Rebellious Element In Work Of N.Z. Artists In London

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30590, 5 November 1964, Page 8

Rebellious Element In Work Of N.Z. Artists In London

[From the London Correspondent of "The Press’’]

LONDON. October 28. The work of 25 New Zealand artists is now being exhibited in the first comprehensive show of its type in London. While the talents, experience and fame of the exhibitors is varied, they share a common movement from their homeland—all are now living in England or Europe. The artists range from successful “names” like John Hutton of Clyde, famous for his engraved glass at Coventry Cathedral, and Edgar Mansfield of Hastings, president of the Guild of Bookbinders and sculptor, to young New Zealand Arts Advisory Council scholars and students.

Mr Kenneth Bennetts, a 31-year-old painter who left Christchurch 12 years ago and spent four years in Australia before coming to London, conceived the idea for the exhibition to sponsor New Zealand art abroad about 12 months ago and approached Qantas

Airways, which offered the Qantas Gallery in Piccadilly. A committee gathered the names of some 50 New Zealanders—painters, sculptors and printmakers—living in Europe and wrote to them. Of these, 30 submitted a total of 150 paintings. A selection committee of Messrs Sidney Nolan, the Australian artist, Donald Bowen, of the Commonwealth Institute, Robert Buhler, of the Royal College of Art, and Tatlock Miller, of the Redfern Gallery, London, chose the 35 paintings finally hung, and six pieces of sculpture by Edgar Mansfield. Mr Bennetts told me that he saw a “very powerful element of force and almost rebellion” in the exhibition. Possibly this was due to the artists having “rebelled” to the extent of leaving their native country. Why do the artists leave' home? Mr Bennetts said: “It is a feasible thing to come here because Europe is the spirit-

ual home of the Western world. ... All people tend to associate cramped feelings and ‘doziness’ with the place they were born in. They can’t feel who they are when lost among family connexions and close ties that you get in New Zealand, rather like in Wales, but they can get this feeling when isolated among a lot of strangers.” The work of Mr Edward Bulmore of Christchurch, who came to London five years ago, was the most experimental in the exhibition, featuring three-dimensional effects obtained with pieces of canvas, sized and painted, padded and stretched between box-like frames. Mr Bulmore said: “This work would be probably scoffed at in New Zealand ... I got fed up with using flat canvas. Here people are interested in any experimental work and you don’t have to waste time trying to explain it to them. There are painters all over the place who you can talk with. . . . “I paint the New Zealand landscape, because it is magnificent. The English landscape, does not interest me. ... I don’t plan to go back too soon. “If I had stayed in New Zealand I could see it was going to have to be teaching to earn a living and I was going to be in a ‘rut.’ But if you can get some sort of recognition over here this would stand up for itself in New Zealand.” Greater Market Mr Mansfield (who is returning to New Zealand for Christmas) came to London in 1934 and feels most artists should follow his example: “They’ve got to move over here and see the originals, go to all the exhibitions, watch all the experiments that are being earned out. There is more chance of exhibiting work here and selling work on a greater market. . . . “An artist’s name in New Zealand doesn’t mean anything whatever, but any name you make over here is appreciated in New Zealand.” John Hutton remarked on the high standard of the exhibition and the vitality shown in the works. Charles Tylee of Hawkes Bay observed a “ruthlessness” that seemed to be a quality of New Zealand art.

In spite of an enormous variety of approaches, each artist seemed to be looking very hard for individuality. This quest was probably something “fundamentally New Zealand,” said Mr Mansfield. Mr Tylee, who has been here for three years and studied at the Chelsea Art School said: “We are not interested in being a ‘New Zealand School’ of painting as such, but if the critics like to say there is such a thing we might get that description.”

The full list of artists exhibiting is: Kenneth Bennetts, James Boswell (Westport), Michael Browne (Wellington), Edward Bulmore, Ida Cooke (New Plymouth), William Culbert (Wellington), Melvin Day (Wellington), Tony Fomison (Auckland), John Forrester (Wellington), Victor Gray (Wellington) John Hutton, Jean Horsley, (Auckland), Ralph Hotere (North Auckland), Avril Lysaght (Hawera), Martin Lewis (Christchurch), Douglas MacDiarmid (Taihape), Edgar Mansfield, Max McCellan (Auckland), Anne MacDonald (South Canterbury), Janet Paul (Auckland), Alan Pearson (Christchurch), Kenneth Robinson (Auckland), Peter Smith (Auckland), Charles Tylee, Robert Walls (Wellington).