DUNEDIN ART GALLERY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19964, 4 December 1926, Page 23

DUNEDIN ART GALLERY.

EXHIBITION OE PICTURES. Y. Painting, and especially in oil, will always be considered the highest form of Art. The average person, when spoken to about Art, invariably flies to “pictures.” There are many reasons for this. First, the supreme attraction of colour, far stronger than the attraction of line, form, or tone. Secondly, the fondness of the European for naturalistic representations (especially of things he can recognise) in preference to conventional or symbolic representations. But Art is a much larger thing. The making of pictures is only a branch/ (though an important branch) of Art. Art has been defined as “Man’s thought expressed in his handwork,’ and therefore includes, pot only painting, but architecture, sculpture, drawings, etchings, and what are known as the crafts. A few years ago the annual exhibition in Dunedin was considerably enhanced by the inclusion of a number of drawings in the right direction, and it seems a great pity that that steps has been withdrawn. The average artist knows little of the architect and his way of working, and knows still less of his ambition to build palaces, when he has to descend to the plane of a fiveroomed bungalow. These exhibitions might easily form an outlet for the architect’s imagination, just as they form an outlet for the commercial artist’s desire to paint. In sculpture, we have only six exhibits, as against 374 paintings, but one dares to say that these six exhibits are worth more than quite half the pictures put together, in that they show real concentrated thought and i;eal concentrated muscular effort. ■No person who has never modelled a head from life and cast it himself knows anything of the labour it entails, or the disappointments that attend it. This is the first time that F. A. Shurrock, A.R.C.A., has exhibi'e! in Dunedin, and we sincerely hope it will not be the last. One has to search very carefully ‘ through the paintings before anything can be found which shows evidence of such mature knowledge and certainty of purpose as does his portrait of Professor Shelley (No. 414). Apart from its excellence as a portrait, it is really right as a piece of construction. A painting may be badly constructed and yet pass owing to brilliance of colour or design. But sculpture which has even small faults in construction is a failure. Sculpture requires a far higher standard than painting, and for this reason the Greeks gave it the highest place in Art. To those who understand what sculpture really means, Mr Shurrock’s work is sufficient evidence that the Greeks were right. It would be difficult to estimate how many thousand times the subject of No. 416 has been modelled, but there is no doubt that Miss I. Hayes has risen above the average standard in her particular crucifix. For there is nothing in it of the round softness, almost prettiness, which is so often seen, and which is altogether contrary to the very spirit of the subject. If the sculptor has attained her object with difficulty, it is not the less successful, for it has severity and dignity, due to the simplicity of the treatment, which well repays the labour which has been bestowed upon it. One hopes that sculpture will come to be better understood in the future (not the trade, machine-made sculpture which is hawked by foreign dealers), and that in a year or two so much of it will be included in the annual exhibition that it will exclude all those trivial sketches which show neither thought nor serious labour, and which one feels should never be allowed on the walls of the gallery. Few people who dabble in what are called the “crafts” seem to understand what a piece of craftsmanship is. The standard for works exhibited ’as “crafts” should be that they are designed, made, and decorated by the craftsman himself, and anything wliich does not conform to this should be rigorously ruled out. One feels that it is most unfair for trivial paintings or factory-made china or machineturned wooden vases (quite wrongly named “marqueterie,” which really means inlaid wood) to be shown alongside and included under the same heading as Mr Sturrock’s magnificent modelling, or even the quite serious attempts at metal-work and woodcarving, such as the excellent work nf Ruby E.' Israel and Edith Bowron, and the very original carvings of G. W. Edwards. One would think that after seeing the magnificent display of real craftsmanship in the British Court at the Exhibition local “craftsmen” would think twice before entering any work which was not entirely and absolutely their own original work from start to finish, and the Hanging Committee would think twice before exhibiting it. Sculpture is the oldest of man’s arts and the youngest is etching, but both seem to be equally neglected in favour of the easy and broad patch of the paint brush. The way of the etcher is narrow and hard and beset with many pitfalls. Like sculpture, etching requires a high standard, depending entirely on beauty of line or tone, without the benefit of colour to rescue it from disgrace. And the lines and tones must be really beautiful, otherwise the etching becomes simply a photograph, which one feels is rather the case with the work of J. Fitzgerald, which, although good sound pieces of craftsmanship, are uninteresting as pieces of design. Something much more interesting could have been made of “The Deserted Square” (No. 337) had it less foreground and more interesting drawing of the objects in the middle distance. In “Lambton Quay” (No. 336) the interest is scattered over too many buildings; it is too accidental, like a snapshot photograph. But this etching will serve as an illustration of how far superior etching really is as a medium for cei'.iin suoiects. for everyone will admit that No. 336 is far more successful than its counterpart in colour (No. 169). There are many water-colours shown which one can see as really interesting etchings, but which as water colours arc nothing in particular. Why do not more artists put their colour boxes away, roll their sleeves up, and dirty their hands with printer’s ink? We should then see something worth while. Dunedin is full of subjects which are simply made to etch. Look at “Princes Street” (No. 09), by Beatrice Russell. Here is a charming little sketch, well designed and well drawn, but how much more interesting it would be as an etching! In “Boats” (No. 332) Dorothy Venning shows how piuch more refined and dignified a picturesque subject can became by the elimination of colour and the insistence on contrast of black and white. Her “Gorse” (No. 340) is an object lesson in delicacy of line and truthful detail and a beautiful piece of design recalling the Japanese prints. The two woodcuts by Hilda Wiseman, “Kookaburras” (No. 838), and “The Drinking Trough” (No. 339), are two excellent examples of another form of the printer’s craft. If the etchings were to cover as many screens as the photographs do, one could say htat Art is really advancing. There is no doubt that painting and sculpture arc doing so, but there seems to be little chance of a really high standard being attained, especially with the crafts, unless the Hanging Committee is, much more drastic. One feels that a place on the walls of the Gallery should be an honour to bo won by sheer merit, and not a right obtained by membership, reputation, or social standing. There are many pictures exhibited which require an, explanation for their presence. Surely all pictures should be excluded which' savour of commercialism or the cheap picture shop, or an obviously copied or “dished up” version of hackneyed subjects, or are unconsidcred sketches, and in the case of crafts the censorship should be much more strict, even to the exclusion of crafts altogether, if they do not reach a higher standard. Two years ago almost instructive ami entertaining feature of the Exhibition was the display of old china. It is to be hoped that through

the kindness of the owners of works of art this feature may be revived. It woulcj be a great incentive to local artists, if exhibitions such as are held by the Art Gallery Society were made more competitive, by strictly limiting the space to be occupied and by the institution of a Place of Honour (as in many exhibitions elsewhere), or some other honorary award. Artists would then learn to appreciate more the space allotted to them, and not expect to have everything they send in exhibited ns a matter of course, and quarrel with the hard-working secretary when it is not. The Hanging Committee is to be congratulated ou the arrangement of the pictures, especially in the oil room, where they must have enjoyed the placing of so many good works. Let us hope their task will be all the more enjoyable next year!