Varied Manawatu Paintings

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31597, 7 February 1968, Page 14

Varied Manawatu Paintings

A selection from paintings entered for the 1967 Manawatu art prize is on display at the Durham Street Gallery.

Differing considerably in kind, the works range from what is often called naturalism to abstraction. Such terms are used only for stylistic clarity: in themselves they bear no relationship to quality. Those called upon to bestow awards in such competitions as this cannot afford to be swayed by personal mode preferences (a good representational painting is better than a bad abstract one and vice-versa) but only by a work’s inherent sense of rightness. Because they are human they will naturally have their leanings, but they must act without obligation to them.

Although judges have a thankless task I doubt if many would question the choice of Milan Mrkusich’s "Linear Chromatic” and Gordon Walters’s “Grafton” for the major prizes. The panel has with little doubt acted with care and responsibility. Mrkusich’s work has a scale and authority obviously arrived at through an intense process of analysis. Uncluttered, without trivial knickknacks, it is concerned with balancing vertical bands of colour- within a general field of low chromatic intensity. Perhaps colour works best in this less highly charged way for when its pitch is intensified to the degree that it often is in “Optical” art, the physical impossibility of focusing on the painting’s surface can

greatly reduce its colour effectiveness.

In his two paintings Gordon Walters reveals something of the experience of an artist intent on exploring a single theme until he has exhausted its formal potentialities. Walters’s devotion to his purely plastic problems is

admirable and it continues to give us compelling works. Both of these variations in the use of his ostensibly simple vocabulary provide further satisfying solutions. Julia van Helden attains freshness and a direct visual appeal in No. 29 “Interior.” Controlled, but by no means

rigid, it makes good use of both the hard and soft edge. Essentially an abstract painting, the formal elements, a vase of flowers, a table and so on, appear to be mainly props thorugh which colour, light and shape are sensitively distributed.

Ralph Hotere’s “Zero 25” may make some people wonder what he is up to. The red field upon which a barely noticeable red square has been insinuated comes about as close to nothing as a painting can. And yet, although many of the normal satisfactions one expects from art are here denied us our attention is somehow held, for one thing, we are drawn right into the work. One cannot help respecting Hotere for this painting for he has sensed his intention clearly and refused to admit anything which would contradict it.

Another work worth mentioning its Quentin MacFarlane’s “Drift Series.” In many ways MacFarlane is a natural painter for he undoubtedly has a highly sensitive understanding of the expressiveness of his medium. The main colours here are blue, violet and green and there is a sea reference in the use of white. In fact, the strong marine feeling of this piece comes more by way of colour and material than through any direct or indirect means of representation. One gets little indication from the display of the state of contemporary art in New Zealand for too many of our leading painters are posted missing. Could it be that the idea of submitting art for a prize does not have much appeal?