Buying art overseas

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 16

Buying art overseas

The Robert McDougall Art Gallery has a number of individually important and satisfying paintings, but no-one can pretend that the collection as a whole is adequate to the needs of Christchurch. The collection has some conspicuous gaps, even in periods and departments of art which are better represented than others. The soaring prices of works of art overseas might suggest that these gaps can never be filled because the fabulous sums certain works of art command are quite beyond the means of a relatively small city. So. indeed, they are in the instance of great masterpieces sought by wealthy museums and private collectors, but the wise spending of a sum as small as 830,000 annually overseas could make a surprising difference to the quality and completeness of the collection at the McDougall gallery.

Had a similar sum been available for spending overseas a decade ago, for example, the gallery might now boast a collection of modern American prints and paintings. Today it would cost many times that amount to assemble such a collection. The signs are that the gallery will concentrate on buying the work of established, recognised artists but, provided that the choices are made judiciously, a few speculative purchases could out the gallerv ahead of others in New Zealand as a centre for the viewing and study of modem art.

Some objections might be raised

against the Christchurch City Council’s plans to improve the gallery’s collections. The first is that 860,000 (the sum proposed for the purchase of both New Zealand and overseas works of art) should not be spent in times of relative austerity on such a luxury. Art is a need, not a luxury, in any society that aims to be civilised; and large numbers of citizens now visit the gallery. The council supports just as generously other activities which engage the attention of probably fewer people. The sum may be too small rather than too large. Second, some may query the need for the director of the gallery (Mr B. Muir) to go overseas himself. But the point of Mr Muir’s tour abroad will be not merely to-spend this year’s allocation but also to make personal contact with dealers. New or reinforced associations should stand the gallery in good stead in later years as it seeks to acquire particular works or the work of particular artists. Finally, some may object that the money available should be spent entirely on building up a better collection of New Zealand art. Certainly this should have priority, but New Zealand paintings, prints or other works of art cannot be viewed intelligently by the casual visitor or studied intensively by art critics and historians unless they can be seen together with the works of other artists who have worked in other countries at other times.