OUR ARTISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 259, 1 November 1937, Page 6

OUR ARTISTS.

"ALL-LANDSCAPE" SCHOOL

HISTORICAL SUBJECTS NEGLECTED.

(By J.C.)

An inspection of the pictures shown at annual exhibition* by our New Zealand artists leaves one pleased with many agreeably drawn and painted scenes from mountain, bush and sea coast,. Hut there is that too-familiar sense of disappointment, an unsatisfied search for something beyond the eternal landscape. The lack of originality in theme and treatment, the failure to rise above the customary and the conventional, frankly puzzle those who go to these shows hoping to discover some signs of native genius. Some effort to develop a special field toy work the rich mines of indigenous colour and life, should reasonably be expected at this stage of New Zealand's art education. At a recent city art exhibition — not Auckland's—one looked round almost in vain for something out of the ordinary. Not <iuite in vain; there were two or three good portrait, studios, and there was a <)uite joyous maritime bit, a mullet boat lifting along on the tide top, life in the blue sea, the white sail. Hut the hundreds of oils and watercolours on the walls were for the greater part without animation or suggestion, devoid of a touch of imagination. There was little to indicate the living present; nothing to remind us that New Zealand has a past of great action, of romance and heroism.

Hero we have a country stimulating au<l - vivkl, a scene that seems designed hy Nature to foster an art of its own. something bold, refreshing, vital, that will reflect the life and effort of a new. young, adventurous nation. Humanity and its deeds are so much more . important to the ;irtiat, as to the writer, than • the environment of hill and ' ree and water. r But the two are interdependent. The bush- • man at his work, the farmer with his ploughing . team, give the cheerful living element to the , scene. The imagination should have some- | thing on which to play. There is so much , in the breaking in, the building up, in our ' pioneer years to inspire our young artists. That era has. not yet passed. A rugged gorge I in a bush wilderness may engage the painter's i fancy and his bru-sh. How greatly the interest | of such a scene is enhanced by the efforts of . man, the engineers approaching each other . with their lofty tpans of steel, from opposite ■ cliff tops. That i* a typical detail of the Imilding of a country that surely should not be despised in the evolution of a distinctive art. A Brangwyn would make vigorous use of that viaduct-building, and of related scenes I of constructive energy in our national progress. Most of our artist* appear to be shy of II figure drawing and of action. The temptation '| is great to take the path of least resistance I and to ply a slick brush on landscape—though ''even in l.iudseape they hesitate to use the I gorireous colour in which Nature often steeps [ i herself —rather than to attempt a picture 1 which depends for its value on human life and 1 movement. Painting New Zealand's Story. 1 Imaginative ami historical subjects are " wholly neglected by our exhibiting artists i all over New Zealand. Why this reluctance r to engage in a field of art' that holds such . possibilities of noble pictures.? Probably it involves such necessity for study and for competent figure drawing that the timid, or ; prudent, painter prefers to continue bis undis--1 tinguished course of landscape. There is such ' a wealth of subjects, a glorious wealth in the . story of New Zealand, for the competent artist; and it should be realised that the time ■ is very near when there will l»c a call for such pictures. The story of the first century of New Zealand's colonisation by British people undoubtedly should be expressed in art. The life of the pioneers, the settling of the country, the adventures of explorers, the bush life, the , conflict of the two races, the maritime life in this sea-itidented hind, provide heroic themes for the artist. The writer, the poet, have eagerly seized on such subjects; the painter is the only one who. as a class, funked theni. There is. too. the noble field of folk lore, the Maori equivalent of midsummer night's dreams, the Maori wonder tales, the Maori sailors, warriors, explorers, the spirit of the Maori forest. That branch of art study, with itfi demand upon the artists' imagination as well as a demand for some research, will have its | reward, lam sure. But that reward will only ibe for the artist who will have the vigour | and the brains to break away from the convention!, the artist who has the root of the matter in him. Only one of all our living artists is doing such work, only one who bus had the inspiration, the enthusiasm and the independence to develop his own branch of art in bis own way. Mr. Coldie's studies of Maori types are sui generis. For forty 'years he lias gone to the Maori for his intensive study, and now the Maori as he found him has ;ill but vanished. \o one can do such I work again. Mr. Coldie's example, however. : should not be lost on our artists, and particularly the young and the native born. They have open to them the almost illimitable vista iof life in these island*, and before them the 'possibility of success comparable to that of tin' great portrayer of the Maori, in depicting • with freedom and originality other aspects of ! New Zealand history and tradition. Thus will the country's cultural progress be expressed in the mo-t attractive form; but it can only be expressed at the cost of close study and ] great pains, for in this excursion into a | wonderful field the race is not lo the slick.