BRITISH ART

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27040, 26 March 1949, Page 6

BRITISH ART

EXHIBITION OPENED WAKEFIELD COLLECTION A wide selection of contemporary British water colours, prints and drawings were placed on exhibition at the Dunedin Art Gallery yesterday. They comprise part of the Wakefield collection of the British Council, which has arranged the exhibition. Most of the “ big ” names in British art of this century are represented in one form or another, and, as James Laver says in an introduction to it, the exhibition serves to show the high level which has been achieved by British artists throughout the whole field of graphic arts. The exhibition is important to New Zealanders, not only because of its wide variety and general excellence, but because it accomplishes what it sets out to do; it faithfully, and in places keenly, interprets the life of Britain. It might suggest technical competence rather than brilliance. Nevertheless, fascinating studies are so numerous that one might suffer from artistic indigestion unless prepared to spend a generous portion of time in viewing the collection.

That the collection would be an ambassador, an accredited representative of England, was patently recognised in its formation; nothing has been included that is not worthy of the good work which has been done by British artists in recent years.

The water colours, as Laver remarks, will probably rrake the first claim on the visitor’s attention. In this part of the exhibition are works by Philip Wilson Steer, Francis Dodd, Roger Fry, and the New Zealand-born Frances Hodgkins, among others. The drawings cover a wide field. There are drawings for sculpture or as studies for painting; there also are drawings which have been made for their own sake and exist in their own right. Augustus John is represented by three works in this section, and Eric Gill has a study. The etchings, engravings, wood engravings, lithographs and colour prints are numerically the strongest part of the collection, and the most distinguished British artists are well represented. Altogether there are 223 exhibits. The exhibition will be open until April 20.