UNIQUE COLLECTION OF WAR PAINTINGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26782, 27 May 1948, Page 6

UNIQUE COLLECTION OF WAR PAINTINGS

NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION

Hundreds of paintings and thousands of photographs—probably j the most comprehensive pictorial coverage of any nation’s armed forces during the war—are apparently stored in Wellington awaiting use in official historical records at some indefinite time in the future. These represent the work of the official war artists—Mr Peter Mclntyre in ; the Middle and Mr Russell Clark and Mr A. Barns-Graham in ' the Pacific—and the many official war photographers. This unique art ' coverage of the services in action and in happier times is potentially * of the greatest interest to the thousands of ex-servicemen and women > who took part in the campaigns and to the people of the country as < a whole, yet little of it has ever been made available for public in- > spection.

' Inquiries by ex-servicemen as to the l use it is intended should be made of <. this magnificent collection have fre-

artists—Mr Russell Clark and Mr A. Barns Graham—and their collections seem to have suffered the same postwar fate. In fact, no opportunity at all has been given to the public to view Mr Clark’s work. • Mr Barns Graham’s was shown at the main centres. As with Mr Mclntyre’s paintings, various reproductions of the works of the Pacific war artists have appeared in unit histories, but the esoteric appeal of these histories naturally limits their circulation. Limited Public Chance:;

'■ quently been heard by the Daily \ Times, but the only official indication ' of possible opportunities to view the work is given by the obvious intention -> that it should be utilised to provide a pictorial background for the historical n narrative of the war. ? Need for Fuller Use C Excellent though this purpose may ' be, it is generally considered that ' fuller and more immediate use might x be made of the collection. Suggestions that public interest in the war has . waned and that it might not be expe- " dient to exhibit the paintings and pno- ' tographs now are considered fallacious. No matter how excellent the war histories may be, the potential public for 4 the written word is always considerI s ably smaller than the potential public ‘ for the visual impression. As time dims the memory, alters the perspective and obscures detail, pictorial coverage of war becomes all the more important for it is the.most dramatic manner in s which a true picture can be brought n back to mind. Evidence of the degree of public interest existing in tne war paintings was given by attendances at the exhibitions of Mr Mclntyre’s earlier work throughout New Zea- . land, over 20,000 people viewing v the collection in Auckland alone. .. .The fact that these exhibitions were held during the war may have stimulated interest, but the return of thousands of servicemen to New Zealand since that time might be expected to compensate for any civilians whose interest • may have flagged since the end of the war. Mr Mclntyre’s entire wartime output was over 200 oils, water colours and pencil sketches, but only the paintings covering the desert campaigns have been seen by the public in New Zealand. The .Italian campaign, which • offered far more scope to the artists, was fully covered, but this work has been seen only in London, where it was on show for six months. . Mr Mclntyre’s collection is of particular interest, as it represented the first time a,division’s part in a war had received full art coverage; it included the only war artist’s work on Crete; and it was wider in its scope than any similar collection could hope to be through the circumstance that no division of any force has had a variety and multiplicity of campaigning equal to that of the Second New Zealand Division. Other formations had war artists attached to them during the later stages of the fighting, but there were few war artists in the Middle East theatre until the later campaigns, and none of them . was permanently attached to a single division. Mr Mclntyre’s work .was the subject of frequent reproduction in publications of the standard of the Illustrated London News during the war and it was considered that a volume of coloured reproductions would be widely sought by ex-service-men and civilians alike. No move to prepare any such volume appears to have been made. , T _ The war activity df the New Zealand forces —air, land, and sea—in the Pacific were covered by two official

The thousands of photograph s taken by the various official photo/raphers, amplified by unit photographers’ work obtained through the archives section overseas, are also a pictorial treasure trove which has been largely denied to the public. Considerable numbers of these photographs were of course, published in the N.Z.E.F. Times, Kiwi, or the New Zealand home newspapers during the war, and it was possible for copies to be obtained from the Government Publicity Department at a small charge. The average soldier, however, had little opportunity of discovering the serial numbers of the photographs in which he was particularly interested and of going through the processes involved in procuring copies of such photographs. There is no doubt that the paintings and photographs of the war artists and photographers will eventually appear in part as illustrations for the official war histories. But the cost of such volumes is liable to be high, and it would seem that reasonably-priced volumes of. reproductions of selected war photographs and paintings would be welcomed, especially by the thousands of men who were directly or indirectly the subjects of those, works. It would, however, be necessary to put such collections on the market as soon .as possible, otherwise time will blur interest and interfere with the ex-servicemen’s nostalgic delight of making .personal identification with people, places and events depicted in the reproductions. Travelling" exhibitions of the paintings and possibly of enlargements of the photographs would undoubtedly meet an enthusiastic and sympathetic reception. It has been suggested that any charges which might be made for admission to such exhibitions could well ‘ be diverted to such important matters arising out of the war as the provision of food and clothing for the children of shattered Europe. No indication has been given of the eventual fate of the war art, but persons interested in the matter consider that it would be unfortunate if the various-artists’ collections were split up. As entities, the collections are unique, bdt they would lose this attribute if they were scattered among galleries and clubs throughout the country, and possibly further afield. Financially, they are of incalculable value, and it would be most unfortunate if they were allowed to grow cobwebs in some musty store simply because of official apathy, or a decision to subordinate, the pictorial side of New Zealand’s war record to the written narrative. •