RELIGION AND ART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22726, 12 May 1937, Page 15

RELIGION AND ART

Sir, —I would like to thank Alice Weston for her letter and to tell Mr. William Campbell I am quite sure the entire art world is most grateful to him for his free lessons on art. It is Christianity itself that is proving the religious world "half lunatic" in all the trouble it is making over nude works of art. It is for ministers of religion to uphold the dignity of the Church and not to make themselves ridiculous interfering with art. I fear it is Mr. W. J. Loughman's thoughts that are confused, not mine. Had he read my letters at all carefully, he would have realised I proved indisputablv all my arguments. Evelyn C. Vatlf.. t Sir, —It would be most interesting to learn by what deduction C. Vaile arrived at her conclusion that the evidence is in favour of my knowing " nothing " of the lives and feelings of the great artists. I suppose it is possible for one to bo intelligent enough to appreciate works of the great masters without being intelligent enough to want to know something of their personality and life. However, I cannot claim to be so incurious. When a schoolgirl [ learned by theory that best works and deeds were often accomplished under hardship and privation. This applied to all walks of life and did not exclude artists as a genus apart. Since then experience of human nature and study of the history of art has confirmed this knowledge. My concluding surmise on this interesting topic of art and religion is that artists in common with other species of the genus homo sapiens are subject to the depressions, uplifts, virtues and vices their fellow beings are heir to and so mav be as divergent in their feelings and thoughts from one another as the rest of humanity is prone to be. May I quote from William Lyon Phelps in Scribners": "The heart of mankind is incurably religious. Those who have got rid of religion themselves and associate only with congenial little groups make the error of supposing their world of thought to be the thought of the world." The matter of attending church and, for instance, cocktail parties or night clubs, is one of individual inclination. Where is the logic in assuming that an artist, any more than any other individual, may not of his own free will be attracted by and frequent one, all three, or even none of these? Aka Aka. Kathleen Campbell.