ANTIPODEAN ART.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20372, 28 September 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

ANTIPODEAN ART.

TWO QUARTERLY JOURNALS. What is known in Sydney ns " The Contemporary Group," occupies nil tbe September issue of that always excellent quarterly, Art in Australia. These artists are in the main young people with some European travel and study behind them, but such notables of (lie Australian art world as George AV. Lambert, A.R.A. then Proctor and John D. Moore arc associated with them. According to the editorial article, (ho group's annual exhibitions in Sydney have bad a poor reception from the press—some of which lias attacked thorn for a " modern" tendency—and no encouragement from the trustees of tbe public galleries. Why the work so beautifully reproduced by Art in Australia should be condemned as " modern," is bard to understand. The word itself carries no reproach, unless it is held to mean a defiance of all wholesome tradition. With possibly two excepted, every picture in the volume is straightforward, intelligible and free from affectation. Indeed, if certain English company most of thein would bo voted obvious and old-fashioned on that account. The range is of subjects, media and methods is wide, running from an almost, conventional portrait by Lambert, through oil and water-colour landscapes, still life, and beads in pencil to wood engravings and lino-cuts. The names include Kenneth MacQiieen, whose work drew much notice in this Year's Auckland exhibition, Daryl Lindsay," John D. Moore. Margaret Preston. Adrian Feint, and three New Zealandvrs now in Australia—Adelaide Perry, Roland Wakelin, and Frank Weitzel. The two last, il is worthy of note, alone show signs of having followed any of tho evanescent- modern art-fashions. Art in New Zealand, a worthy emulator of its Australian namesake, has now re,iclied its fifth issue and second volume. The new number shows a- better choice of works for reproduction in coloui, and overcomes the reproach that some of the earlier selections were too slight and trivial to l>e broadcast by the three-colour process. The four plates consist of a good studv of the, nude by Evelyn Poison, a watereolour in a rather new manner by M. 0. Stoddart, and female portraits, in pastel and oils respectively, by Elizabeth Wall work and A. Elizabeth Kelly: All tbe artists belong to Christchurch. The black-and-white, reproductions are good and varied, and some students' work is found among them. Mr. Poland Hipkins. A.8.C.A., of Napier, has a valuable article on block prints, in which lie, suggests that children should be encouraged to make lino-cuts, which offer an excellent medium «<F free artistic expression. Two of tho plates, by ;i boy of 17 and a girl of 15, certainly support his argument. A. J. C. Fisher'supplies somo thought-pro-voking comment on the last Auckland exhibition. The literary contents of the number have shrunk. Among thein is amusing verbless " impression " of New Zealand, by Christopher Perkins, whose namo is probably a pseudonym.