Images from the past

Press, 18 August 1981, Page 22

Images from the past

This book, being held by the curator of the Robert McDougall Art ' Gallery (Mr Neil Roberts), was a significant addition recently to the gallery’s sparse collection of documentation relating to the arts in New Zealand in the early years of the century. Formerly the property of Miss Cora Wilding, of Kaikoura, it is a “visiting artist” book to which it is assumed that all painters who visited the Wilding household in Christchurch in the early 1900 s were invited to contribute.

Miss Wilding was prominent in art circles in the 1920 s and 19305. and is also known for her charitable works. She was a founder of the healthcamp movement, and of the Youth Hostels Association. Now in her nineties, she is living in an old people’s home in Kaikoura. - ‘

The book, and other documents relating to her work as an artist, were sent to the gallery by her family. The pictures in the book range from caricatures . to tiny, romantic water-colour landscapes. - , ■ Its original purpose is not

known, but the gallery staff assume that it is a pictorial variation on an autograph book in which artists who visited the Wildling household were asked to make a sketch. All the paintings and drawings are signed, and most are dated. They cover a period of about 20years, from the early years of the century to the mid-19205. None of the pictures is of world-shattering quality, but the gallery’s director (Mr John Coley) regards them as a very useful record of the “middle-rank” atists of' the period. There are some front-rank-ers of the period in the book, too, one of them being the noted Canterbury water-co-lourist, Margaret Stoddart. Other signatures to be found on the pages include those of R. Herdman Smith, then director of the Canterbury School of Art; M. Mur-ray-Aynsley; G. K. Webber, a highly regarded water-co-lourist who was killed in action in France during the First World War; and Owen Merton. The book will be stored in the gallery’s archives, along with material it has - collected about other Canterbury artists, and will not be put on display. But it will be available for inspection on request. In the package sent in with

it by the Wilding .family were several other interesting documents, including a catalogue from Cora Wilding’s retrospective exhibition 10 years ago. The gallery regards this as a useful record of her work.

Possibly more interesting are some art catalogues collected by Miss Wilding during her travels in Britain and Europe in the 19205. One of these, dating from 1924, is of outstanding interest — it is an illustrated catalogue of a major bneman exhibition held by an up-and-coming young artist whose name was to become known round the world: Pablo Picasso.

Most interesting of all. from the gallery’s point of view, is a copy of a petition got up by Miss Wilding when the site for the McDougall Gallery was being considered in the late 19205. The petition, signed by Miss Wilding and a large number of artists and prominent people in the community, begged the City Council not to build the gallery on the originally-pro-posed site on the Avon riverbank, near the Christchurch Public Hospital, because the dampnesss of the site was likely to damage the works of art stored in the gallery.

It is thought to be largely as a result of this petition that the site behind the Canterbury Museum was chosen for the gallery, which opened in 1932. Puppet show

The Flying Hat Company, the Christchurch-based puppet troupe, will present its first full-scale production during the school holidays,, in the Centre Gallery at the Christchurch Arts Centre.

The show, “Blackbird Pie,” has been assembled with the help of several agencies — the Internal Affairs Department, which gave the group a “youth initiatives” grant; the University Students’ Association and the Labour Department, and the “Outreach” programme of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery.

It will open on August 24, and will. be presented twice daily, at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

“Blackbird Pie” will be filmed by Television New Zealand and screened as three "special” features. After the production, the troupe will produce a children’s record, and an eccentric cookbook, using real and fantastic recipes. A South Island tour is planned for the

Christmas holidays, after which the troupe will work on new puppet material for television in 1982. The 10 members of the troupe manipulate 40 puppets, some of them larger than life. The puppets are worked by an overhead cable system, designed to take the weight of sets and larger puppets. There are also rod puppets, pole puppets, and body-suit puppets. The characters include vampires, princesses and pirates, and a worm which falls in love with its other end. The sound effects have been created by the troupe’s sound technician, Peter Stephen. The puppet theatre also has its own specialised lighting system, designed to pick out the puppet illusions and to make the black-cos-tumed puppeteers disappear into the shadows. Choral visitors

An Australian chamber choir which is making a short tour of Nev? Zealand will give a concert on September 10 in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

The choir, which is widely known in Australia and also

— through its recordings — in Britain, in the Corinthian Singers, of Adelaide.

Formed in 1963, the choir has established a high reputation as performer of a

range of sacred and secular works dating from the Renaissance to the present. In recent years the choir has been chosen several times to represent Australia in the international radio competition “Let the Peoples Sing". It broadcasts frequently on the national network of the Australian Broadcasting Commission and has sung under such eminent conductors as Lamberto Gardelli, Brenton Langbein, Georg Tintner, and Patrick Thomas. The choir recently featured in a series of six 40-minute programmes on the Australian national FM network.

Last year, the choir was engaged by the Australian Opera for the Adelaide season of “Boris Godounov,” and this year it recorded the opera, “Lenz,” by the Australian composer, Larry Sitsky, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. A recording of the first Puccini opera, “Le Villi”, has been released in London and in Australia. Dean Patterson, director of the choir, is the senior vocal teacher for the South Australian Education Department. A baritone, Dr Patterson has made many concert appearances in Australia. He won a Churchill Fellowship in 1979 and studied choral techniques with several eminent conductors in Europe and the United States.

The choir is touring with the assistance of the international committee of the Australia Council and the Government of South Australia. All of its five concerts will be given in churches. Play progress The New Zealand playwrights’ agency, Playmarket, plans a week-long workshop for writers in 1982, according to its annual report. The first workshop held by Playmarket — at Victoria University in May of last year — brought to light Greg McGee’s “Foreskin's Lament,” which has since then been performed by most of the country’s professional community theatres, with great success. Playmarket is an incorporated society formed eight years ago to encourage and promote New Zealand playwriting and to provide an agency for local playwrights. It has promoted workshops of individual scripts and playreadings at community theatres throughout the country, and is now considering proposals for individual groups to stage new works for short seasons.

“The receptive public climate and appetite for more local work in our theatres has been more than proved,” the report said. The society has also entered the field of low-cost play publishing, and a number of scripts is now available.

It is also pursuing a play-wright-in-residence scheme in co-operation with community theatres.

At the recent annual meeting of Playmarket Mike Nicolaidi stood down as president after seven years in the post. He was succeeded by Dr David Carnegie, senior lecturer in drama at Victoria University.

Dramatic exchange

The Court Theatre had some particularly welcome visitors last week — a party

of Australians closely associated with professional theatre on the other side of the Tasman.

The party included representatives of four major theatre companies, a filmmaker, and theatre journalists.

The party visited Theatre Corporate "(Auckland), Centreprint (Palmerston North), Circa and Downstage Theatres (Wellington), and > Fortune Theatre (Dunedin) before coming to the Court. '■ They had talks with members of the Court’s company, and watched a performance of “The Elephant Man” be- . fore returning to Auckland, --

where they attended a performance at the Mercury Theatre. They flew home on Saturday.

The Court Theatre says the visitors represented a wide range of artistic and theatrical interests and experience, and this, the first visit of its kind, was of major importance to New Zealand theatre. It paved the way for further exchanges of actors, administrators, and playwrights across the Tasman.

One member of the party, Brian Adams is making a film about New Zealand theatres.

Another visiter, Wendy Blacklock of the Australian •Elizabethan Theatre Trust, was of particular importance to the Court Theatre. She is co-ordinating the Australian tour of Bruce Mason’s “Blood of the Lamb,” the work commissioned by Elric Hooper, director of the Court, to open the Studio early in 1980.

The play has already toured New Zealand, and will tour Australia from late September to mid-December. It is thought to be the first time a New Zealand theatre company will perform in Australia since Dame Ngaio Marsh’s student tour of “Othello” and “Six Characters in Search of an Author” in the late 19405.