A Healthy Revival

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1927, Page 9

A Healthy Revival

ART OF ANCIENT MAORI WILL PLAY A PART IN NEW MEMORIAL MUSEUM |

WORK OF R. O. GROSS rpHE revival of interest in the art of the ancient Maori is one of the really healthy artistic movements today in New Zealand. Aucklanders will rejoice in the fact that our Maori art is not to be neglected in the new "War Memorial Museum. Far too long has this phase of national art been overlooked. Too many of our treasures have gone abroad to find permanent homes where New Zealanders can but rarely see them. Mr. Richard O. Gross, the English sculptor, who came to New Zealand to grow apples, but found work of far greater importance awaiting him, is responsible for the incorporation of Maori design, in a modified form, in the new museum. He is working, of course, in earnest collaboration with the architects, Messrs. Grierson, Aimer and Draffin. IN A SUBDUED FORM That the Maori design should not interfere with the general scheme is emphasised', by Mr. Gross, who, in several instances, has departed from the “orthodox” barbaric style and incorporated his work in a chaste Greek background. The result is distinctly pleasing. For instance, the taiaha head has been utilised with picturesque effect in several of the rooms. Likewise, the notched design, which is evident in almost all Maori work. Mr. Gross recalls similarity between the Maori decoration and both early Greek and Celtic. This is not as strange as it may seem. The tools of all these people were limited. As soon as better implements for carving came to hand a much wider field was opened for the craftsman. With the Maori, however, this was not the case. He used the same tools until the arrival of the pakeha. Those who imagine that there are no definite laws governing Maori art, says Mr. Gross, are entirely wrong. Rules bound the Maori just as much as any other artist. The longer the design of the Maori is studied the more significant becomes this fact. Tradition has ascribed to Rauru, son of Toi (according to the late Augustus Hamilton’s monumental work on Maori art), the invention of the present pattern or style of Maori carving. Rauru lived in the Bay of Plenty district about 26 generations ago. To quote Mr. Hamilton: “No other branch of the Polynesian race uses exactly the same designs, so this trait is supported in claiming an endemic origin for the art of New Zealand.” The ancient. Maori craftsman had a true appreciation of the fitness of things. Never, for instance, did he ornament his weapons or implements in such a way as to interfere with their primary purpose and free use. In the general march from east to west in which all sections of the New Zealand Army will take part in a rep resentative frieze at the museum, Mr. Gross has given the Maori Pioneer Battalian an important part. These admirably drawn incised figures will be one of the outstanding features of the new building, which commands a site in the Domain unrivalled in Auckland. The taiaha head design has been used ingeniously, too, on the windows in the imposing front of the edifice.

Though cast in iron they will be coloured to represent bronze. It is hardly necessary to recall the fact that Mr. Gross was responsible for the Auckland Grammar School memorial, the Cambridge war memorial, and the Eelton memorial gates at Invercargill, in addition to other work completed since his arrival some years ago from South Africa. At the moment he is engaged upon the different coats of. arms of the British and Allied nations, by no means an easy matter to determine. These will also be placed in the War Memorial Museum adorning the gigan tic war maps. Mr. Gross is also working upon conventional scrolls for the new Masonic temple in Auckland. The olive, the lily, and bursting ears of corn will all play their part in these designs.

—ERIC RAMSDEN.