MODERN PAINTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

MODERN PAINTING.

"STUDIO'S" VADE MEC.UM. WILL DYSON REFUTED. AIM OF MODERN PAINTERS. (From Our Own Correspondent). LONDON, May 5. The "Studio," which is doing. such notable work in reproduction of good art and of critical comment, has added to our debt by publishing at moderate price a review of the year's art. Up to the present time there has been no yearly volume devoted to the fine arts (painting, drawing, and sculpture) and serving both as a record of the events of the year and a guide to the direction of the world's interest in art. In a production which covers so much ground—events of the year, and, of course, Persian painting—it is difficult to single out any one part of its contents for notice, but the section devoted to modern British painting certainly merits some quotation, particularly as in it there is a reproduction of "The River at Kew," by Mr. Frederick Porter, the New Zealand artist who has been called the "Crome of the present generation." Mr. Porter is one of the London Artists' Association, which numbers Adeney, Keith Baynes, Vanessa Bell, and Roger Fry among its members. Mr. P. G. Konody, who writes this section, destroys one hoary belief when he begins by telling us: "In Will Dyson's exhibition of satirical etchings at the St. George's Gallery, there was a plate which depicted a British artist offering his work to an art dealer, who refuses it with the explanation that he only exhibits works by artists with foreign names. Considering the London exhibitions of 1930 as a whole, I can find no justification for the Australian satirist's attack. There were indeed a few shows by foreign artists, and by British artists with foreign names, but the vast majority of the exhibiting painters were the bearers of quite unContinental names, like John, Dobson, Morris., Nash, Smith, Nicholson, or Bell. Moreover, although 1930 was not a bumper 'year in any field, all these artists sold their pictures reasonably well, even in the later months,, when there was a much advertised depression. Indeed, towards the close of the year Muirhead Bone sold every single one of his* Spanish drawings in his exhibition at Colnaghi's Galleries, and something approaching a hundred pictures were sold from the exhibition held by the practically unknown members of the East London Group at the Lefevre Galleries."

Place of British Artists. He goes on to say: "The more distinguished British artists of the modern school tend in fact to be rather independent of the fluctuations of high finance, because their work is mainly connected by people of taste but of relatively modest wealth. The very rich buy old masters and the most expensive British pictures; but there are many other collectors who buy pictures priced at sums between 40 and 300 guineas, and who buy them not as an investment but because they like them and because they wish to encourage the spirit of artistic creation which they represent. Time and again it has been proved in the event that works bought in this spirit are likely, nevertheless, to be profitable investments, particularly if the collector is a man of real taste and is not afraid of originality, or if he takes expert advice. Most modem British artists of originality and talent are soon 'discovered' by the amateurs and cognoscenti; and inquiry would show that such artists sell a reasonable proportion of their pictures for modest prices to quiet, discerning collectors for many years before their names are known to the large public which only visits official exhibitions and only becomes acquainted with reputations when they have already long been established in art circles. I remember the time, not so very long ago, when the modest sum of £25 would secure a characteristic picture by Matthew Smith, which would now command about ten times that amount." What Modern Painters Mean.

Mr. Konody gives ah extremely interesting analysis of what the modern artist is aiming at. "The essential point that still remains to be realised before most of the artists of the modern school are transferred from the position of artists favoured only by discerning collectors to artists admired by a really wide public, is that the subject in the works of these artists resides in the pictures themselves, and not in the subjects which inspired their creation. The modern artist is as much concerned with the creation of harmony within his frame as a musician is concerned with the creation of harmony in its own right. Before the modern period there was the closest connection between painting and literature; now there is a parallel connection between painting and music; and just as nobody demands of a musician that his composition should faithfully illustrate or faithfully reproduce natural sounds, so nobody in the period to which we are advancing will, expect a painter to place such considerations on the first plane. The moment it is generally recognised that a painted picture is a world unto itself, and must be judged as an aesthetic harmony without reference to any particular objects or effects or ideas outside the frame, then the whole battle of modern painting will have finally been won."