Group Show One Of The Best Of Year

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30588, 3 November 1964, Page 14

Group Show One Of The Best Of Year

Once again spring is giving way to summer, and there is a feeling, in spite of the rain, that good things lie ahead. This is the mood of the 1964 Group show now open at the Canterbury Society of Arts Gallery, Durham street. In the 30-odd years the Group has existed, since starting as a protest against the academic it has, through thick and thin and with a minimum' of committees and red tape, succeeded in attracting some of the more interesting work from most promising artists. (The other side of the coin reveals the charitable paternalism of the Society or Arts which, after wagging a reproving finger, has been more than tolerant.) This year’s exhibition contains works so rich and varied in content that it is difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps the simplest of statements, like a Litany of the Saints, would also be the best. On my reckoning, 47 artists including sculptors, architects, potters, painters, engravers, and weavers are exhibiting more than 220 works (the catalogue lists 143). In all fields there is excellent work, but perhaps because painting is strongly represented in nearly all other shows, one’s chief delight is to see sculpture attaining full status as an exhibition subject in New Zealand and the growing interdependence of all the arts. If one enters the main entrance from Durham street and turns left, one can tour the exhibition in catalogue sequence, and with many a hop, skip, and a jump, this is what I propose to do, quoting the catalogue numbers as I go.

Though “Sleeping Child” (4), by Joan Trollope, is perhaps this artist’s most successful painting, its quiet, simple, sensitive colour, in my view, is not quite linked with appropriate structure, but there is a hint of better things to come. The fresh vitality of “Tropical Hills” (8), by Rata Lovell-Smith, recaptures and re-establishes one of the main lines of this painter’s vision, and is good to see. The portrait (11) of Leo Bensemann (perhaps his daughter?) has the qujet simplicity and truthfulness of a deeply felt statement, and the strength of composition reflects, perhaps unselfconsciously, the discipline of a fine graphic artist. Moving on, I was interested to see three unusually shaped pictures bv Freda Simmonds (14) 15, 16), but why the unfortunate frames? These in my view repress the interesting qualities derived from an abstract idiom well worked out over a period of years and now interestingly translated into symbolic landscape. Michael Eaton, next door, is obviously embroiled in a terrific tussle: feathers and dust are flying, and one wishes him well before passing on to William Jones, whose very complex and fragmented pictures remained silent even after the most searching examination. I had practically walked past McCahon’s little square studies without giving them a second glance, when a very rough and scintillating texture caught my eye and at once I was held by extraordinarily good design and the “rightness” of > every single element in the works. McCahon has established such a simple style that it is now very difficult not to recognise his work immediately and prejudge it. Rita Angus, whether painting with quiet delicacy (39) or noisy and colourful exuberance (44), seems secure. but I find it hard to forgive the wee aeroplane. Doris Lusk, one of the best water colourists in the country, seems to have been beset .by inclement weather, and her pictures show a brooding Canterbury with lowering clouds, but her “Dusk Stream” (46) is something quite new and very successful.

Turning at the doorway and left again, we come to four pictures, the beautifully hung works of an artist who has been climbing steadily in recent years. These paintings (51, 52, 53, 54) by Gopas have the warmth and richness of old masters and the golden luxuriance of the harvest. “Area of Quietness,” though, contains a large shape which is almost too dark: the slight bumps of mounting coarse canvas or hessian on its support reflect incidental light in a disturbing and unintentional way. But the picture “Dawn” reveals this painter at his best, and the wonder and freshness associated with this subject

are beautifully suggested. Louise Henderson is showing three important drawings, an(i one feels she may pursue and intensify this aspect of her work. Woollaston’s palette seems to have changed and become more silvery and contemplative. But if so, none of its former vitality is missing, for as seen in exhibit 62, clouds and mountains are both jumping like little rams. Don Binney, if space permitted, would deserve an article to himself. I first saw his work a year ago, and wondered why it had caused such a stir in Auckland. It seemed to me then that it was being grossly overvalued. On this showing I was wrong. His work is distinguished both by its qualities of design and the sensitive appreciation of the intrinsic qualities of oil paint. By mixing his paint to exactly the right consistency and using short, stiff brushes he is able to produce a surface in paint not unlike that of a long-playing microgrove record. I don’t think I have seen this before, and thfe effect is that, while the paint has its own colour, it also picks up and reflects in different areas the surrounding colours, and these change depending on the direction of viewing. The technique in this artist’s hands is capable of a range of expression ranging from extreme dryness to a sheen not unlike that associated with the birds he paints. Other paint areas for their oiliness, fatness, richness, and plastic qualities are a perfect foil to this. All in all, a painter to study and to watch. The next wall is dominated, in fact the whole gallery is dominated, by two enormous works by Phillip Trustturn (72, 73). These are special wide-screen productions in colour. One of these works (73) is entitled “All There Is.” I can’t imagine a more appropriate one. But here is a young painter so full of life it is spilling over into his pictures. The total effect is like going from a dark interior into a garden in bright sunshine blazing with all the colours of the seedsman’s palette. Pat Hanley is showing three pictures from a series numbering about 25. Here is a New Zealand painter who has evolved a personal coherent style which is quite original. One cannot say more than that. The single painting (86) “Thought No. 8,” by Ross Ritchie, is full of interest, and I regret that numbers 1 to 7 and possibly 9 to 12 are

not here for us to see. “Girl Pursued By a Bird” (91), painted by John Coley, reveals another artist with a lively and original mind, painting without backward glances. It is good to see so much sculpture in the show. It includes woodcarvings, perhaps “The Horse” (127), by Pat Mulcahy, being the most successful, some beautifully controlled works in plastic, steel, copper, and iron by Ria Bancroft, and some small bronzes. It is the bronzes by Greer Twiss, one of which is illustrated, which excite my admiration. Here is a young student attempting, with a characteristic “do-it-yourself” attitude, backyard bronze casting and achieving results. A pity these small bronzes are displayed so close to the floor, because they deserve searching and intelligent study.

Across in the little north gallery are pottery, lithography, weaving, and ceramic sculpture. The pottery includes some excellent works. Doris Holland’s tea jar, with its lovely decoration, and two large bowls exhibited by Len Castle are really delightful and set a high standard. Len Castle’s cooking oil bottle has one of the finest spouts I have ever seen. The weaving by Ida Lough and Florence Akins again reaches high standards; their work would be eagerly sought in Denmark or Norway.

E. J. McCoy, the Dunedin architect, shows drawings and photographs, poor substitutes for an art form which uses space as its aim, expressive element, but even in these, his “St. Paul’s High School, Dunedin” survives as a fine work. As for the new offices for the Christchurch Drainage Board (141), by Pascoe and Linton, these drawings provide an object lesson to everyone concerned with the “faceless cube.” A display of sketch models for the sculpture competition for the Lower Hutt City Council gives wonderful opportunity to assess the relative merits of the entries, while the sketch model (143) for a Shakespeare commemorative sculpture for the new Students’ Union Building by Tom Taylor gives a hint of good things to come. One thing which really disturbs me is the large number of works not for sale. Many of the best works in this exhibition are not for sale. No-one interested in art can afford to miss this exhibition; to do it justice several visits will be necessary. I congratulate the Group for once more presenting in Christchurch one of the best, if not the best, exhibition of the year. It is open from noon to 4.30 p.m. and 7 to 9.30 p.m. (Sundays 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.) and will close on November 15. —JOHN SIMPSON.