ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20989, 28 September 1931, Page 8

ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

DEVELOPING NATIONAL TYPE. NATURE'S BOUNTEOUS GIFTS. [ISY TELEGRAPH. —PREPS ASSOCIATION. ] WELLINGTON, Saturday. Speaking at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition,, the GovernorGeneral, Lord Bledisloe, referring to the formation of the Incorporated Institute of New Zealand Ajt Societies and the intention to establish an annual art scholarship, said the movement would tend to bring about a national objective in art. The eventual outcome might be the development of a distinctive school or type of New Zealand art which would be recognised as such throughout the world and as being of conspicuous merit. Emphasising the need for the closest relationship between nature and art on the one hand and science and art on the other, His Excellency said nature had been peculiarly prodigal of her bounteous gifts in this, relatively small country, but to-day inhabitants of this favoured land, at least those who plied pencil and paint brush, seemed relatively blind to the scenic treasures of mountain, river, lake, fiord, native bush and thermal fountain, which constituted in a marked degree the wealth of their national heritage. Tt should be remembered, he continued, that art properly interpreted could be displayed not only in the production of good pictures, sculpture, architecture and handicraft, but also in such mundane occupations as ploughing a straight furrow, shearing sheep, making cheese, grading and packing fruit, designing a dress, planning a street, or delivering a speech in Parliament.