Australia’s Importance In World Of Art

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30234, 12 September 1963, Page 10

Australia’s Importance In World Of Art

The sophisticated art centres of the world, such as London and Paris, were now seeking regeneration in this part of the world, said Mr Gordon Thomson, deputydirector of the National Gallery of Victoria, in an interview in Christchurch. He is here to judge the 500 entries in the Hay’s art-competition. “In the centres of sophistication there comes a time when the whole thing gets stale and tired and needs renewing,” said Mr Thomson. “I believe that this is such a time. That is why Australian art is so much in favour now. “In Australia and New Zealand there is always this vigour of life, and here in New Zealand you have this incredible background influencing your work.” He said that attachment to environment would refresh the flaccid style of the Old World. ‘They are becoming too refined,” he said, “and the vigour and strength of Australian painting are what they envy.” Mr Thomson said he had no strong predilections in painting, except that he preferred figurative to non-flgurative subjects. "I get the most enjoyment out of figurative things,” he said, “but there are a lot of non-flgurative things that I enjoy too. There is no doubt that the great achievements in the last 40 years have been preponderantly those of- abstract artists. “But the dominance of the abstract artist could be closing. There has been more interest in figurative Work in recent years.” On Tuesday afternoon Mr Thomson had already sorted the oil-painting entries for the competition. “This is a very encouraging entry altogether,” he said. “Tt’s an excellent contribution to the arts.”

Similar open competitions which he had judged were the Crouch Prize at Ballarat and the Bendigo Art Prize, but a much simpler—although more important competition—was the Helena Rubinstein Art Scho.larship in Melbourne in 1961. Mr Thomson was on the panel of judges for the' competition, which carried a prize of £l5OO. He said it was a much simpler one to judge than an open competition, because entries were by invitation only, and about 15 painters

submitted five pictures each. The judges could get some notion of the style of the painters. “Very Difficult” An open competition was very difficult to judge adequately because there was sometimes a conflict of styles. “But I feel sure there will be some useful result,” Mr Thomson said confidently. In judging he looked for What the painter had set out to do, and decided to what degree he had accomplished it. • “One of the things about painting is that it should be imaginative,” he said. ‘The imaginative contribution is usually carried in tlie style.”

Mr Thomson said he did not mind finding paintings where a wqll-known artist had been imitated. “Art feeds on art,” he said. ‘There are two ingredients of art: art and environment.”