ELAM SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 297, 15 December 1936, Page 11

ELAM SCHOOL.

ART EXHIBITION.

EXAMPLES OF PUPILS' WORK. WIDE RANGE OF MEDIUMS. "I would not be ashamed to exhibit this in a much larger place than Auckland," commented Mr. A. J. C. Fisher, director of the Elain School of Art, referring to the annual exhibition of work of the school, which is opened to the public as from to-day. "For the past, two or three years I would not have been ashamed to take a liberal selection to London," he added.

Mr. Fisher explained that the work to be shown was a fair representation of what had been done during the year at the school. He had not chosen the best of the work and discarded all the rest. Some of the worst had been hung as well as some of the best. For the most part, some of what each student had done was shown, whether the student was a junior or a senior. Part of the interest of the exhibition was to demonstrate the progress made from first to final years.

Speaking generally, he said that all work was up to the standard of last year. Some departments were better than others, compared with the previous twelve months, but in the main the standard was improving. A very large amount of work is exhibited. There are oil and water colours of a wide range of subjects. There is sculpture; there are etchings, lithographs, engravings, lettering and illustrations; there are wood cuts. Interesting New Feature. One interesting feature, introduced this year, is what is known as stage designing. This is for people interested in drama. In the latter department there is actually a miniature stage, complete with lighting effects, so that the students can see for themselves. The first step is the giving to the students of an instruction to produce on paper | the impression to bo given by a stage i direction. For example, they were told to draw a place "where a murder might have been committed." This is the visual aspect. Then the next step is to translate that effect on to the stage, using, instead of the mediums usual to the artist, the actual technical appliances of the stage. This is a department which will attract considerable interest.

Then in the etching, lithograph and engraving departments the public is invited to inspect the mechanical appliances by which these mediums are translated to paper. The work in these departments shows a most interesting variety of mediums, the individual temperament of the artist deciding which shall be used. For instance, the same subject has been handled in different mediums, which demonstrates the different interpretations which can be put on the subjects.

The sculpture exhibit comprises studies from life, figures in the nude, two torsoes and two original compositions in the round. More work would have been shown but for the fact that the students were engaged in doing statuary work for one of the churches. Encouraging Draughtsmanship. Some of tho best work in the oils section is to be seen in the "life room," where the painting of the senior students is concentrated. There are a number of portraits, some of them excellently done, and a number of still life studies. Mr. Fisher explained that tho aim of the school in this department, as in the others, was to teach sound draughtsmanship as a first essential to sound work later on.