ART APPRECIATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 31 December 1938, Page 10

ART APPRECIATION

LECTURE TO SUMMER SCHOOL Mr W. H. Allen in a lecture to the W.E.A. Summer School dealt with the problem of visual art and the appreciation of the spectator. Cultured people were often the first to confess ignorance of art and this was not surprising considering that schools had not taken visual education seriously. People did not realise that they were dealing with art every day when they bought clothes and chairs and lived in houses. These things were just as much art as were painting and sculpture. Naturalism was not a standard for art appreciation. The painter today could not afford to usurp the province of the camera. The artist did not copy nature, he interpreted it. Copying could be more economically done by photography which was in itself an art. The artist in his work considered first purpose and material. For appreciation of art, the bast way was not merely to talk about it but to look at it and get to know it. It was necessary to clear the mind of all associated ideas and look at the work itself rather than the name of the artist and the position that he occupied. Art must belong to its own time and not merely reproduce the past. There was no need for English banks to disguise themselves as Greek temples. Art produce ideas. The people were afraid of new ideas, because they involved change; but progress depended upon ideas. The artist should not be restricted tn supplying them. Mr Allen illustrated his lecture with photographs of sculpture, architecture and painting. UNITED STATES AND NEW ZEALAND A most interesting address was given this morning in the Boys’ College by Mr J. Johnson to the members of the W.E.A. School. Mr Johnson, who spent a long time in the States as a Carnegie scholar, gave a most interesting account of his experiences and accentuated the differences between American and New Zealand educational systems, without disparagement to New Zealand. At the same time a listener could not but feel that the lecturer was an enthusiastic supporter of the newer American methods. Dr Field, who is director of the school, presided over a large and appreciative audience.