Wgtn artist given award

Press, 29 April 1980, Page 6

Wgtn artist given award

“Mugshot,” by the Wellington artist, Angi Lartout, won the 1980 Benson and Hedges Art Award at the Canterbury Society of Arts gallery in Christchurch last evening. The winning entry was chosen from 208 and paintings from throughout New Zealand by Dr Eric Westbrook, the director of the Ministry for the Arts in Victoria, Australia. Together with the 28 other selected paintings, “Mugshot” will be displayed in New Zealand centres in the next eight months. The winning entry features a woman’s face set against what appears to be an identification document. Announcing the winner of the $3500 award, Dr Westbrook said Miss Lartout’s painting was a very original work and showed that the painter was in control of her medium. “It is a work that doesn’t say all it has to say at one

look,” he said. “It has overtones of the artist saying something about herself, about the documentation of civilisation, and it is superbly carried out in a very difficult medium.” Dr Westbrook said the standard of entries for the biennial award was very high. “I think the remarkable thing is that painters no longer feel the compulsion to paint in a certain style.” In the past painters had often worked in a style that had been alien to them. Dr Westbrook, who also judged the 1970 Benson and Hedges Art Award, said he had noticed an enormous development in New Zealand artists. “The younger generation is coming along with such a technical sophistication and they know what they want.” The exhibition of the 29 successful paintings was opened by the Minister for the Arts (Mr Highet). The opening was attended by about 500 people. Mr Highet urged businesses to buy paintings and patronize the arts. The Government should not be the sole patron of the arts, he said. The exhibition will run in Christchurch until May 10 after .which it will go to Invercargill and Dunedin. The exhibition will end in Auckland in December. Members of the public will be able to vote for the most outstanding painting in the exhibition apart from the winning work. A supplementary award of $5OO will be given to the chosen painter. The award will be announced when the exhibition tour ends. Apart from Miss Lartourt, artists whose works are in the exhibition are Gretchen

Albrecht (Auckland), John Bailej' (Auckland), Stephen Bambury (Auckland), Dean Buchanan (Auckland), Shann Burdon (Dunedin), John Coley (Christchurch), Mark Dimock (Pahiatua), Roger Guise (Wellington), Ralph Hotere (Dunedin), Clive Humphreys (Dunedin), John Hurrell (Christchurch), Paul Johns (Lyttelton), Richard Killeen (Auckland), Judith Laing (Christchurch), Leonard Lambert (Greymouth),

i Shirley Markham (Auckland), i Daphne Mason (Auckland), i Frederick Maynard (Leeston), i Julia Morrison (Palmerston i Nonh), Alistair Nisbet-Smith : (Helensville), Robert Pearson ' (Nelson), Wayne Rickard i (Gisborne), Kenneth Robin- : son (Auckland), Robin i Swanny - Macpherson (SeaI cliff, Otago), Wayne Tindall I (Gisborne), Jim Tomlin i (Dunedin), Mervyn Williams (Helensville), and Eldred Wis- , dom (Auckland).