ART EXHIBITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 165, 13 June 1936, Page 13

ART EXHIBITION

BUSS TYLEE’S PICTURES. Showing the influence of modern expression, as opposed to the traditions and strict canons of the old schools, a display of some sixty pictures in oils and water-colours is at present being held by Bliss Marion Tylee, the I'ahiatua artist, in the Rosco tea-rooms, where they have been inspected by many appreciative visitors. The exhibition, which contains numerous pleasing studies, will be continued until June 20. The effect of Miss Tylee’s studies at the Slade School of Art for three years under Professor Tonks is shown both in her very literal transpositions of scenes to canvas, and the bold manner in which she has invested Nature with a delineating emphasis. She has taken simplicity as the reproductive medium, with the result that her pictures are distinctive but pleasing symposiums, canied out with an admirable blending of restraint and originality. They are arresting, without blatancy.

Instead of the mere' acceptance of Nature as it stands, Bliss Tylee has, .in accordance with the modernistic trend, allowed her brush-work to move definitely into the channels of decoration and design in what is really a firm but very pleasing patterning of colour. There is in her work clearly an emancipation from what is dull, characterless and stereotyped. She has thrown off the cramping effect of too conventional a style, and has followed the modern technique of the watercolour, with her play of light and atmosphere, rather than seek to thrust forward detail, yet the latter has shape and regularity because of its unerring tones, with their suggestion of volume and symmetry. Insistence upon design is a feature of twentieth-century painting, and in this Bliss Tylee excels with a cadence of tonal methods in swift abstracts of colour. It is a complete schism from the partisanship of a hackneyed tradition. Bliss Tylee’s painting expresses the spirit. and physical constitution of the age, with all the liveliness of free expression,' and is absolutely clear of misused prejudice. It is a repprochcment of the artist and the public. There is equilibrium in her work, without it ceasing to be live or organic, and it has freedom without being anarchistic. Tersely put, her painting is elastic but precise with a deliberation discreetly cloaking the emotional factor.

Two oils which have won her commendation are very faithful interior views, while considerable praise has been bestowed upon her picture of a girl sewing, with its unusual background. Her landscape of the Blangataihoka bridge was reproduced in a New Zealand art magazine. Blost prominent among her water-colours is a scene of haystacks in Victoria, while other nice pictures are one showing an evening light atmosphere, skillfully portrayed, in Central Otago, a pastoral view of lviwitea, and pictures painted on the Riviera during a Continental holiday. There are also some lino-cuts and a' rough sketch in sepia. Her oil portrait of a Breton girl is striking, and there are paintings of the Pahistua and Ballance bridges, as well as the snow-capped Tararuas, all very effective and attractive.