THOSE PICTURES!

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 50, 22 November 1907, Page 9

THOSE PICTURES!

WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEM? ART AND MTJDDLEMENT. Somo months ago it was announced through tho medium of the Press ' that somo £800, which had been subscribed in Wellington for tho'purchase , of pictures for tho proposed Public Art Gallery, had'boen invested, evidently satisfactorily, by' a committee consisting ' of Miss : Mr. Norman jGnrston, and a gentleman appointed at .the suggestion of Dr. Fyffe, ■ of,this city. Tho memory of this•• purchase , -was- revived accidentally by an enquiry" as to why the Art Gallery has not been opened on the usual Wednesday . aud Saturday: afternoons sinco the recent show,' of the" New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts!.! The answer was that it had been decided not to reopen tlio gallery to the public until tho now pictures came to hand; ; An enquiry was made as to whero tho now pictures were, but an official of the academy explained . that monoy-for tho purchase of tho i pictures ' was not' subscribed to the constituted art body in Wellington, but for the purpose of establishing a Public Art Gallery in Wellington, for. which trustees word appointed. Our informant understood that"'tho : pictures we'ro to have been here at tho beginniug of October, but ho had heard -nothing lately about them—could not oven supply a list of tho names of the*.pictures-; and'the artists who painted them.. t ,..This'seemed a rather curious position, and further enquiry, was niado without any later -information -being -obtained than was published nearly a couple of months ago. .Tins was-the :nows, conveyed in a letter from' Miss. Hodgkins : to'Dri'Fell (one of the trustees),: informing him "what the Buying Committee -hackdone; , they had bought. fourteen-pictures-at 1 a c6st of £800, and expressed .the belief*.-tha't tho selections would givo satisfaction: That letter : -was received two months ago, , and-must havo boon written three or over three months since, but no advice has been received sinco, and the trustees in .Wellington aro just as ignorant of tho'.ti'hereab'outs'of tho pictures, which they have been told have , been purchased, as is tho man in the street; - -

One cannot'enquire very' closely into the administration 6f'art piattorcrin Wellington without fiudiug","a rift within- the lute." Artists are as touchy as musicians,- and, as a general rule, lack • the ■ keenest • business faculty, but the'entire lack .of definite ; in-' formation regai'ding' what' ! has been , "'' pur- , chased' with public hioneys-- is' not what 'it should bo. The'trustees are hardly directly to blame, having relegated" ascertain pur- , chasing power to people on the roverso side of the globe, ; but, in view of the questions that aro being asked, a cabled enquiry as to the whereabouts of'our' "travelling art gallery" would ; not be "out of place. • ■. •