“Amateur” Art
Sir, —Of course the professional has cause to explode! These “town and country” painters have priced their paintings. They are competing with professionals for the patronage of a small public—often, H.J.S. implies, with amateurish work. They threaten professional artvalues and sustenance. Which is best —an abstract Graham prizewinner, a Woollaston landscape, a “town and country” landscape? Does not the market tend to choose the last, because it is “real,” while the Woollaston “distorts” something “real” and the Graham is not of this world? But strictly, an amateur has a pri-
vate income, and paints for the joy (or hell) of it. My experience with them was that amateur painters are eager to express themselves, less so to struggle for expression through the Masters. H.J.S.’s apologia is sound for those who do not sell, and who do “derive a great deal from . . . the works of masters.” Stocktaking from the amateurs, please!—Yours, etc., B. M. WILLIAMS, Department of Extension Studies, University of Canterbury. April 21, 1966.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CV, Issue 31041, 22 April 1966, Page 10
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166“Amateur” Art Press, Volume CV, Issue 31041, 22 April 1966, Page 10
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