N.Z. Art Collection For Exhibition In Russia

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28725, 24 October 1958, Page 12

N.Z. Art Collection For Exhibition In Russia

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 23. A collection of 100 paintings and drawings by New Zealand artists has been selected and will be sent soon to Russia for exhibition, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Anderton) announced today. The work of selecting and assembling the pictures has been completed in Wellington by Mr E. H. McCormick, who was requested to undertake the task by the Department of Internal Affairs, and by Mr S. B. MacLennan, director of the National Art Gallery. “I am most gratified with the result,’’ said Mr Anderton. “The subject is broadly ‘the land and the people,’ and within the limits of the theme this has been excellently illustrated by the work of artists of merit.” The collection comprises oils and watercolours, as well as lithographs and wood block prints, both in- black and white and colour, and drawings in ink, pencil and charcoal. Mr Anderton said that not only was the subject treated wisely and comprehensively for a people to which New Zealand was for the most part unknown, but the various media in which the artists worked would also be made known to them. “Last year we were privileged to see an exhibition of the work of Russian artists,” said Mr Anderton, “and now we are reciprocating by sending a representative collection of the works of New Zealand artists to be shown to the people of Russia This collection ranges over the whole period of settlement in New Zealand, again within the scope of the subject, from the days of the missionaries in the Bay of Islands through the pioneering days to the present era. It shows most- graphically not only the change and development ir. art in New Zealand, but also the progress and development of the country itself. Natural history has not been forgotten, nor has Maori myth and legend. “I feel convinced that this exhibition will fulfil its objective of enabling the people of Russia to visualise this country in all its i aspects—busy streets and wharves, natural forest and cultivated landscape, pastoral activity and heavy industry,” said Mr Anderton. “It is by such cultural exchanges as this that a wiser' and fuller understanding is possible between the people of two nations, for such exhibitions as this are not concerned with politics or trade, but are directed rather to making an impact on the mind and an appeal to the emotions. “Because the number of pictures in this collection must of necessity be limited, it hag not been possible to include examples of the work of every distinguished New Zealand artist, but the se-

lection is notable for the excellence and variety of treatment, and also for the manner in which each picture illustrates some aspect of the subject on which the collection is based.

“On behalf of the Government I wish to thank the directors of our art galleries and also those individuals who so generously permitted their valuable works of art to go overseas. I am sure they will be rewarded by the knowledge that by this exchange New Zealand will become more widely and intimately known to many thousands of Russians.” ' Among the artists represented in the collection are Sir William Fox, one of the early Premiers of New Zealand; Charles Heaphy. Van der Velden, Lindauer, Archibald Nicoll, Cecil Kelly, Margaret Stoddart, Frances Hodgkins, John Weeks, T. A. McCormack, Juliet Peter, Austen Deans, Olivia Spen-cer-Bower. Evelyn Page, W. A. Sutton, Eric Lee Johnson, Rita Angus, Alison Pickmere, William Jones, Colin McCahon, Gillian Taverner, and Mervyn Taylor.