APPRECIATION OF ART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21249, 1 August 1932, Page 10

APPRECIATION OF ART

HOW TO LOOK AT PICTURES NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING There was a large attendance of art lovers at the Auckland Art Gallery yesterday afternoon, when the first of a series of three lectures, "ITow to Look at Pictures," was delivered by Mr. F. M. Bamford. The chairman of the Library Committee of the City Council, Miss Ellen Melville, presided. Mr. Bamford said to look at and appreciate a picturo fully it was necessary to understand it, and the only way to gain this understanding was to surrender oneself to the picture as one would to a musical composition. 'Should an artist, have painted "above tho head" of the ordinary person, tho only tiling to do was to try to follow the artist's motive and ideas and understand by degrees. It should not be necessary for tho beholder of a picture to have knowledge of the technique of art, as a work of art should have an instantaneous appeal. In the days of classical painting;, when art was at its highest peak, there was no doubt that the general public was intensely interested in artists' work and understood to a largo degree what they were doing. The old masters painted facts and individuals, and the people, understanding, flocked to soo their works and give honour to tho painters. To-day it was different, as modern art tended toward asceticism and tho unusual and had become reserved for the few who could follow it. Many modern painters were not keen on facts and ordinary subjects, but choso to express their art by painting unusual ideas, which were sometimes strange and weird. That present-day crowds were not drawn to art was largely the fault of the modern painters, who did not always paint for the people, but for the artist. The great popularity of the British artist. Augustus John, was due to his practice of painting ordinary every-day things, easily understood by the layman. The second lecture of the series, "The Appreciation of Prints," will be delivered on Sunday, August 28, by Mr. T. V. Gulliver.