with a seven-thonged whip, driving before him a woman with a vanity case, a man with a pawnbroker’s emblem, men in top hats and frock coats. The sculptor explained: ” We still have money-changers in England.”