Manawatu Paintings

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31901, 31 January 1969, Page 3

Manawatu Paintings

The 1968 Manawatu Art Prize paintings, which are on display at the Canterbury Society of Arts gallery in Gloucester Street, contain little that will surprise anyone who has visited travelling exhibitions of New Zealand painting in recent years. Most of the artists represented continue to explore familiar paths. But the show reflects the good sense of having one person make the selection, and compares favourably with the Manawatu exhibition of 1967, when the opinions of three judges were reflected in rather unhappy contrast. The 1968 exhibition was selected by Mr Rodney Kennedy, of Dunedin, and consists of 31 paintings, six of which are the work of the guest artist, Colin McCahon. As in all "art prize” exhibitions, there are several paintings that might have gained first place. But few will challenge Mr Kennedy’s selection of No. 17, “City

Landscape,” by Edward Herbert Kindleysides, of Auckland. Kindleysides has rendered, in soft, earthy colours, a row of old houses lit by the last rays of sunshine. No. 7 “New Zealand Landscape,” by David Armitage, takes second prize. He uses paint and colour with some vigour to build figures, a mass of gaudy billboards, and a tantalising glimpse of countryside behind. As guest artist, Colin McCahon exhibits three paintings from his “Still Life With Alter” series, some of which have been seen in Christchurch before, a “South Canterbury Landscape” and a “North Otago Landscape No. 5.” Painted in green, black and grey, “North Otago Landscape No. 5” is quite outstanding, with its curious feeling of space achieved in a manner that remains McCahon’s secret. Irene O’Neill's “Marama O Te Moana” is deserving of

serious study. It is a work that could easily be passed by in the first instance, but when attention is focussed on it, it is full of interest.

Buck Nin’s entry I find rather tedious. Maori forms imposed on a landscape seem too self-conscious. Equally, the work of Jan Nigro, “Man and Rose,” is a tiresome exercise in anatomical dissection.

Collette Rands, of Wellington, has made a clumsy attempt to do what McCahon can do so superbly in No. 28, “Wellington Land.” • Ted Bracy, Frank Davis, Ralph Hotere and Wong Sing Tai live up to their reputations. If art prizes achieve nothing else they focus the community's attention, however briefly, on the visuai arts. It is a shame that nothing has been heard of the Hay Prize for so long. —G.T.M. Reproduced above is No. 3 from Colin McCahon’s paintings.