"ART IN AUSTRALIA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

"ART IN AUSTRALIA."

NOTABLE LANDSCAPE PAINTERS.

What "Art in Austria" has done for the fine arts in the Commonwealth only the future will make clear. That this publication has had a great deal to do with the formation of taste and the splendid support which both art and craft receive..in Sydney is . obvious to any observer. In two fine publications which lie before .us, "Australian Landscape Painters of } To-day" and the March number of "Art in Australia," we have the latest contributions to the history of art -as.it is being written in the Commonwealth.

In publishing - these beautiful books, which'show jn colour the work of the artists who are painting to-day in Australia, the publishers are doing a great work for posterity. They are also doing a great work for the young students, 'both in Australia and New Zealand, who otherwise would have no means of seeing the work of their contemporaries. Few who live in the country or in the smaller towns of .New Zealand have any means of comparing what they are attempting to do with what is really fine art knd thus forming their taste,. This "Art in Australia" enables them to .' do. By a small expenditure they cah acquire these volumes and thus be in touch with painters the other side of the Tasman Sea. It is only 'when the originals are seen that it can be grasped how- trife are these reproductions'. Australia is, very happy in its landscape painters; the glowing colour and the pure light "seem , to invite painting. "Australian Landscape Painters of To-day'Ma a special and .splendid monument to Australian artists. In the March number in Australia" has returned; to the former style of representing a number of different artists' work, amongst them some very modern examples of the moderti outlook in Europe, which has been much to the fore for some years, but luckily is now passing, the- outlook which depends upon a certain tapestry form of pattern and ignores both solidity and exact drawing when dealing with both figure and landscape.

There is a very interesting article on "Applied Art," by Mrs. Margaret Preston, who has made such a success of wood blocks, a craft which she lias taught herself and .in which she excels. In this she refers to aboriginal art and its application to design. A section is devoted to architecture, which is making Sydney one of beautiful cities of the new world.