ARTS PILGRIMAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2949, 21 September 1910, Page 18

ARTS PILGRIMAGE.

WORK OF BRITISH STUDENTS.

AN INTERESTING EXHIBIT.

Life's brevity and art's infinity are two of the many object lessons of a department of the Dunedin Art School in Moray place, where the visitor, artistic or inartistic, practically poetical or poetically practical, will find much. Exhibited here in their grades and. classes are paintings, drawings, designs, architecture, and modellings, and the general work of students in the various schools of British art. Much of it is excellent, but, apart from its merits, the exhibition possesses a special educative value, of which Otago students will not be slow to avail themselves under the unerring directorship of Mr R. Hawcridge. This work, procured' by the department from South Kensington, represents the results of the examinations of* 1909 —that is to say, the very latest. It gives students an excellent idea of the nature and standard of work likely to find acceptance ini the first and second classes. One is able to follow the work through its various phases, from foundation to finish; to note where the authors have succeeded or failed, and why. The colonial youth is deeply imbued with impressionism. His intellect and artistic force arc hard to discipline. More thajx ever is it difficult to get him to plod con amore though the real hard work and the drudgery that underlies all success. There is plenty ot this kind of toil here —freehand, which has made many a shackled scholar marvel that it should be so miscalled; »nodel ai «i geometrical drawing, perspectives, each presenting a problem in Euclid and cil and each done in two hours.

The drawing from memory section naturally represents a practice possessing a high, commercial value. For a freize or cornice happy is he who can from his memory 6hapc proportionately a flower to fit without having to draw from still life and laboriously torture the result in distorted dimensions. Outstanding in this class is a daffodil study, which must have cost dear in laboured study of minuto detail. The antiques, drawn from models, and then from memory, are placed 6ide by side, and it is apparent that the points which have caused the student most trouble in the copy are reproduced from memory with the greater ease and exactitude. The subjects are all difficult. Of the results two are creditable. For the rest one wonders, save for portrayal of fault, why they are sent over.

Special stress has been laid upon the design section, wherein the samples of work are not only the most interesting, but the best, representing practical 'values. In stage 1 the application of the student has •been directed to a design without any particular purpose, in stage 2 the 6tudent is made to work along a particular, lino—in these cases wall, cabinet, belt (Keltic pierce work), and lamps. Stage 3 is more severe. The subject (a difficult one), method, design, and soaeo are all defined. The year's work . samples include almost everything, the best being plant studies, decorative work, and painting from life—all from a very interesting set of models. From the high-art paint of view the reeultß are a little disappointing in that thev are too much by rule of thumb, too hard and fast, but bfae idea is that the student shall take no liberties. But then the question must arise, What are liberties? Opinions differ. Some say things must be reproduced exactly as they are —not as .they appear to be, much less as the artistic eoul would desire them to be. For instance, it is regarded a liberty to U6e freedom of atmosphere producing due distance for visual effect. But then, draw without freedom of atmosphere, ar.d the subjects aggressively come out through the frame to you. Two paintings of ware, books, etc., illustrate this point to a nicety, but they present no definition as to what is a liberty in design or to the extent such a liberty may go. It is reaJly all a matter of taste and tuition, and here it may bo mentioned that Mr Haweridge takes with his pupils a middle course, which, judging by a ' painting by one of his students, combines the excellences of both by maintaining the golden moan. Any 6cbool of thought in painting, if sufficiently extended, becomes a logical absurditv.

Tho two figure studies in colour shown aro of trroat merit, and a beautiful study of chestnut foliage and bud will well repay minute inspection. Among tho drawings aro careful studies of the heed, hands, and feet. In tho paintings of bird life the infinite pains taken amount* to genius. Under architecture tho subjects of architectural design, principles of ornament, conventionalism, and motif aro all arranged in order, with tho questions attached to the worked-out problems. The former are all the more, difficult because extremely vague. Tho personal examination in architecture, with its details and arrangement, forms an interesting and educative department meriting close attention. It is divided into three sections. On tho day the student draws his origins! plan, from which afterwards ho is not permitted to depart. Tho second day is devoted to drawn details, and the third to the detailed and complete drawing. The historic ornament section would naturally present many difficulties to local students, who, in tho absence of museums, have to depend upon text-books. This section is one of the most interesting, and includes the Epyptian ornamenturo (flatpainted or incised), Grecian, Saracenic, Roman, freize, and mosaics. Also in evidence arc somfl commendable results of a verv full examination in anatomy. It is difficult to believe that so much accurate diagramatic work can be done in the short space of three hours—all the time allotted for this highly scientific subject.

ThA exhibits will bo on view for the Dunedin public for about a fortnight.