Contemporary N.Z. Art Exhibition Opened

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29763, 5 March 1962, Page 14

Contemporary N.Z. Art Exhibition Opened

"We cannot ignore the trends of today, even if not welcome to our thinking born of our own force of habit," said Mr Paul Pascoe, president of the Canterbury Society of Arts, when he opened an exhibition of contemporary New Zealand art at the Durham street Art Gallery last evening. The exhibition was compiled by the staff of the Auckland Art Gallery last November. It includes the work of about 46 leading New Zealand artists. “If art can, as it should, reflect the spirit of the times, then these times are those of tremendous changes,” said Mr Pascoe. “The stimulation of the air age and space age on artists will be profound. “We should respect the inner world of another man, and where this man is an artist and his inner world is that of a sensitive feeling, we should respect that the more. That does not mean we should admire what we feel we cannot. We should, however, refrain from jeering.”

Mr Pascoe said a negative attitude on the part of the public would cramp the artist’s place in the community. “Let us understand that art is one aspect of creation for we are all children of the great creator and should have wisdom in this respect.” New Zealand artists were lucky. Where else could the artist be so close to a variety of scenes and colours? asked Mr Pascoe.

“Our artists interpret these in many ways. Contempory art to me is seeking the deeper content of our scenes. “I believe that the artist is often greater than he knows,” said Mr Pascoe. “He has his moods of elation and of dispair, he creates his work and sometimes he tears it up, but the true will survive and in the inspiration of a moment he may have created more truth than he realised.

“We, in the arts, are still pioneers and an important link between our past cultural beginnings and our future achievements,” said Mr Pascoe.

Mr P. A. Tomory, director of the Auckland Art Gallery, said the exhibition was the first time an anthology of serious New Zealand artists had been attempted. It could not have been six years ago because there was neither the quantity or the quality. When the exhibition leaves Christchurch it will go to Wellington.