ART EXHIBITION DISPLAYS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25913, 20 September 1949, Page 4

ART EXHIBITION DISPLAYS

MCDOUGALL GALLERY TO BE USED

ONE COLLECTION ANNUALLY A decision to use in future the city’s own gallery, the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, for the display of art collections has been made by the finance committee of the City Council. The exhibition of early British watercolours, sponsored by the Empire Art Loan Exhibitions Society and now in New Zealand, will be displayed in February. The estimate of the cost of the exhibition, exclusive of internal transport costs, is £440 and it is expected that Christchurch’s share will be the same as Dunedin’s, which is now 20 per cent. The Internal Affairs Department is understood to be making a grant to cover internal transport. The following preferential oraer for future exhibitions, submitted by the council's art advisory committee, has been adopted:—British school. Turner and Constable: British school. Wth century masters; contemporary British watercolours; pictures from the Chantrey bequest. Only one exhibition of pictures a year will be accepted. As the Massey collection of 75 paintings presented to the National Gallery of Canada is considered “a most desirable and important collection,” the committee has indicated that it would be interested in exhibiting it in the McDougall Art Gallery. The Carnegie Corporation is sending the collection to Australia. In the opinion of the advisory committee and Mr W. S. Baverstock. the oil paintings by W. E. Chapman, offered to the city by Mr and Mrs T. L. Uren, were not suitable for acceptance. The later work by the painter did not compare well with his earlier work, -two specimens of which are in the McDougall Gallery. Mr and Mrs Uren are to be thanked for their offer.