MEN WITH A MESSAGE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 88, 13 April 1912, Page 9

MEN WITH A MESSAGE

IN ELOQUENT ART. PERSONALITY IN PICTURES. £OR THE NATIONAL GALLERY. (By Ejpjye.) Not in body but thoroughly in soul {many of Britain's best artists are visitJDg New Zealand, and the noblest of .there hope to stay in a worthy home, the projected National Gallery. Nevor ■was auybt a deputation of brilliant talent io theao shores; never was "Wellington u> handsomely " waited upon." Each, artast. haG sent his personality with his pi'.'inrcK. Each ■ expresses himself; each lias a aiesaago to his kinsmen here. Mr. John Baiiiie vj indeed onpacking a pictorial parliament of which each, inemb&r is a clean, clear, and straight exponent of living an. There is no make-believe, no bluff, no pretence, nothing superficial. Great painters are represented by work in which they have put heart and mind for all to see aud feel. The. canva.K glows with life from the vitalising brush <uf a life-giver. The pastoral scene is jjob a dead photograph, hard set and cold; it is a presentment of living Nature through thje eyes of a Naturelover. No sense of sameness, no monotony, no suspicion of blind devotion to a hard-and-fast convention or tradition «vill obsess or oppress the observers of these pictures. They will be found in pleasant variety, each great artist expressing himself in his own manner just as a great poet or a great composer does. A* wealth of individuality and originality will be on view presently. ■Wellington has an opportunity to seize this treasure and hold it fast for the citizens ot to-day, their children, and their children's children. Such an opportunity has never been here befoie, and may not occur again. It happened this time because enthusiasts at this end made a stir, and because on© of Wellington's sone, Mr. Baiiiie, was at the other end, London. As principal of an important gallery, with a well-estab-Jished reputation, Mr. Baillie was in loach with the best artists, and, as a New Zealander, he was eager to do a service for his native city and country. This happy combination accounts for the existence of thw splendid opportunity which it will be Wellington's good fortune io accept or misfortune to reject. '" And once departed may return no more," may be said of the pictures as of Omar Khayyam's wayfarers. BONDS OF CONVENTION BROKEN. The history of the British pictures nominally dates from the time, hist year, when enthusiasts here decided to make an attempt to get out a representative display of British art, but the recorder has to go much further back by reason of the idea which domiuated Mr. Baillie when he heartily agreed to co-operate with the New Zealand Academy. Such a. collection of expressive pictures is poseihle only because the times have changed, and people and artists nave been changed for the better. When Mr. Baillie first set out to establish nhnself in London, fifteen or sixteen years ago, he felt the burden of an adoration of convention. Art was standardised in a Sense, just as a commodity of commerce such as butter or cheese, hides or hemp. Even a bold man barely dared to be original. Genius was sometimes strangled by the bonds of convention. The impress of personality was regarded as an offence against nature, an offence against , the decencies. v Practically, the painter was expected to have no more peisonal feeling in the matter than a camera. In fact, hie part was virtually to act as a camera. He was to strictly reproduce a subject' and carefully restrain himself irom touches which might reveal the •working of his own mind or might set out the moral of a scene or other study from the artist's viewpoint. This state of bondage did not appeal to the young iNew Zealander. Like Tom Mann in purpose, but in different order, he decided to be a "rebel against society." If he had taken the line of least resistance his days would have been more comfortable in thoso remote tunes, and his name would have been of no account to-day. He did not take that line; he decided to fight, and he continued to fight, year after year. Cold eyes and cold shoulders merely incited him to fight more, and he fought fo much that he won. He had a definite purpose, a definite idea, from which no man could turn him back. His desire was to enable men of originality, men with a message, to express themselves as their own minds directed them. He was out to establish a popularity for individuality in place of the cast-iron preference for conventionality. He had a long road to travel in London, but he arrived at the house of success. One does not need to go to Mr. Baillie to-day to learn that the Baillie Gallery is firmly established in the world of art. It ie sab on an imperishable foundation — the "tile which is in the minds and hearts of pioo. with a message. THE PUBLIC IN JUDGMENT. Not every layman will profess to be an expert in astronomy or electrical science, but neariy everybody mil undertake to paes comprehensive judgment on a picture, "not necessarily for publication." After a gaze of a few moments, the expression of a master artist's 'mind, all his subtle tracery, all his wonderful shading, all his energy to make an idea iiye on a canvas, may b9 6ummed up hastily as " not so bad " or " might be ■worse," by an . observer who does not bother to look for motif. He no more cares to ponder on the artist's purpose than a housewife pauses to meditate on Nature's design in the bunch of qarrots which the Chinaman offers at the back door. To the thoughtless spectator a picture is an arrangement of trees, or a ship in an estuary, a head, or group of figures, " rather good " or " impossible," and nothing more. That was a public attitude which, helped to keep art in bondage in Britain, but the people, at least large sections of them, are changingvfor the better, and artists are more encouraged to be true to themselva, Many make a business 01 giving " what is wanted " in exactly the same way as any other material manufacturer, or a poet laureate on State occasions, but the beet of the artists paint ivhafc is in them just as the best poets write what ia in them. They have no 4->flosia about- pleasing' this * group or-. thi,t : their wish is to express them-eeJ-zts, zuid happily ih«y are not now lacking incentive. My. Baillio gives -the opinion that the improvement and elevation cf art in New Zealand must come in the same way, and he is confident that lie Jias the examples to help in that desirable process. Tfics^artist here who docs not feel in himself that he has a iKessage to give to the world, some gift of originality tyi offer to the community, has no more ri^Ut to worry the public i»ith alleged pictures than a soulless versifier has to o,ftiict ifc with alleged poems. A change of occupation would be better for each class, and much better tea- tho community. Those who fee] that they are as trees to grow and bear fruit- must grow in their own v/ay en t&a ground of their own etrrvrng. If they »ro for ever pruning and bending ihemaelres to make tueniEeives like ot&erJj theiv labour will be in vain. Mr. Baiiiie believes that New Zealandcas jiave talent- keen j^i^es, foioe, and he la convinced that they will advaac* far in art if they have -the right stimulus, 4ke vitiw of men and ■women who luno '

interpreted Nature masterfully, with all due respect and homage to Nature. The artists hero can be moved to higher things, especially if the public can ba put into a mood to encourage tho higher things. This opportunity which is Sere has come both for artists and the public, for their perpetual mutual advantage, if the meesage of those British artistij if? kindly received.