LINEAR RHYTHM

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 264, 4 August 1937, Page 5

LINEAR RHYTHM

Lecture on Art to W.E.A. ‘‘Notwithstanding the fact that drawings do not prove as popular as artistic representations with the attraction of colour, the s artist reveals himself through them more fully than in more elaborate forms in many instances,” said Mr. E. C. Simpson, 8.A., in his lecture to the Workers’ Educational Association, Wellington, recently. The lecture was one of a series on modern art and its subject. “The Understanding of Modern Art.” He stated that drawing was often a guide to the mind and equipment of an artist. By showing a number of different slides in illustration, the speaker pointed out the particular objective that the artist had in each case. Most notable among the drawings shown, were those by Moore and Modigliani, indicating clearly the sculptor's method of drawing a solid figure as though seen from one viewpoint. The illustrations covered a wide range from drawings on early Greek vases to works by medieval draughtsmen, Michaelangelo and Durer, as well .as examples of living artists. The distinction was emphasised between the anatomical method of drawing practised, by the Renaissance artists and that in vogue among many present-day artists. The study of anatomy helped the artist to understand form and function, but today emphaeie was laid rather on the interest excited by the rhythmic flow of line. In this latter method the drawings of Matisse proved almost perfect examples, showing an indifference to proportions as well as to anatomical fact, but giving the first simple response to the artist’s sensation of the thing seen. Underneath the distortions, said Mr. Simpson, there lay a sense of the balance of movement, of the volumes created by the lines, reaching a singular beauty of linear rhythm.

The lecture concluded with examples of the drawings of animals by different artists to show how each artist turned to nature with his own particular mode of vision, and recorded his own peculiar conception of the animal drawn. The study of drawings was a fascinating as well as a profitable one to (hose who experienced the natural pleasure of looking, concluded the speaker. If this were combined with a quiet hour, which we seldom permit ourselves to-day, the result would be an ability to penetrate into the artist’s methods. The subject for next Monday evening will be “The Artist’s Use of the Human Figure.”