AUSTRALIA’S ART.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 722, 2 June 1923, Page 7

AUSTRALIA’S ART.

GREATER PROMISE THAN THAT OF ENGLAND.

AWAY FROM TRADITION

LONDON. May 17, Australian art, because it has broken away from tradition wisely and effectively, has more promise than British or Continental art at present—such is the opinion of Mr W, 11. Ifould, of the Public Library of Now South Wales, who has just made an inspection of British and Continental exhibitions with a view to possible purchases.

Mi 1 Ifould said he was keenly disappointed at the tone of British and Continental art. The Academy was shockingly weak, and the French Salon showed miles of pictures, none of them striking tor original. "I feel strongly,” ho said, “that the autumn exhibition of Australian art, with the originality and virility that English art lacks, will attract a great deal of attention. The more I see of British art the more 1 realise that Australian art has tremendous promise, because it has broken away from tradition, not erratically, as the British cubists and other eccentrics have done, but wisely and effectively. “If English people would remember that Australian work is painted in brilliant sunshine, where every line is hard, they could not help but be impressed. Neither the Academy nor the Salon possesses the work of a niter colourist comparable to Hans Heysen, of South Australia.” As well as looking into art conditions, Mr Ifould lias been searching for Cook records and portraits. He inspected many private collections, but found that many of the portraits of Cook were spurious. As the genuine portraits wore chiefly among collectors of relies, they were therefore un'purchable, and Mr Ifould’s only possible course was to endeavour to [joint out to the owners that Australia was the most suitable resting-place for Australian historical records, in the hope that the owners would eventually present or bequeath the relics to Australia. He visited Franco, where an Australian copyist has been working for several years amongst the wealth of material in the French archives, for the purpose of assisting in the selection of important- documents from the _ Australian viewpoint. These latter contain official records of the Pacific expeditions. Mr Ifould regarded this task as the most notable part of his tour, and ho says he achieved nothing of greater importance. Ho returns through America, whom lie will visit the . leading libraries, which ho says, are the finest in the world, and on which the Australian libraries are modelled. British libraries, ho says, do not possess staffs to assist in research as the American do.