Royal Visit Art Exhibition

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32367, 5 August 1970, Page 14

Royal Visit Art Exhibition

The Royal Visit Exhibition of New Zealand art in the 19605, sponsored by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, is being displayed in the north galleries of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. The works in the exhibition have been drawn from New Zealand public collections only, and it is claimed in a foreword in the catalogue that they are representative of the trends in painting, sculpture, printmaking, • and pottery in the sixties. j Thirty four pointers, seven print makers, five sculptors and seventeen potters are represented by 78 examples of their work, but to claim they are all representative of a trend in New Zealand art is stretching credibility too far. It is doubtful if the public collections in New Zealand house examples of all the significant movements that occurred in painting, sculpture, printmaking and pottery in the 19605: and, significantly, some of the artists have already turned away from the styles of working by which they are represented in this exhibition. The non-inclusion of work by Olivia Spenser Bower, Leo Bennseman, Ray Thorburn and Susan Chaytor, who are all painters, the printmaker Marilyn Webb, sculptors T. J. Taylor and Carl Sydow and potters Michael Trumic and Nola Barron, to mention but a few, can only weaken fur-

ther any claims made that this exhibition is truly .representative of New Zealand art in the 19605.

The exhibition does, however, contain some major works by well-known artists and viewing these should be of enormous interest to university entrance art candidates who may have previously experienced them only by way of small reproductions or colour slides.

No. 2 “Scrub Burning, Hawkes Bay,” by Rita Angus, is alone worth visiting the gallery to see; painted in 1965 it is a remarkable piece of observation and masterful technique resulting in a rich and incisive statement on this land. Don ' Peebles and John Coley and other well-known Christchurch artists whose work is included in the exhibition are Rudolf Gopas, David Graham, Doris Lusk, Quentin Macfarlane, W. A. Sutton and Philip Trusttum. Barry Cleavin and Eileen Mayo are Christchurch representatives in a small but high quality print entry while the most dynamic and absorbing sculpture in the exhibition are two figure pieces by Greer Twiss of Auckland. Potters Len Castle, Roy Cowan, Pat Perrin, Mirek Smisek, Barry Brickell and Warren Tippett are well represented. The exhibition will remain on view until August 16. G.T.M.