THE ART SCENE A gallery on its own

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33778, 26 February 1975, Page 15

THE ART SCENE A gallery on its own

(By (

G. T. MOFFITT)

This week Akaroa provides the focus for followers of the visual arts. The Christchurch artist, David Cheer, exhibits 22 recent drawings at the Bosshard Gallery. The main feature of the exhibition is a set of drawings called “The Narrative of Death.” They are offered not so much as illustrations but more as calligraphic responses to the Indian philosophic writings, of the Upanishads.

Compositionally, the 14 ’•Narrative” drawings tend to explode from their centres, carrying the viewer through to the works hung either side. As the drawings are intended to be viewed as a set this device works well enough, although because of the numerous strong sweeping movements it is hard to maintain a focus on some individual drawings for any length of time.

In a statement about his work Mr Cheer gives some explanation of the symbolism contained in the drawings, but without readding the Upanishads it is possible to tell how close he has come to visual realisation of the Upanishads* (peculations. What is striking and requires no explanation is the amount of energy David Cheer has managed to infuse into this set of drawings.

Hurtling planets, rays of light, sweeping vapour trails and suddenly suspended asteroidal forms, if translated into sound, would at times, particularly in the vicinity of Mars, provide a veritable cacophony. Three darkly abstract drawings called “The God", “Fliers” and “The Flight” and four landscapes of The Mt Potts region and one of Edwards Valley complete the work in the exhibition. The landscapes are all rendered with the utmost precision, and the dramatic wall of cloud in the drawing “Mt Potts in Storm — from near Lake Clearwater” .s something that fishermen hunters and visitors to the area who have experienced a nor’west storm will fully appreciate. The exhibition will close on March 9. The Bosshard Gallery is 50 miles from Christchurch, and it may seem to many people hard to believe that it has played an important role in the presentation and marketing of art in Canterbury. It is, however, the only dealer gallery in Canterbury to present a consistent range of work by the more outstanding contemporary New Zealand artists.

It will be with mixed feelings, therefore, that viewers will learn that the Gallery’s directors, Kobi and Patricia

Bosshard, intend to move to Dunedin at the end of this year. They will open a new gallery there, and this will restore a service which has been lacking, in Dunedin since the closing of Dawson’s Gallery about two years ago. In Canterbury, however, unless someone comes forward either to take over the Akaroa facilities or open a new gallery in Christchurch many New Zealand artists will again be in the position of having no-one to promote their work — or will have to do it themselves.

The Canterbury Society of Arts provides exhibiting space on terms more favourable to artists than just about any other gallery in New Zelaand, and in many ways is unique in its function.

What it lacks are the very personal relationships which can exist between an artist and a dealer and between a dealer and a client, and which have as their basis the faith of both parties in the dealer and his judg-

ment. Elsewhere in the city, it is true, there are galleries catering for particular types of art or groups of artists. The Nova Gallery, for

example, has so far concentrated mostly on paintings imported from Europe. The Labyrinth is success-

fully promoting the work of younger artists, Several Arts and the Capricorn tend to promote the work of potters, and there are other galleries that deal almost exclusively in picturesque landscape which leaves the buyer in search of a Hanly, McCahon, Sutton, Trusttum, Peebles, Fomison, Coley, Clairmont, Bensemann, MacFarlane, Cleavin, or Webb nowhere to go, although all these are likely to be represented in group exhibitions in the City from time to time.

That the need exists has been well proved by tht Bosshard Gallery, and the very large numbers of people prepared to travel to Akaroa to attend openings and buy works.