'Quiet Man' To Direct Gallery

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31768, 27 August 1968, Page 8

' Quiet Man ' To Direct Gallery

(From the London correspondent

of "The Press”)

The new director of the National Art Gallery in Wellington, Mr Melvin Day (right, with his wife), is a quiet man, precise in what he says; he is not at all in the revolutionary image. But this man, who will be shaping the artistic character of the National Gallery for the next 20 years or so, does want to change things.

He wants to see the cultural climate in New Zealand brought much more in line with what is going on in Europe. He wants more New Zealanders to be aware that in art there are many standards, all with some degree of validity.

He accepts that some people will regard him as a “square.” Others, perhaps, will find him rather too progressive.

Mr Day, aged 45, and Ids wife, Oroya, from Wellington, will leave London for New Zealand on September 7. An art historian, who has been studying and lecturing in London, he was appointed from a large group of applicants.

Bom at Hamilton, he studied at the Elam School of Art in Auckland before the war and later graduated from Victoria University. He came to London in 1963 and, after three years at the Courtauld Institute in the University of London, gained an honours degree in the history of European art. He is a remarkably gifted and versatile painter. In New Zealand he is represented in the National Gallery and the Mona Edgar collection in Dunedin. He has had successful exhibitions in London and Edinburgh. But it is Melvin Day, the art historian, who is likely to predominate when he takes up his post. “When one reads art history,” he said at an interview in London, "one is forced to come to terms with a number of vistas of art, so that one is not biased to the extent that one might be if one were interested only in one’s own development. You could say I have rather catholic tastes. Personally, I prefer to develop my own way but that does not necessarily obtrude. “Tastes fluctuate and what Is good taste today could well be out of fashion in 10 years’ time. There can be revivals of tastes, too. The history of art needs to be presented to show the development and the reflection of the current tastes over a period of time.

An art historian is not there to say what is good because he knows that tastes fluctuate.” But were there not some absolute standards? Mr Day: “I would say, no: I would say that this is one of the things one has to be aware of, that in looking at art at any particular stage and especially in gallery directing you need to try to bear in mind that what you are showing is a cross section of the development of tastes at any particular time and that although it might have no interest or validity to the people looking at it, nevertheless it still exists. “We can say about Andy Warhol, for instance, that in spite of a large group who dislike his work a lot of people like him. Therefore he has to be considered in the broad picture. And what he is doing is influencing people. The fact that it may be laughed at in 10 years’ time does not invalidate it as an expression of the time.

“What I want to do is to make people aware of the fact that certain things are going on. Whether they are interested or not is beside the point when you come to view the broad spectrum. “One must take into account and even try to anticipate contemporary tastes of the society one is working in but on the other hand the role of the director should be to give a lead. “If you give people exactly what they ask for they deserve what they get There must be a nice balance between intelligent guidance and an understanding of the

population’s aesthetic needs. “One does not, however, want to antagonise a public, especially in a smaller country. In London, some types of exhibitions might be acceptable because of the larger range, of tastes and educational backgrounds, but the same exhibition would not necessarily be universally acceptable in Wellington.” Did that mean he would bo pussyfooting? “Oh no, far from it. I am not going out to wrangle, but I will attempt to convince by reason and analysis. I would hope to modify the cultural climate in this way. Every generation tends to see things in the light of its own experience and so on. Therefore, age does make a difference in attitudes to art. A lot of young people no doubt will regard me as a square. There is a sort of contemporary peak and you don’t go beyond that, but you can do your best to keep up with contemporary trends.”