ART EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20257, 17 May 1929, Page 13

ART EXHIBITION.

OPENING THIS MONTH.

SOME NOVEL FEATURES.

REFERENDUM OF VISITORS. More than 450 pictures have been submitted for the annual exhibition of the Auckland Society of Arts, which will be opened on May 29 by the Governor-Gen-eral. The exhibition, which was held last year in the Di I worth Building, will return on tins occasion to the society's former gallery in Kitchener Street. • Australian artists, little of whose work was shown in the 1928 exhibition, have sent over a representative collection of 35 pictures. Among the contributors are W. Robert Johnson, the New Zealander whose landscapes attracted much attention a year ago, Thea Proctor, Fred Leist, Sidney Long, and 15. E. Minns. There are 11 names in the list, and the works submitted include both oils and watercolours. Few of tho society's exhibitions do not contain work by New Zealand painters in Europe. The only one represented this year is F. J. Porter, an Aucklander, who left the Dominion a number of years ago, and who has sinco received warm praise from tho leading English critics. Four pictures by him will bo shown. As usual, a large collection of work by Southern artists has been sent in. Tho hanging committee expects to finish its work early next week.

The society has broken new ground by providing special sections for the students of the Elain School of Art, and the School of Architecture at Auckland University College. Designs by architects practising in Auckland will again be included, after an interval of two or three years. ' Another new departure has also been planned. Every visitor will be invited to name the picture which ho considers the best in the exhibition, and the votes will be counted. A second referendum will be taken among the artist members of' tha society. A comparison of the voting should be of much interest.

As in' previous years, an art union will be held, but the conditions have been changed. Formerly the prize-winners were allowed to make their own choice of pictures up to certain specified values. This time the eommitteo will select the first prize, which will be of the value of 30 guineas.

In connection with the exhibition a ball will be held in the Town Hall on June 18. An energetic committee is arranging for novel decorations, and a number of unusual features, such as cabaret "turns" between the dances. There are indications already that the venture will prove very popular.