Otago Art Society Exhibition

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 18

Otago Art Society Exhibition

The Otago Art Society exhibition being held in the Stew art Mair Gallery of the Can terbury Society of Arts is the first occasion on which the Otago Society has shown or this scale outside Dunedin. No. 72 “Family Composition” by the 1970 Frances Hodgkins Fellow, Michael Smither, and No. 41 “Black Painting No. 42" by Ralph Hotere are outstanding among the paintings exhib ited. Painted with the usual Smither sharpness “Family Composition” is a humanistic and understanding study of a mother in bed holding a re cently born infant while a? older child stands by. No. 73 a still life, also by Smithers, is a simply composed essay on light and- texture that many other painters in the exhibition who have tried to deal with texture in a more abstract way could well learn from. There is a suprisingly large number of entries that consist of a “Modern” shape or shapes and heavy, repetitive paint texture. Just what purpose such paintings serve beyond attempting to be de corative, is not clear. Tom Esplin’s paintings Nos 23, 24, 25 and 26 are typical of this style.

Of the water colourists Heather Francis proves the most adventurous in No.. 27 “Silos." She has used broad well organised brush strokes to create a damp atmospheric mood not uncommon in Dunedin.

0. Gordon Cox, Maurice Kerr, and R. J. Dickison all have entries of the picturesque landscape type although Dickison in two works ventures into a more abstract field iu No. 16, “Sun, Land, and Sea,” and No. 17. “Frankton Arm,” but the results are not convincing. Shona McFarlane’s “The Annual Meeting” is a biting satiric comment but her more formal portraits lack the same freshness of style.

Pottery by Joyce Anderson, Isabel Brown, L. E. Coker, and Beryl Jowett is utilitarian, competently glazed but lacking a generosity of style. Sculpture entries are disappointing; even John Middleditch’s two circular copper efforts seem unresolved from all but one or two angles Photographs of a number of domestic and public buildings recently constructed in Dunedin reveal E. J. McCoy as an architect distinguished in both domains. The exhibition will remain open until August 5. —G.T.M.