GENIUS IN INDIA INK

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1933, Page 7

GENIUS IN INDIA INK

APPRECIATION OF DAVID LOW.

London, Dec. 15.

In the Newspaper World there is an appreciation of Mr. David Low, the New Zealand cartoonist. Low describes himself as a graduate of the College of Battlers. He says “he went through all the classes, from the kindergarten joke to the upper form of political cartooning, not neglecting the commercial basis of jam labels and tea posters.” The writer of the article, Mr. R. L. Megroz, after recounting history in an amusing way, thus concludes his sketch of the famous New Zealander:— Low has a temperament that is rather different from the superficial impression conveyed by his cartoons and which accounts for his earliest self-conflict. Precocious though he was, he revealed at the outset of his career a marked distaste for the legendary atmosphere of “Art.” This was in spite of an exceptional gift for the kind of work that the uninformed tend to regard exclusively as artistic. Besides many fine figure drawings there are little-known atmospheric pictures, such as a fine etching of The Bridge of Sighs now hanging in his London Club, which would come as a surprise to most people acquainted with his political cartoons. In his teens Low went through an exceptionally intense period of idealism, during which he desired to become a minister of religion. The need to serve humanity, to make a spiritual contribution to society, was so strong in him that it may be regarded as a moulding influence. This, I think, is the reason why he developed as an artist in the particular direction he went, because thus he was able to combine art and moral convictions.