N.Z. Absence From Sao Paulo Was Avoidable

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 22

N.Z. Absence From Sao Paulo Was Avoidable

The Government’s decision not to make an entry of New Zealand painting in the Sao Paulo Biennale is extremely unfortunate.

In a press statement the Prime Minister (Mr Holy, oake) said; "We recognise the significance of this event in the world art calendar, but there are practical reasons preventing our participation on an appropriate scale at this time. “The main reason is the difficulty of transporting, mounting and supervising a worth-while exhibition of New Zealand art.” While all of the points raised by Mr Hoiyoake are undoubtedly true, surely all of them are problems that could, in some way, have been overcome.

Successive New Zealand governments have shown a lamentable lack of interest in the visual arts, as Dr Charles Brasch so rightly pointed out recently in speaking about the plight of Frances Hodgkins when she was destitute in Britain. It was left to the British Government to grant her a Civil List pension after the then New Zealand Government had refused to help her.

The reasons that made Frances Hodgkins and dozens like her leave New Zealand and live in poverty in Europe no longer apply, for today an artist can survive and grow in this country and to quote Dr Brasch again, “They are part of this country’s wealth.”

That people care is evident in a statement by Mr Hamish

Keith, keeper of the Auckland City Art Gallery. He said he had contacted a woman who was prepared to pay the costs associated with making an entry in the Sao Paulo Bienniale. It is now probably too late to reverse the decision but surely now is the time to set up the machinery to see that this never occurs again. The selection of contemporary work for international exhibitions is surely a job for

the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council or somebody appointed by it, and if, as Mr Hoiyoake said, “there are no representatives in Brazil to handle the complicated business of presenting a New Zealand exhibit," let us in future appoint or send somebody to Brazil or anywhere else to do this.

Every major newspaper and magazine in the Western world will have a represen tative in Sao Paulo, and if internationally the arts are recognised as a major element in the quality of a country’s life, it must be assumed that we have almost no life at all.

(By G. T. Moffitt)