CONTEMPORARY ART

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 92, 20 April 1939, Page 11

CONTEMPORARY ART

CENTENNIAL COLLECTION

FAMOUS ARTISTS CONTRIBUTE

Interesting , particulars have been received from Mrs. M. Murray Fuller of the success attending her efforts at organising an international exhibition of contemporary art to be shown ■at the National Art Gallery in Wellington during the Centennial period. At the beginning of this year she went to England as the. official representative of the National Gallery, and since her arrival she. has been having an extremely busy time in London calling on noted painters and sculptors to obtain their works for the Exhibition.

On April 2 she left London for the Continent, visiting France, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden for the purpose of obtaining works from the painters of these countries.

Mrs. Fuller reports that she has obtained works from the following artists in Great Britain:—Wilson. Steer, 0.M., Professor Tonks, Sir Walter Russell, Phillip Connard, R.A-,. Harx-y Morley, A.R.A., Robert Austin, A.R.A., Margaret Fisher Prout,. Beatrice Bland, W. J. Leech, Charles Wheeler, Dyson Smith, Herbert Budd, Helen Mackenzie, Emily Court, T. S. Lory, T. C. Dugdale, W. K. Browning, the late Glynn Philpott, R.A., Fleetwood Walker, R. 0.1,, Clare Atwood, N.E.A.C., P. H. Jowett, R. Kirkland Jamieson, Mark Gertler, Meninsky, John Revell, Sir Arnesby Brown, Adrian Allinson, R. O. Dunlop, the late Harry Watson, H. Rushbury. R.A., Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Averill Burleigh, Leonard Squirrell, H. Davis Richter, and Charles Cundall. From this list it will be seen that many artists whose work has not been seen previously in New Zealand have consented to send their work on this occasion.-

In a recent letter to the secretary of | the National Art Gallery, Mrs. Fuller! stated that she had seen Mr. Charles i Wheeler, sculptor, who was busy on the new foundations for Trafalgar Square, j Sir Edwin Lutyens, president of the Royal Academy, has designed the new arrangements and. Mr. Wheeler is carrying out the fountains—big marine j groups and larger, basins (the present fountains are being removed), also busts of Lord Jellicoe and Earl Beatty which are to look towards Nelson. Mrs. Fuller saw the marine groups which were ready to go to cast and also the commencement of the bust of Lord Jellicoe. She has obtained two pieces! of sculpture from Mr. Wheeler for the. Exhibition. His Majesty the King has graciously consented to lend for the Exhibition the huge Coronation painting by Frank Salisbury. This is to go to the New York Fair, thence to New Zealand, and afterwards to Australia and South Africa. OFFICIAL ASSISTANCE. Mrs.. Fuller has been in close touch with the High Commissioner's Office and the Dominions Office in London and has received much assistance from them. She has visited also the Directors of the National and Tate Galleries, the Royal Academy, and the British Industries Fair at Olympia, where she inspected exhibits of the latest facsimile . reproductions and has obtained much information which will be useful to the National Gallery authorities in Wellington. Writing on March 28, Mrs. Fuller states: —"The Duke of Devonshire, Under-Secretary of the Dominions, gave an 'At home' last evening to many visitors to London. I met Lord Bledisloe there, looking extremely well, also Professor Hei-cus who leaves on Friday for the United States. If the international situation in Europe improves, he will return to London in June. I was most interested in the beautiful pictures hanging in the house —many fine Dutch and Flemish, and in one room several by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, and Lawrence. The Duke of Devonshire came and spoke to me when he saw me looking at the pictures and then took me through other rooms in the house. His own room has some! exceptionally fine Remb.randts hanging i in it. One of 'The Rabbi' is a great masterpiece. His Grace introduced me as 'The file come to life and in the flesh.' He is most interested in our Exhibition and has been handling the correspondence. He showed me a charming little figurine—coloured glaze —which is an actual portrait of the Duchess. This he offered to me on loan. I think it will add considerable interest to the collection. I am to write to him about it."

Africa

Mrs. Fuller states that arrangements are well ahead and that no effort is being spared to make the collection an outstanding one of international contemporary art.