THE BEAUTY OF ART.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19196, 12 June 1924, Page 11

THE BEAUTY OF ART.

ITS DEVELOPMENTS AND RESULTS. LECTURE BY MR R. DONN. An interesting illustrated lecture on “Pictures” waa delivered by Mr it. Dorm, Art, Master at the Dunedin Centre for Training of*Toacho*, in the Coronation Hall, Maori Hill, last night. The attendance, in spite of (he steady rain, was very satisfactory. The lecturer, in opening his remarks, pointed out that the subject was a very wide one and be could not do more than touch on the fringe of a section in one lecture. Tlie ordinary man found only two kinds of pictures which, to use his own words, wore; “The kind I like and the kind I don't like.” There was more in tile study of pictures than this, however, and ior a full appreciation it was necessary to find out what the artist was endeavouring to reveal. Many people bought pictures just because il was the fashion to cover their wall* with a conglomeration of photographs and pictures, others because there was a blank space on the wall, while a few bought them because of something which aplH'nlcsl to their sense of beauty. Sentiment, however, was too often mistaken for beauty. One had only io look into the print shops to realise how much sentiment and vulgarity took the place of beauty. The picture that sold well was in many cases just a vulgar - sentimental coloured thing. Continuing, Mr Donn said that there was a regrettable tendency at the present; day to “follow the crowd.” People would enter an art gallery and carefully study the catalogue before committing themselves to the expression of an opinion on a picture. Again, for instance, a picture would be discovered in a musty garret and the newspapers would praise its wonderful art, believing i( to be the work of a master; then it would be cleaned and the obscure signature, of a more obscure artist would be revealed and the picture would be condemned ns a fraud. , Why did an artist paint? If he was a- true artist it was not for money or for fame hut simply because (here was something within which compelled him to express himself by means of brushes and paints. An artist’s pictorial expression was not just a photographic representation of a thing or a replica of some natural scene, but the soul of a man expressing the beautiful. It was not just a matter of opening an eye for a moment, like a camera, but a reasoned and thoughtful expression of his feelings. Photographs pleased the senses for a time, hut they also palled because they were bald and mechanical rnachine-like records, and the others were the inspired records of an artistic soul.

The speaker deplored the story telling illustrated magazine picture which, he said, was a degradation of art. These illustrations endeavoured to tell a story, but failed in their purpose. In Britain, Ruskin contended that the highest aim of art was to teach and to uplift. From France came the retort: "Down with tne story; art for art’s sake.” Between the two was to bo found the safest path. The speaker then screened a number of pictures from the old masters and a number of modern artists, making comparisons and directing attention to several details which showed the perfect touch —the Mona Lisa, for instance, with her inscrutiblc smile, and a number of other early paintings depicting the hand of a genius. At the conclusion of In's lecture Mr Donn waa accorded a hearty vote of thanks.