EXHIBITIONS BY WOMEN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29051, 13 November 1959, Page 21

EXHIBITIONS BY WOMEN

Mrs Black?s Work

Impresses

A new and original artistic personality is introduced to Christchurch by June Black’s exhibition of paintings, pottery, ceramic sculpture and jewellery at Gallery 91. The show combines two exhibitions previously held in Wellington, where she lives.

The paintings and ceramic sculpr ture in each group are accompanied by a philosophical commentary, one on the theme “Dr. Endedus, traveller and mind explorer in search of the Fabulous Idea.” The other is the collection of M. Henri Folli, “intellectual fashion expert.” These commentaries, amusing as well as serious, have no intrinsic connexion with the paintings and sculpture, apart from the fact that they are work of the same person. They add nothing to the paintings and tend to-distract attention from them, which is a pity for they are very good paintings.

Mrs Black has great inventiveness. both with form and material She uses a variety of methods, from tachisme to exploiting the water-resistant qualities of wax crayon, with sensitivity and obvious enjoyment. There is no posing or imitation of others; she is content to be herself and the vitality and expressiveness of her work is the result. Some of the action paintings in particular are informed with poetic fantasy of real quality and individuality.

Her pottery and sculpture are less successful. Some of it is beautifully decorated, but there is little feeling for three-dimen-sional form. The impression is abroad in Wellington and to some extent here—through the curious pronouncements of a critic in the capital—that Mrs Black's work is all a joke, a housewife’s amusing hobby. Nothing could be further from the truth; she is a serious artist whose emergence is most welcome. The exhibition is among the best seen here this year and to see it is a most enjoyable and refreshing experience. Another woman painter, Grete Graetzer, whose watercolour drawings and paintings are being shown in the Canterbury Public Library’s exhibition room, does not arouse the same enthusiasm. Mrs Graetzer, who was born in Vienna, lived in China for 10 years before coming to Dunedin, her present home.

In most of her paintings she uses a Chinese manner, but her drawing is not sufficiently expressive to sustain a style in which calligraphic draughtsmanship is the chief element. There are exceptions, such as “At the Roadside” (No. 13) and several others which combine sensitive passages with much that is commonplace. —J.N.K.