Contemporary N.Z. Drawings On Show At Gallery 91

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28948, 16 July 1959, Page 10

Contemporary N.Z. Drawings On Show At Gallery 91

With its exhibition of contem-l porary New Zealand drawings.] which is on show at Gallery 91 in Cashel street, the Auckland City Art Gallery continues its exploration of New Zealand art. The results of the exploration, however, are not as satisfying as they have been in some other fields. It is hard to escape the conclusion that drawing is not a field with which the New Zealand genius for visual art, such as it is, has much affinity. The more significant of the country’s painters are invariably concerned with mass and space and linear medium, such as pen or pencil, does not suit them for they set out to create mass with it. The results of this approach to the medium are invariably unhappy. M. T. 1 Woollaston’s “Model” shows this approach to drawing with pencil. There is splendid rhythm and structure but it is weakened by woolly, meaningless drawing. This predilection for mass rather than line means that broader mediums such as wash or charcoal are: used more successfully. There is little attempt to create line with the brush or crayon; a painting in monochrome is the aim. This can be seen In two characteristically expressive drawings by Colin McCahon. There are some, such as Bare and Anne Severs, W;ho do attempt to use line for its own sake but they create only the scribble which is the result of nervous energy of hand being substituted for genuine vitality of mind.

Some of the best line drawing in the show is to be found in some of Olivia Spencer-Bower’s pencil studies of Maori babies, but the total effect has been ruined by large areas of insensitive and mechanical cross-hatch-ing and shading. The line alone would have been enough; as it is the effect is like listening to a violinist on- a short-wave broadcast.

On the whole it is a pleasant and fairly lively show, ranging from the imaginative and original to the conventional and derivative. It is worth seeing for the better pieces and because there is something to be learned from it about the growth of New Zealand art J.N.K.