N-Z. PROGRESS IN ART

Southland Times, Issue 24055, 20 February 1940, Page 4

N-Z. PROGRESS IN ART

Exhibition Opens At Dunedin LOCAL TALENT SUPPORTED (United Press Association) DUNEDIN, February 19. “Too often in the past art has been more concerned with art schools and art societies, rather than with the man in the street, who, after all, is the person who counts,” said the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. F. Jones) tonight when formally opening the national centennial exhibition of New Zealand art, which is to be taken on a tour of the Dominion after its Dunedin season. It was the Government’s earnest wish, he said, that the exhibition would result in a cultural stimulus which would affect all classes. Art should very properly concern itself with the life of the people, if it was to rest on a healthy and secure foundation, and the people should all remember, in this centennial year, that although one century of the country’s history has ended, another was just beginning. “We all build for the future, and in these days when civilization itself is imperilled, let us be appreciative to the full of the heritage which is ours. It is my earnest hope that in these troubled times the exhibition of New Zealand art will centre the thoughts of our people on the spiritual, rather than on the material, achievements of our race.” The exhibition was also commended to the public by the Mayor (Mr A. H. Allen) and the director of the exhibition (Dr A. H. McLintock). NATIONAL ART “I have often been asked if there is a national art in New Zealand,” said Dr McLintock. “To this question I must answer that I do not think so and I doubt that such an aim will be realized until we realize the distinctive and peculiar characteristics which we have to express. It is local art that demands our support and not art from overseas.” If local galleries, he said, would make an effort this year to build up comprehensive and well-selected collections of New Zealand art, they would be serving the Dominion better than in any other possible way. If such a crusade was made centennial year would be one of real achievement, and the difficulties which had been overcome to make this the most significant art exhibition ever shown in New Zealand would be amply compensated for.

The exhibition comprises paintings, drawings, lithographs and statuary, and forms a comprehensive survey of the work of New Zealand artists. It ranges from the work of artists who accompanied the first navigators and explorers, who recorded the first European impressions of this land and its inhabitants, and progresses through the work of artists of the settlement period to that of contemporary workers.