ART EXHIBITION

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 116, 20 May 1925, Page 9

ART EXHIBITION

SKETCHES AND FINISHED

WORK

THE NEW ZEALAND ACADEMY

Sketches and quite finished works are now to be seen in their hundreds at the Whitmore Street Gallery of the NewZealand Academy of Fine Arts. The attendance of the general public yesterday, the first day of the exhibition, was most encouraging. Ther6 is a very attractive display of work in several medioms, but mostly in water colours. The ouly reason that would seem to justify describing the show as one of sketches is that, the works exhibited are without glass and frames. In many instances, except for that, the description "sketch" ia a misnomer. A glance at the" wall* might convey the idea to the visitor that. in accepting and hanging many of the Works the Selection Committee had followed its heart rather than its head in making its choice. In company with Borne works of great merit, work that could be shown with assurance -anyTvhero, is a fairly large proportion of that which is mediocre to inferior. But the Academy's idea appears to be encouragement of art in general, and especially self expression by legitimate pictorial and similar means. Hence it endeavours to maintain an attitude of broadmindedness in this respect. The public gains by this, for it has plenty of opportunity of making studied comparisons among the great number and Variety of works hung upon the walls. The sketch exhibition this year is as fully as interesting and instructive as its . many predecessors. It is too distinctly representative not only of many ideas and theories a.nd modes of expression, but of artists working in other parts of the Dominion and overseas. This year a few pictures from the collection of Mr. Charles Wilson much enhance the attractiveness of the exhibition. They include examples of the clever and much-discussed work of Norman Lindsay. One is called the "King's Treasure," and is that of a nude female figure, being looked over with the appraising eye of a dwarf jester, and the other "Danse de Bacchantes," which, it is understood, is one of the most recent as the former was one of the earlier ivorks of this undoubtedly clever but sometimes too emphatic artist. There is, too, a beautiful work by Sid Long, in "Narrabeen Lagoon," faithfully descriptive of this pleasant locality and yet of far more than topographical value. A perfect gem is Blamire Young's "Barges on the Oise." Both Mr. Wilson and the academy are fortunate, the former in possessing, the latter in having lent to it, so fine, if small, a collection representative of the best in the contempor- . ory ■ art: of Australia. 'Among the exhibitors in the sketch exhibition proper will be "found some vigorous work by Rollo Fisher in sketches of girls' heads (oils); Miss Lynch's fine portrait study of a monk, wearing a look of religious ecstasy (oils); E. M. Collier's fine .crayon drawing oJ " A Welsh Woman," well painted studies of trees by E. M. Palethorpe; an arresting painting of the head, subtly lighted, of a heavy cart 1 horse, by Miss Flora Scales; some beautiful examples of the work of Nugent Welsh (some bearing the desirable red wafer indicating sales), a. singularly beautiful painting, of flowers (water colours), mostly lavender tinted anemones, blue nemesias, and snapdragons, and ranunculus, all artistically arranged and freely painted ; clever and honest workmanship in sketches of white ducks and storks by E. It. Robinson; admirable examples of Marcus King's work and expressions of his ideas in the storm picture, " Titahi Bay" and "The Beach at Seatoun," near Steeple Rock, on a warm summer's morning; Mina Arndt (Mrs. Manoy) is well represented by clever characteristic work ; " Geraniums " and" " Roses " have been painted (in oils) with great success by W. Killick; Esmond Atkinson's botanical drawings will well repay careful attention; E. Collier's name appears in the corner of a pastel portrait of "An Irish Peasant"—a true sketch yet an undoubtedly true likeness; "Sleepy Cove" (water colour), by Miss Stoddart, is one of the most distinguished works in the exhibition; water colours of Italy (including Capri) by George ivnignt, and competent drawings of Sussex and elsewhere in England by Frank tarter will be fonnd on the stairs leading to the upper gallery. By a curious coincidence Mrs. Sherwood exhibits (in oils) a most desirable picture of a lady in crinoline dress, in a park, with a gallant reclining on a seat in the middle distance, the subject, distinctly French in feeling, recalling the palmy days of the Second Empire, and the title is In Other Times"; and Mrs. M E Inpe has taken a like period, and a siml lar setting for a lady wearing a crinoline dress (the texture perfectly painted), and she calls it " Autrefois." Outstanding examples y[ the work of Archibald JNicol wall delight the visitor, who will perhaps b e interested in the fine painting (oils by Hay Campbell, of "Herring Salters." The etchings and other work of Hester Flood must on Z account be overlooked. The work of Miss Ethel Richardson, Mr. ana 7 Mrs Kelly Menzies Gibb, Mrs. Sawtell W \Vauchop, H M. Gore, T. A. MacCorl fttr' T™? BS Uer > and especially that of Mr. Lmley Eichardson,' will fully r7 pay. respectful scrutiny. ye" turiW ar- 6 •S°me T intere£t™g architectural drawmgs. Lest they foreet vis .to,s fa,, ? reminded /that The a£ demy g object is to foster and assist art in New Zealand, therefore if thfre i", long gap between the quality of some works that are hung side by ,£& Th herself may learn from better works what is wanting in their own.