British Royal Academy President Attacks Art Critics. "Ah, now that's what I call a painting," exclaims Professor Richardson, pointing to one of the Aviation Artists exhibits. With Professor Richardson is Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, V.C., Britain's Secretary of State for Air. Professor A.E. Richardson, president of Britain's historic Royal Academy, august body of conservative-style artists, doesn't like art critics. Pictured here Professor Richardson lives up to the wasp-tongued tradition of his predecessors in the presidential chair, when he stated at the opening at London's Guildhall Tuesday of the Society of Aviation Artists exhibition: "Art critics are the owls and the bats and the fleas of modern life. Owls because they hoot; bats, because they are upside down; and fleas because they nip." September 14, 1955. (Photo by Daily Express Picture).