AN exhibition that sparked a North-South row over appreciation of art is due to open in the region this weekend.

Art critic Brian Sewell incurred the wrath of the art fraternity in the region earlier this year when he declared that the North-East was not sophisticated enough to appreciate a major contemporary art exhibition.

The London critic was upset to learn that the Cobra exhibition's 150 works by 20 key artists, would go on show at the Baltic, Gateshead, from March 1.

He said: "It is absolutely absurd to arrange a major exhibition of fundamental importance to the understanding of what happened to art in the second half of the 20th Century and deprive London of an immediate view."

Speaking at a preview yesterday, leading figures in the art world dismissed Sewell's comments that the exhibition should be taken to a "more sophisticated" audiences in London.

Cobra: Copenhagen, Brussels Amsterdam, which opens tomorrow, is the first comprehensive exhibition shown in Britain of the radical post-war movement of artists and poets.

Hayward Gallery senior curator Roger Malbert said: "Cobra will appeal very directly to people. As for Mr Sewell, he has given us a huge amount of advanced publicity and has done us a favour.

"In his own provocative way he regards it as a joke, but this art comes from small countries that were on the margin.

"It is important to do things out of London."

Cobra expert Peter Shields said: "These artists were not interested in selling to the rich. In fact, they were penniless.

"They thought they were provincial to Paris and were proud of it."

He added: "Damnation to sophistication. What has it got to do with anything? Even if people do not understand the paintings, they are thinking about it.

"And if they like them - great."

Baltic director Sune Nordgren said: "We are delighted to be the first venue to present this important exhibition on Cobra, concentrating on the pioneering years of the movement that tried to restore humanity and creativity just after the last world war.

"The revolutionary works of the Cobra artists will never stop engaging, with its unbeatable vitality and force."

Focusing on paintings shown in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris between 1948 and 1951 the exhibition presents more than 150 works by 20 artists, including a major group of painting and drawings by key figures: Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Constant, Asger Jorn and Carl-Henning Pederson.