ART UNIONS - What Are They?
By MEM.
For Women
A RT unions are like salt and t\ emergencies. Salt is something that potatoes taste nasty cooked without. An emergency is something mummy carries safety pins in case of. An art union is something that going in for a competition or writing a play or owning a racehorse is not much better than. We all know what art unions are; they are our dream boats. We see a rich friend in a luxurious fur coat ami we say to ourselves I'm going to have a coat like that when my ship comes in - knowing all the- time that there is not the reunite*! chance of our ship coming in unless—ah. that's where the art union conies in — unless wc have a win in an art union. There arc other ways of striking luck money, cards and horse racing and things like that. Hut. bridge money was never intended to do more than cigarettes and powder for us, and good luck money tin the racecourse one day is too apt to lie bad luck money the next day. Whereas if we were to strike lucky in an art. union- really lucky, one of the big prizes- we should be able to buy a ticket in all subsequent art unions without appreciably affecting the prize. A win in an ait union is even more exciting than inheriting the same sum from a hitherto unknown relation, because, strangely enough, we feel entitled to c ,i-oder ourselves clever for winning an art union. If we do not win, of course, it's just bad luck. If on the other hand we do win, then it was clever of us to walk into the stationer's ju~t. at that, moment to buy the ticket,' because if we had gone to the butcher's first —as some lc~s clever person might have done then that i.tlier woman in the red hat with a. cold ill her nose would have got the winning ticket instead. Or perhaps, we always buy our tickets from the same old lady on the same street corner every time, and have always known that if we went on long enough our turn would be bound to come. Again, there is the delightfully individual touch of choosing the penname, something humorous and original like "Another Mug" or ''Try Again" or "Always 'Oping." In which
case if we win naturally it is only the name chosen that has done the trick. For some of us a ticket in an art union is just a hal.it; for others it is, an ill-afforded chink of hope for escape Mom the litter monotony of inevitable poverty; for other* it 'is the golden opportunity for educating son or daughter, a sort of second chance liecause an insurance policy was not taken out at the right age; for other* it is the only possibility of surmounting some permanent hurdle like the mortgage on the house. For a few of us a ticket in an art union is just a wee dash of naughtiness. A ticket on a horse would be iniquitously out of the question; but there; is always a good cause at the back of an Art Union to justify it; and what a spicy feeling it C'ives one being able to joke about a ticket in an art union, my dear! But for most of us a ticket in an art union is a passport to board a glorious galleon lying pleasantly at anchor, ready the minute our number turns up to sail away over charmed t-eas. And while we have a ticket in the next art union the galleon is there in harbour waiting for us.
Oil, yes, we all know what an art union U. But what has always puzzled me is why it should be called an art union. Where does the art come in? I have never liked to ask anyone because I have always felt that it is a thing one ought instinctively to know, like who the Borgias an-, and the difference between IVnelope and Persephone. A thing one would lie the wrong sort of chump for not knowing. And I have always had a hunch that "art" haft nothing whatever to do with art unions, and to suppose nn would brand one as abysmally ignorant. Well. I have now found out exactly why they are called art. unions, and in ease there are others suffering from inhibitions about them it might be worth while passing; the information on. I found it in a lovely old hook—no. "tome" i~ the correct word— with a smelly leather binding and old
woodcuts for illustrations. It is extraordinary what a lot of useful information these old reference books contain on subjects that have passed by common Ueage beyond the need for tion. We know so well what an art union is in these days that we need no explanation, and so the original meaning is lost.
If you've got one of my books vou'll find art unions just after artificial limbs, where there is a picture of a pirate's wooden arm with hook.
"Art unions are associations having for their object the promotion of an interest in the fine arts, and a more liberal patronage of them by the public." So "aft" doe* come into it,"after all. It goes on to say that the origin seems to belong to the French, but it was the Germans who first fostered them. The first art union was formed in Munich. (How hard it is to get away from reminders of the crisis.) This "was in 1823. and in ten years' time nearly every town in Germany had one. Many of them encouraged the formation of |>ermanent galleries, and the one in Cologne assisted with the completion of the cathedral. The practice grew up of buying every year one important work of art for the permanent gallery. But the idea in the main was for as many patrons as possible to buy tickets in the art union; then lot's were drawn, and the holders,of winning tickets were presented with'the works of art that had been bought with the money for the direct assistance of the artists. At first the work of art was always selected by a committee, as it was thought thoy would have a more discriminating taste than the ticket holder; but in some of the later unions the winner was allowed to choose his own work of art.
The first art union in Britain w«« established in Edinburgh, because it was found that the amount spent at the Scottish Academy's annual exhibition was as low as £35. It seems rather undignified to raffle the pictures in the Scottish Academy, which is honestly speaking what it amounted to. isn't it? A few years later it became necessary for Parliament to pass a special Act to legalise bona-fide art unions as distinct from the unquestionably illegal lotteries. So. perhaps it is in order that they may be considered legal beyond question that the Agricultural aiid Pastoral Societies and Hospitals to this day sail under the protecting name of "art." Personally, I think art unions have improved no end. I should find no difficulty in choosing between alluvial sold and a work of art. After all, one "can always turn alluvial gold into a work of art if one wants to. but not a work of art into alluvial gold. Which was exactly why art unions arose. And here we are right back at the beginning again.
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Bibliographic details
Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 141, 17 June 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)
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1,256ART UNIONS – What Are They? Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 141, 17 June 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)
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