AUSTRALIA’S ART

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S ART

AWAY FROM TRADITION. GREATER PROMISE SHOWN. LONDON, May 23. Australian art, because it has broken away from tradition wisely and effectively has more promise than British or Continental art at present—such is the opinion of Mr W. H. Ilfould, of the Public Library of New South Wales, who has just made an inspection of British and Continental exhibitions with a view to possible purchases. Mr Ilfould, when interviewed by The Sun representative, said he was keenly disappointed at the tone of British and Continental art. The Academy was shockingly weak, and the French Salon showed miles of pictures, none of them striking or original. “I feel strongly,” he said, “that the autumn exhibition of Australian art, with the originality and virility that English art lacks, will attract a great deal of attention. The more I see of British art the more I realise that Australian art has tremendous promise because it has broken away from traditions, not erratically, as the British cubists and others eccentrics have done, but wisely and effectively. “If English people would remember that Australian work is painted in brilliant sunshine, where every line is hard, they could not help but be impressed. Neither the Academy nor the Salon possesses the work of a water colourist comparable to Hans Heysen, of South Australia.”

As well as looking into art conditions, Mr Ilfould has been searching for Cook records and portraits. He inspected many private collections, but found that many of the portraits of Cook were spurious. As the genuine portraits were chiefly among collectors of relics, they were therefore unpurchasable, and Mr Ilfould’s only possible course was to endeavour to point out to the owners that Australia was the most suitable resting-place for Australian historical records, in the hope that the owners would eventually present or bequeath the relics to Australia. He returns through America, where He returns through 'America, where he will visit the leading libraries, which he says are the finest in the world, and on which the Australian libraries are modelled. British libraries, he says., do not possess staffs to assist in research as the *"'erican du.