ART EXHIBITION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 240, 10 October 1932, Page 5

ART EXHIBITION.

A NOVEL EXPERIMENT. " NO REJECTIONS." AUCKLAND SOCIETY'S SPRING SHOW. * To be opened this evening at the Art Gallery, Kitchener Street, by the Mayor of Auckland is an exhibition of work by the of the Auckland Society of Arts. It is unique in this respect that each member had the right to send in four works in each class, colour, black and write, and craft, with the comforting assurance that there would be no need to run the gauntlett of a gimleteyed committee; each work had the guarantee of being exhibited. Painters, like farmers, are generally considered to exercise fully a premptive right to grumble, and at the last annual exhibition of the society there was a good deal of dissatisfaction by local members, who considered they had been passed over to the benefit of "foreigners." The president then in power was Dr. E. B. Gunson, and he hit on the idea of a spring show at which all work sent in— within the maximum—would be hung as a matter of course. The result is now displayed on tie walls of the gallery.

Fairly Representative,

Naturally, the .work is uneven, but as an unexpurgated evidence of the quality of the Auckland painters it is undeniably interesting. As might be expected tho water colours are in the majority, numbering over 90, compared with pust over 40 oils. Even the exhibitors themselves would admit that here and there an interloper finds wall-space, whereas in a ccnsored show it would not even have achieved the somewhat doubtful success of being housed in the "c'hamber of horrors." But, taken all round, the work may justly bo said to be fairly representative of a society of amateurs —and as such it should be judged. If Auckland does not abound in heavenborn geniuses, that is not tho fault of the society; and it may be a healthy object lesson to show the public—and the artists themselves—exactly what Auckland can do. Notable Exhibits. Among the oils there are several 'portraits, a branch in which so few amateurs are really happy, and the exhibition does not reveal anything out of tho ordinary. Perhaps the most attractive bit of work is a skilfully painted portrait of a girl in a red jacket, by Ida H. Carey. A couple ox landscapes by H. Tornquist, a name new as a painter but familiar as a clever photographer, stand out as having caught the spirit of the scene with a fidelity that is absent from the usual run of work. Pictures that catch the eye include a couple by Ida G. Eise and Russell F. Whitcombe. The watercolours are even more unequal in quality than the oils, but all the same one or two contain more evidence of mastery than any of the oils. Notable are a couple by Lucretia Johnson, a washing day at Whakarewarewa being a most workmanlike bit of brushwork. Alice F. Whyte and Hilda Wiseman both show their keen eye for a picturesque bit in humble surroundings, such as a backyard or a fowlrun. Other'exhibits that show feeling are by A. Hansen, Ella Spicer and E. Fenton.

11l tlio black and white section will be found several attractive entries, among others that are distinctly "amateurish." Mention may be made of the work of Connie Lloyd, D. V. Young, A. M. Davies, B. Jackson, E. Wadham, May O. Gilbert, Lois White and F. P. Worley. The arts and craft section is not large, but it contains eoine beautiful examples of handweaving by Josephine Mulvany and Sybil Mary Mulvany, and some pottery by Briar Gardner. • .