THE INSPIRATION OF ART

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 138, 7 December 1935, Page 8

THE INSPIRATION OF ART

The prospect, tentatively extended by Mr. George Shirtcliffe, a member of: the board of trustees of, the National Art' Gallery, of a collection of famous pictures from the principal London galleries being sent out from Britain in time for the official opening of the new museum and art gallery in Wellington will be very Welcome to all art lovers. That such a prospect can be contemplated at all is due to the Art Collections Loans Society, which, according to Mr. Shirtcliffe, has been working very hard to make it possible for such a collection to be exhibited in Australia and New Zealand. These countries, remote from the world's art centres, have little opportunity normally of seeing the original masterpieces of art, though reproductions may be available. The various aspects of the problem were fully traversed by the late GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, in his address, when, in laying the foundationstone of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum in April, 1934,.he said:

I No large number of the world's masterpieces will find a resting place I within these walls (at any rate for smany years to come), but all encouragement should be extended to schemes for obtaining good reproductions of them . . . and periodical loan collections of drawings, paintings, and examples of the finest craftsmanship from the Mother Country. . . . Regular exhibitions of this description would not only improve the taste of the I community, but would aid in the more general employment of local artistic [talent. In an isolated country like this better standards can only be obtained by setting up for imitation the highest achievements in the arts and crafts. If your people are to aim at the best, they must know and appreciate the best.

The benefits of such loan exhibitions are well illustrated by the successive displays in London of Italian, French, Dutch, and British Old Masters, of Persian art, and, at the present time, the collection of the art of China, which has been described as the finest ever brought together. These London exhibitions have attracted art lovers from all over the world, and the general public of Britain have been generous in their patronage. It has been said that great art incarnates the soul of the country which produces it and transmits its inspiration to all wherever it is seen. For this reason New Zealanders will welcome the chance of sharing this privilege.