BRITISH ART

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 99, 21 January 1935, Page 4

BRITISH ART

Contemporary Works For New Zealand MRS. FULLER’S COLLECTION Carrying on the work of her husband, the late Mr. Murray Fuller, who was instrumental to a large degree in keeping New Zealand in touch with contemporary British art, Mrs. M. Murray Fuller returned to Wellington by the Remuera yesterday after having spent eleven months in London making a selection of recent water-colours and oil paintings by most of the best known artists there. The paintings will arrive at Wellington in the Port Hobart in a fortnight’s time, and the first New Zealand exhibition will probably be held here about March 1, ■When interviewed by “The Dominion,” Mrs. Fuller said that while in London she had been kept extremely busy making the selection, despite the many months at her disposal. “I would have in mind certain paintings that I was determined I should take back here with me,” she said, “and often I would have a lot of trouble in getting them for the collection. I left London so hurriedly that the packing was not completed; therefore, I had to have them consigned to Wellington in the Port Hobart.” Water-Colours And Oils. In making the selection Mrs. Fuller had the assistance of the president of the Royal Academy, Sir William Llewellyn, and also Mr. Philip Connard, R.A., Mr. Arnesby Brown, R.A., Dame Laura Knight and Mr. Campbell Taylor. “It contains a particularly fine selection of water-colours,” she said. “They are by the leading water- / __________

colour painters of Great Britain; and, of course, there is a greater tradition in that respect there than anywhere else. Undoubtedly, I think, it is the finest collection ever to be out of London.

“This statement includes also - the oils, which are very important. The collection of both types includes works —all of them done recently and some of them not yet exhibited—<by Glynn Philpott, R.A., Frank Brangwyn, R.A., Wilson Steer, 0.M., Sir D. Y. Cameron, R.A., Sir George Clausen, R.A., Walter Richard Sickert, R.A., Dame Laura Knight, A.R.A., Beatrice Bland (member of the New English Art Club), Philip Connard, W. Russell Flint, R.A., Henry Rushbury, R.A., Gerald Brockhurst, R.A., Hany Morley, R.W.S., and Gerald Moira, R.W.S. Interest in Applied Art.

“The Royal Academy has been having a most interesting exhibition which aims to connect art and industry to a greater degree than before,” Mrs. Fuller continued, speaking of her experience in the English art world. “It shows what could be done if Great Britain could only draw upon her own painters and designers in her manufacturing work —particularly concerning textiles. “The exhibition did not open until just after I left, but I called on Llewellyn IVilliams and was able to see it for myself. Burlington House, where it was to be held, I found absolutely transformed in a huge arrangement of shop-fronts and bays. The manufacturers themselves seemed very keen over the possibilities arising out of the exhibition. A great difficulty at the present time is that so many young painters are destined to have little work to do to keep them going, and the idea is that they should study designing and be of use in commercial work. “Designing for textiles has been taken out of British hands for so long, but I think England soon will have the supremacy over France. For the exhibition, Connard has designed a carpet. It. has taken over two years to weave. Its size is 22 by 19 feet, and every little piece of wool was carefully dyed so as to be quite correct in the general harmony of the design; this meant that Connard had to be in constant touch with manufacturers in the two years. The carpet’s value is set down at £5OOO. “Coining Into Its Own.” “England is having a great revival in cultural activities,” Mrs. Fuller continued. “At the Academy summer exhibition it was shown that British art is undoubtedly coming into its own. Up to the exhibition of British art in 1933 in Burlington House. England was very conservative where her own art was concerned, but -fince then people seem to have realised more fully the great treasure they have in British dition. It is extraordinary how other countries, such as France, have built up such prestige abroad in that connection ; England has been too conservative to do this, but now it all has come very much to the fore.” Speaking of the “ultra” movement as it is now in London Mrs. Fuller gave her opinion that no advance was being made. “There has come recently a tendency to remain at a standstill. The modernist movements were started as attempts to break away from the confining conventions of art, and now instead of continuing to move ahead they have become more or less of a convention themselves. “Shortly before I ieft London some painters were asked what they considered their favourite pictures in the galleries. Paul Nash, the abstract painter and one of the leaders in the modern movement, was asked to make his particular choice in any of the national galleries. He couldn’t find anything in the Tate Gallery he called a modern picture, but in the National Gallery he made a choice. !(■ was El Greco’s Laocoon. loaned bv Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. El Greco was no modern but a primitive So Hint is not saying much for the new movement.”