THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 299, 12 September 1921, Page 6

THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

(To the Editor.)

Si r —The annual meeting of the Academy is over and the institution is launched on/ another year of quiet voluntary effort in upholding the standard of art and culture in our commercial city, a disheartening and at times a hopeless seeming business for those who feel how really important it is. The lack of\ this kind’of culture is evident i P all directions in the civic and general life of our. community, starving the souls of its citizens and sending them to feverish and unhealthy , recreations; roughening manners and making ugliness too common to' be even noticed. The council, in its report, deplores the ' lack of public interest in the proposal to embody the National War Memorial in a national gallery. It seems to me. Sir hqwever, that the council, by a little thought, could do more than it has done so far to stimulate and educate that public interest. I am often in tho present gallery for a quiet halt hour with the pictures, and have watched the few other visitors who drop in and their apparent attitude towards exhibits. I have my own ideas about the matter, and have also tried fol see the show through the eyes of those whose comments I overhear. The personnel of the council is probably as good a selection as could be got in Wellington at present; it has both working artists and cultivated lovers of art upon it, and I should like, therefore, to disburden myself of some of those meditations which have occurred to me, by way of helpful, not destructive, criticism. I can imagine the man in the street hearing an appeal to support a national gallery war memorial deciding to call in at the present one) to see what such a thing might be like, and coming out depressed and resolved that death on the battlefield was melancholy enough, £ut that its glory needed no extinguishment in anything so dreary and uninteresting ns an art gallery. ’ Let us consider what he would see, and what he might learn in our gallery, small as it is, if intelligent consideration were given to its purpose ojnd its fulfilment. , , , Round the walls are hung all sorts of pictures, all sorts of subjects, of all sorts of technique, nearly all in shabby, battered frames, half without any names of subject or of artist, none with numbers, no catalogue to be had, several of the names spelt wrongly, e.g., a breesy upland; the whole thing more like an auctioneer’s sale room than a public ga - lery with an educative purpose under intelligent direction. As to the battered frames, I know that the exigencies of annual exhibitions are considered to entail the taking don n, storing away, and rehanging of the permanent pictures every time; but need it be so? Look at tho results of this annual removal in damaged frames, abraded canvas, knocked-off labels, and other evils. Could pot some of the architect members devise a satisfactory removable screening in front of the permanently hung collection on which to bang the annual exhibition pictures, to obviate the coristant removal of the permanent pictures? , Look, too, at the framing and mounting of many of the pictures, especially in water colours. How unsuitable ana poor in taste they are, and how detracting to the picture within. Tastes and opinions differ as to the merits of a picture, but the mounting and framing have a definite function in regard to it, and are not ends in themselves, as some of these seem to be considered. . There are two ki/ids of visitors to thegallery—the casual from the street and the interested student, whether old or voung. The first looks on all pictures as i mere illustrations; artists’ pictures are more or less ugly or incomprehensible to him. He wants, anyway, to know what it is a picture of, and sometimes who painted it. Ha is not told this in our gallery, and he doesn't come any more. . , , , The other visitor wants first to know tho subject, which defines the artiste ajm, and then who painted it, because, not always trusting his own discernment, the status of the artist helps him jo know what 'good points to look for. But he gets no such help in most cases, and if he is a young sriioent especially he wants much more than this in intelligent help of the kind which is always given ,in catalogues of galldries. Take, for instance, ths new pictures by Dawe. He was an R.A., and his generation considered his pictures good. Why? A catalogue should tell us, but the present generation is quite out of touch both with subject, sentiment and technique, yet all these formed one of the chapters in the history of art. Many of theie chapters arc illustrated in some degree in pictures hung m the gallery, transparent painting, opaque painting, mixed methods, restricted palettes all sorts of styles and experiments, but no hint of any of the manifold interests ‘which knowledge aiid experience find in a picture, not to mention’its v jits and demerits, is given to the visitor whether lie be eager, budding artist or dilettante seeking an interest. All this should be given in a good catalogue which would entail the permanent numbering of the pictures; but who could write it? Undoubtedly it should be written by the very best equipped critic, for gra-’e misleading might result from lack of knowledge, but I think the council could manage a very fair beginning among them. Data as to t.io principal or better known artists, their place in art, their methods and ideals are to be got in publications, so \tbat little more is wanted than intelligent compilation nowadays and knowledge enough to refer particular paintings to "periods” of the artist’s life and development. With such'a full catalogue what a fund of interest would be found in the gallery by manv who now are depressed by it. Surely it would bo worth postponing the purchase of a picture to achieve these ends with the money saved.—l nm, etc., W.A.C.