SCHOOL OF ART.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14916, 11 February 1909, Page 4

SCHOOL OF ART.

EXHIBITION OP STUDENTS' WOJiK. From nn artistic standpoint an exhibition of students’ art work is always more or less disappointing, however excellent the instruction may have been or however apt and talented tho pupils, for no matter what height of artistic achievement has been reached, there is always a fooling that a little more pains and a little more knowledge might have produced a more satisfactory result. The reason for this is that the art school concerns itself more with principles and methods than with tho production of finished work. Tolstoy’s dictum that it is the function of art to conceal art—to hido the elaborate scaffolding under an appearance of seeming simplicity, is not one of the doctrines of the art student so far as hi.s or her class work is concerned. Correct drawing, true anatomy, proper balance of masses and of colour, and the right technical use of the medium employed—these, arc essentials. Fine finish and tricks of detail and impression are things that come afterwards.

Bearing this in mind, the exhibition of students’ work at present on view at tho Canterbury College School . of Art is of a satisfactory and pleasing character. Even in the work of firstyear pupils in still life, elementary design and bruslnvork, there aro evidences that tho individuality of each student’s work has been fostered instead. of eliminated, wherever it has not transgressed against essential principles. In the luoro advanced still life work, in water colours and oil, and particularly in tho floral sketches, many of the students show a clear and accurate conception of tho value of colour contrasts, and the proper grouping and balance of their pictures. The charcoal studies from the antique aro well up to the standard of former years, but the few examples of pendrawing from casts are hardly brilliant examples of effective line-draw-ing. There is a large collection of landscape sketches in water colour and oils, made direct from Nature. In many of these faulty drawing testifies io the fact that the sketches were intended more as colour-notes than as finished drawings, but colour is used brightly and intelligently in almost every instance. The work of the lifeclass is creditable, the head studies in water colours being particularly pleasing, while some attractive work lias been done in coloured chalk and in charcoal. The heads in oil are, with one notable exception, indicative mere of careful, conscientious work than of originality and breadth of treatment. Some exceptionally fine charcoal figure studies are shown, the line-work in one of these being the crispest and “ snappiest ” done in tho school lor many seasons. The charcoal studies in the nude are good, workmanlike drawings, the more finished examples showing a lively appreciation of the possibilities of the medium.

The decorative portion of the school’s work apparently attracts a great many students. The elementary studies of natural forms suitable for decorative application include some neat and tasteful sketches, and the simpler examples of applied design, though never brilliantly original in. conception, display a good deal of quiet and artistic feeling. A now departure is a series of costume studies, treated in semidecorative style. Some of this work is evidently not students’ work at all, and it is all of a high artistic level. In that domain of design which includes posters, book plates and hook illustrations, tho work frankly disappointing. The series of illustrations to Maori legends has been for the most part drawn by students who would benefit by three or four years of figure study from tho life. The drawings are

faulty in anatomy, and with one or two exceptions stilted in composition. One or two poster designs are displayed, but they aro hardly successes from a colour standpoint, while the lettering could easily be improved. Tho architectural and building construction drawings are legion in name, and arc neatly 'and intelligently made in almost every instance, though some of the perspective drawings in colour have been executed rather too hurriedly for work of that class. The work of tho clay modelling classes, represented by plaster casts from the clay, includes some careful copies from the antique, and the examples of wood-carving, amongst which is a decorated coat-of-arms for the Boys High School, aro of a high order of merit. There are some artistic pieces of stencilled fabric in the. exhibition, and some fairly artistic beaten copper work. In the section devoted to painters’ and decorators’ work some ambitious pieces of stencil panelling aro shown. The work is artistic in design but rather heavy in colouring in some instances, and obscure in the matter of colour contrasts in. others. A feature of the exhibition is a collection of fine water colour landscapes by the director of the school, Mr R. Herdnian-Smith, and a number of dainty oil sketches by Mr Sydney L. Thompson.