ART SOCIETIES.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 5 September 1930, Page 17

ART SOCIETIES.

NO MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL BODY. PRESENT SYSTEM ADEQUATE. No intimation of any endeavour to form a Royal Academy of New Zealand Art has been reccvicd in Christchurch, stated both Mr R. Walßvork, Director of the Canterbury College School of Art, and Mr Archibald Nicoll, when questioned yesterday upon the Gov-ernor-General's comments on the suggestion mado in Wellington that such a body should be formed. The original proposal was made by a member of the Board of the New Zealand Academy of Pine Arts (Wellington) at a recent meeting, but no action was taken. Mr Nicoll stated that when the annual exhibition of the Wellington Society was held shortly, representatives of the Art Societies of the other centres were to confer in order to consider questions affecting them all, but this had nothing to do with the formation of anything in the nature of a National Academy. At present the exhibitions of the individual Societies were national in scope, for artists from all centres sent their work to all of them, and there was an agreement between the Societies whoreby the freight charges on pictures sent to any exhibition were paid by the Society holding it. Lately, to avoid the cost of paying freight on work which was of insufficient merit to be hung in the exhibitions, the Societies had docidcd to limit this payment to the works actually accepted for exhibition. Australian Conditions.

Mr Wallwork said that he was of the opinion that whoever had made the original suggestion about a Royal Academy had really meant a national body, for Royal patronage could be obtained only by charter. There had been a Royal Art Society at Sydney for many years, and this was entitled so to style itself. A.t one time it had become a fairly pedestrian body, and an opposition came in i being—the Society of Artists—which possessed considerable vitality. The exhibitors for this were elected, and held membership for three years only, when .they had to reoffer themselves for eloction. Later tho Royal Society had become more active, and had expended money in scholarships to send artists to Eurdpe and had established a school. They had altered their membership, putting it on an elective basis, with associates as well as full members.

Australia had developed in this manner a system which was, on the face of it, something liko the British Royal Academy. If it came to forming a national body in New Zealand, he did not know exactly how it could be done in relation to the existing Societies. Either these would have to be co-ordi-nated or a totally separate establishment set up. The Present Position.

It was pointed out that there were four main Societies—the Christchurch, Auckland, and Dunedin Societies of Arts, and the New Zealand Academy of Fino Arts at Wellington, which was a local society just as the others were. The four Societies were all strongly established, and they offered painters a good opportunity of displaying their work, especially as they paid the freight on pictures sent to them. This was in advantage not given by Societies in England, where painters had to pay the cost of transport of their work to the exhibitions, unless they were specially invited to send it.

There had been some suggestion recently that a Society of Professional Painters should be formed, but nothing had been done. The difficulty was to decide exactly who were professional painters, for very few artists in the Dominion were not dependent for their income on sources other than their art, most of them being engaged in teaching or other work. A Society in which merit was the determining factor of membership seemed more feasible under present conditions.