LOW STANDARD

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 135, 4 December 1935, Page 12

LOW STANDARD

ART IN DOMINION i

PROFESSOR'S CRITICISM

"The standard of art in New Zealand is very unsatisfactory. We have ydung and promising artists, but art is'1 not really popular," said Professor F.i BJ Worley, addressing the Auckland Society of Arts yesterday on the sub-' ject of "Art in Relationship to En-' vironment." There were children oCexceptional promise in the schools, he:said, put the trouble was that there; was no encouragement for them to takeS up painting or ihe other arts as ai means of livelihood. In Auckland nod artist could live by means of his arei alone. As a result of lack of encour4 agement the spark' of promise in th«n children thus dwindled away (reports* the. "Auckland Star"). ■ -' ■

By reference to the history of art, Professor Worley showed that through' time there had been, an undulating tendency in art, running side by side, with peaks of civilisation. Art ill its development was' intimately asso« ciated with civilisation, but it had td be remembered that literature and mechanical and engineeringl develop--ment followed the peaks of artistic development. There had been great artists in all ages—even in the Ice Age, We in New Zealand had a great oppor< tunity of studying art in its primitiva form. The Maoris were .still practice ally in the Stone Age when the white* arrived here and they had a wonder* ful art. It was mainly symbolic, and there was a certain amount of super* stition associated with it. Professor Worley showed that thq greatest art of the world had beeS produced under conditions of. patronJ age, and largely in association witn the Churches. If art, therefore, was del pendent on patronage, wbgt hope wM there for it in present-day conditions? New Zealand had a patron—democracy —but at present it was interested only in material things. The people who would like to be patrons of art wefa without the means. He doubted, how-1 ever, if the position was as gloomy,] as it seemed. If the city councils] and other public bodies would take aS greater interest in art there would not* be so many hideous public buildings.; There were signs of improvement, and with the growth of education we oould' look for a revival in at least the archV tectural side of art.