ART EXHIBITION OPENED

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29907, 22 August 1962, Page 15

ART EXHIBITION OPENED

Sydney Thompson Honoured

“It is true to say that pictures of the quality of Mr Sydney Lough Thompson’s both create light wherever they are and leave transfixed for later generations the glimpse of that moment of truth,” said Mr P. Pascoe, president of the Canterbury Society of Arts, when he opened an exhibition in honour of Mr Thompson in the Durham street Art Gallery last evening. Mr Pascoe read part of a review of one of Mr Thompson’s exhibitions written by Sir James Shelley about 1923, in which he said: "It is not often that we in Christchurch have the opportunity of so rare a feast of beauty as is afforded by the exhibition of Mr Thompson’s pictures at the Durham street Art Gallery. It gives me the same feeling that one has when spring comes and the blossom breaks through.” “It is difficult for us to project ourselves back in time to those days,” said Mr Pascoe. “If we do, however, we can see that much of Mr Thompson's art was near revolutionary. In this respect he was a prophet, and fortunately, as we can now prove, a prophet with honour in his own country." Mr Pascoe said it was worth-while to trace some of the essential facets of Mr Thompson’s life. He was born near Oxford in 1877. At 18 he enrolled at the School of Art,( and in 1897 he was awarded three full scholarships. the greatest number possible at that time. “In this exhibition you will see a painting of a saddle. This was sent to England, and it was awarded a silver medal by the Kensington Department of Science and Art. Years later Mr Thompsom met one of the judges, and he was told that they could not believe that a Colonial boy had done this work: they thought it was done by a well-known Dutch artist" said Mr Pascoe.

Mr Thompson had scent 30 years off and on in France. He had always been able to make a living from art. although he said there were times in France when he had accepted barter gifts

such as shoes and bread for pictures, said Mr Pascoe. “Mr Thompson returned to New Zealand periodically, which is our good fortune. It meant that in keeping in touch with the place of his birth he was able to enrich our heritage also.”