Art award judge impressed

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32941, 13 June 1972, Page 10

Art award judge impressed

Mr Elwyn Lynn, judge of the 1972 Benson and Hedges Art Award in Christchurch last week, has returned to Sydney impressed by what he saw of New Zealand art. Mr Lynn left Christchurch last Thursday morning, and before returning to Sydney on Friday he visite d the Govett-Brewster Art GaUery in New Plymouth, and the Auckland Qty Art Gallery. In Christchurch he singled out four paintings from the award entries which could, he said, take a place comfortably in the Power Collection, of which he is curator at Sydney University. These are by Brent Wong, of Wellington, Don Driver, of New Plymouth, the winner. David Armitage, of Auckland, and Quentin MacFarlane, of Christchurch. Before he left the country, Mr Lynn had race.ved the news that he was to have one of these Quentin MacFarlane’s “Vargas Theme,” which was bought by the sponsors of the award and presented to the Power Collection. This collection, founded in 1967 under a bequest from Dr J. Power, contains contemporary works bought mostly in Europe and the United States, and is now worth 5100,000.

Dr Power was an Australian who never returned to his homeland after the First World War, and who died in the Channel Islands in 1946. In the 1930 s he took up painting in a modem style in France, and he thought that Australians should hare a chance to learn about recent works of art. So, under his bequest, Mr Lynn, as curator of the collection, adds to the collection each year on buying trips to Britain, Europe and the United States. Inis year he will have $28,000 to spend However. Mr Lynn did no buying while in New Zealand because, he said, he would probably be breaching the te-ms of the bequest, unless he considered a New Zealand work so outstandingly important that it must be acquired for the Power Collection. But he did compile

a list of New Zealand artists whose work might sell well in Sydney, and will hand this ■to the Australian dealer who l requested it New Zealand paintings are inexpensive by world standards, and most of the Benson and Hedges entries were slightly under-priced, he said. Before Mr Lynn left Christchurch the organisers of the award asked him to compile notes on his reasons tor choosing the final 25 paintings. Some of these notes are reprinted below. David Armitage, “She Said Look At Me. I looked. She Rose Into Detail Forever”: Splendidly rich in character and colour, borrowing with great elan from Picasso, Matisse and art nouveau, but highly personal borrowing; the rhythms of limbs and objects are beautifully related and everything is, as it were, indulging in biological delight. Susan Chaytor, Blenheim. "Edge”: A broad, geometrical organisation of the landscape whereby the sky is given a dynamic force by its being broken into spectrum of clouds. John Coley, Christchurch. “Abacus XXX”: A consummate piece of apprenticeship to Vasarely, but different in the way the centra suddenly flickers on and off and the play between the orange, near orange and the yellow circles. It moves in from a royal peripheral. ease to an interior sparkle. William Cumming, Christ-1 church. "Sounds Landscape Reflection”: A pleasantlv luminous and rhythmical painting that would be positively soporific, except for the quite ravishing complementary dots of red and blue across the centra.

Don Driver, . "Painted Relief No. 11 1972” (winner): A really fine example of a geometrical art that refines the notion of matt, seductive surfaces that float away, that stay glowingly rigid or are “uptight;” added is a dark blue strip that rejects one’s approach and is the opposite of seductive. The nuances between these effects are subtle and exciting. Michael Eaton, Christchurch, “3 Unit Continuum”: This is a teal continuum that ranges through the three elements, creating optical illusions in the three parts of oblong and two sliced off rectangles. The colour is unusual, off-beat, and sets up a steady, vibrant pulsation achieved by few in the exhibition. ’ ■’ Frank Greenall, Christchurch, “Was God An Argonaut”: A beautifully realised lyrical work suggesting cellular and biological growth rendered with a sweetness that is checked by the floating veils of acid greens and yellows. Hie sense of growth and fertilisation in the void are subtly suggested. Desmond Helmore, Christchurch, “Curve”: An excellent example of uncompromising geometrical severity and dynamic movement taking great risks in the downward sweep of the black “rainbow;” a demanding work, the pink flush adding to the grimness. Ralph Hotere, “Black Painting ’72, from ‘Malady’, a poem by Bill Manhire”: A rather grimly ironic painting, mainly about malady, a word which appears in black relief printing on black in the four squares that make up the arms of the cross about the central black square whidi

has the words “My Lady,” almost obscured by the forces of darkness. In all a compelling, haunting and question- : ing work. Quentin MacFarlane, Christchurch, “Vargas Theme”: An authoritative and poetic use ,of lyrical and expansive, tough colour, arranged in vibrantly disruptive rhythms that owe something to local ; landscape and much to a revolt against the tyranny of hard-edge painting. A resolu--1 tion of intense and joyously relaxed colour and a balance of organic with geometrical forms makes this a refresh- , ingly immediate painting. Milan Mrkusich, “Painting Dark, 1972”: A most beautiful atmospheric work of a fluctuating brown, ruddy fawn to shadowed fawn sky, anchored at the four comers by a dark grey, matt triangle. The work has a mysterious, shifting depth. Brent Wong, “Recapitula- . tion”: Forlorn, isolated, derelict houses are haunted and menaced by the approach of clinical, strange modernistic, architectural monstors; a fine piece of the new realism with surrealistic overtones.