MODERN ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18742, 23 June 1924, Page 5

MODERN ART.

Sir,—"Sanity," I think', sounds a note of needless :J alarm;'. Modernity in its latest V phase can hardly be said to have arrived at-New Zealand yet V ; It is present to only a." small degree fat J. the Auckland Art Ex- / hibition, and, at that, principally in the ■:■■■■ i ; work of J artists who have recently; visited ■■;■ ■ ; Europe. As regards modernity, however. "Sanity" must take' comfort from the probability that its ' excesses iin ' colour and > ; vagueness are only a fleeting phase , in th» growth of art, which will pass as quickly . as the latest Paris fashion in hats. 'Art owes its progress to ; experimentalists, > and who can say that art has reached a period ■; ;- of:complete evolution ? ',Most; of, the great . masters were experimentalists in; their :. way—-Reynolds,, who was always trying ; new methods and materials, was a con- • spicuous :. example—and ■ art •. owes its advancement ■to the efforts of ; artists who had the courage to break new ground. It . is advisable therefore not to wear blinJceri - '■ of /prejudicedwhen viewing the work of : •the modernists; who by their': lavish ]:, usaf of,; colour ~ and ;; suggestion are /doubtless,; helping ; the onward -march of art. The critic who would make; a bonfire of all ■■ the work ha y does /. not understand,- and . does not approve, lays himself ; open - to a charge !• of , narrow-mindedness ; and lack of : prescience. :};; The; exhibition of Spanish ,art; in ; London ax few ■ year's ago ' did not . meet with universal approbation from the ; i critics and the public; yet the ;exhibition/; was a. revelation \ to artists and will eser- . ;;. cise a lasting influence on art.. Inspired experimentalists-, like- Monet,- Manet, ;Y. Bastida, Cezanne or Augustus .-. John may. seem 'eccentric and strange, to ; many, but their x work shows an extra- . , ordinary ; genius i and power which must make its mark on the future of art. Mean- ;.; while, -"the trouble:; is. -that a.host of inferior imitators are following in the wake of ■ the great: experimentalists, and as a result there • is. some , danger- of '<; art-.." being '' forced into a narrow groove, :in j which • garish colours and- coarse technique ; take the piabe of refined craftmanshiri and , : . -; sincerity. -'.Mi? regards the Auckland Ex- ' ■ , hibiiion, modernity >or any other development does-not seem to have influenced the , work very much. With a, few notable" ex- . ceptions the standard is not high and ; gives one the impression that most of , the artists were thankful ;to have , produced >y; something frameablc without bothering about fads or fashions. I am" gfcvd that ' : Mr. Brown Constable. ;;This ; great artist was a during pioneer, and was ! '-' oiw of the first to show what the palette., 'knife could do. In his early-days he was asked to brown his pictures because they . were too green, but he Yv.'id down adverse ;;-,'-;•■. criticism, and exercised an immonsi»;,id* s ■■ fluence on modern art. ■■_.': PnaisssiflV.'. - Mm.