Extract from the Milwaukee Journal’s review of the touring  ‘New British Painting’ exhibition – ‘Today’s British art lacks clout, but is routed in a fine tradition’ by James Auer, April 30^th 1989.

‘But the single most evocative picture in the show is also the most meaningful in terms of 20^th century British history.

It is “Sequel”, an immensely moving oil in which Jonathan Waller portrays not only the rusting, abandoned hulk of a steam locomotive but, in a larger sense, the death of the Victorian era, with its naïve trust in technology as the saviour of mankind and protector of long-held Western ideals.

Ironically, the locomotive is portrayed upside down. Thus, rather than inverting the picture, Waller inverts the subject. Whether or not the reference to Baselitz, that present-day Teutonic master of inversion, is intentional, it still points up the differences between British and German art – and adds spice to the competition in the bargain.’