ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19333, 20 November 1924, Page 6

ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

While art lias something of a struggle in a community such as this, appreciative recognition must be accorded the work of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society in its endeavour to make an effective appeal to the {esthetic sense of the community. Tho Society carries on in its own quiet way an educational work of unquestionable value. It may not make much stir, but it has its assured place and function. There is no resonance of brass or clash of cymbal about an art exhibition; there may he clash of another kind, but that is a matter for the eye rather than the ear. That the crowds which nightly attend the picture theatres do not invade art galleries is perhaps a pity. The art exhibitions attract to their quiet corridors a comparatively small section of the public—persons curious or mildly interested, and an ever faithful little band of devotees. The appeal of art, it has been suggested, is simply to the artistic temperament. That particular temperament, though fortunately found in all environments and walks of life, is by no means widely diffused. The Dunedin Society’s annual display is again made up of contributions from all over the dominion. It affords a very good idea of the direction in which art in New Zealand is heading, and of the standard of merit which it is reaching. There is no occasion for reasonable expectation to ho disappointed at the results achieved. Undoubtedly there has been definite evidence of progress within recent years. Tho present display includes examples of work which show that there are artists in the dominion who in point of technique, within a limited range, have come more than creditably to the front. Upon tho higher planes, especially on the imaginative and creative side, art in New Zealand may not yet have made more than a halting beginning, but that is in no way surprising in view of the fact that the creation of anything in the nature of an effective “art atmosphere,” upon which inspiration is so considerably dependent, still rests with the future in this country. Progress towards the development of a typical New Zealand art must necessarily bo very slow. Art students and art lovers in a young country like this are at a great educational disadvantage in that their opportunities of studying work of the highest quality, such as is to be seen in abundance in the art centres of the world, are seriously limited. The permanent

publics galleries of the dominion are helpful in this regard, but the scope of these institutions is necessarily as yet very restricted. Upon the educational value of representative collections of the art of the day too much emphasis can scarcely be placed. For this reason it is particularly pleasurable to be able to look forward to such an opportunity as the Art Gallery which will bo a feature of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition next year may be expected to afford of seeing what distinguished British and other artists are accomplishing. There is no gainsaying that the pictures which, as the result of public-spirited effort, were acquired from the fine display seen at the Exhibition of 1889 in this city are still the mainstay, as they were the foundation, of the permanent collection in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.