OLD AND NEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 153, 30 June 1934, Page 12

OLD AND NEW.

ARTISTIC OUTLOOK. STORIES TOLD IN PICTURES. LANGUAGE OF THE PAINTERS. "What is art?" asked Mr. W. Basil Honour, in opening his address on the development of British art, states the Christehurch "Star." Mr. Honour, who is honorary secretary of the New Zealand Society of Artists, gave a short talk in order to give visitors to the exhibition of the Empire loan collection of British pictures a greater appreciation of the works at present being shown in the old Art Gallery.

M>. Honour said that it was necessary to know first what art really was. It was skill, combined with the thoughts of the artist, which were expressed in materials. An artist must know the realities of life, and must understand the. possibilities and at the same time the limitations of his materials.

Pictures were the language of the artist. It was necessary to understand this before his meaning became clear. In most cases pictures which appealed instantly were the equivalent of platitudes, whereas real art was not easy to understand.

Dealing with the exhibition itself, Mr. Honour said that the pictures shown were painted over a period of seventy years, beginning with on-e of Whistler's works. To understand Whistler, it should be remembered thnt his pictures were painted in ISfSO, when art had deteriorated, owing to the demand for popular pictures. With the rise in democracy, art had suffered. Whistler, however, was constantly at variance with the academy mid critics of his day. One of his pictures, "Nocturne of Battersea Bridge," which was derided ■by Raskin in 1878, was sold for thousands of pounds in the early part of this century. Whistler moulded his pictures, into symphonies and harmonies, when the popular demand wae for portraits, Qr pictures that "told a story."

The exhibition's next pictures after Whistler were some of Orpen's, John's and Ambrose McEvoyVs. These showed the influence of the old masters. John beinn. perhaps more vital than Orpen.

A number of pictures represented the vigorous young painters of the war period. These included works by John and Paul Nash, William Roberts", Richard Wyndham and others. Their works showed originality, the old Victorian traditions breaking- down completely against the realism of the war. At the same time, however, the influence of the old masters wa* still felt. "The Chess Players," by William Roberts, was a good example of this school of painting. Richard Wyndham'es "Provencal Landscape" demonstrated how these painteTS thought, by his expressing trees by symbolic rather than exact markings. Christopher Wood's "Boats," .at first sight crude, was of greater appeal xhan a faithful representation. Th-e artist, seeing the boats in the harbour as either funny little tubs or toys, had expressed them as such.

In conclusion, Mr. Honour said that the beet way to view the exhibition was with an open mind.