THE BUDDING ARTIST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17571, 9 September 1920, Page 4

THE BUDDING ARTIST.

FUNCTION OF THE SOCIETY.

QUESTION OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

The question whether beginners in art should bo encouraged or discouraged was briefly debated last evening at the annual meeting of the Auckland Society of Arts. One of the artists present raised the point - by suggesting that the incoming committee should be asked to consider the advisability of reinstating an old rule requiring candidates for admission to the society as working members to first submit specimens of their work. It some- , times happened, he- that some working members sent in pictures which* the Hanging Committee could not pass for exhibition, because of their crndity. Such members were apt to think that in such circumstances the society had taken their membership fees under false pretences. A member remarked upon the poor specimens of art he had seen hung at some of the society's exhibitions. A collection of three pictures was, he declared, better than a collection of thirty attempts and three pictures. . The president, Mr. H. E. VaOe, said that budding artists might be discouraged by a flat refusal to hang their pictures. The society had to be careful not to discourage anyone showing the remotest promise, particularly if they were young in years. However, he believed in leaving it to the artists themselves to decide what Eictnres should be exhibited. He was oping that next year they would have so manv first-rate pictm-es sent in that they would be able to say to those whose work was too crude for acceptance that they must hang the best pictures first'. That had not been possible in the past, however. A member' said he doubted ,the wisdom of encouraging some people .to paint- pictures. There were cases,where it would be much better to let them select other vocations. Another speaker said that if the - society was to fulfil its function the more drastic it was in this respect the better for the budding-artist. Someone suggested that at one time in the past there was a "chamber of horrors" attached to the society's exhibitions. He evidently thought it might be well to revive it. The president, however, remarked that while the "chamber fo horrors" referred to was entertaining, he did. not think it was quite fair. The committee would consider the question of reinstating the rule mentioned by the first speaker.