OPPORTUNITIES FOR ART

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 9

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ART

VALUE IN LIVES OF PEOPLE ALLIANCE WITH INDUSTRIES. EMPIRE COLLECTION OPENED. LORD BLEDISLOE AT WANGANUI. By Telegraph— Association. Wanganui, Last Night. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition of the Empire art loan collection at the Sarjeant Art Gadery to-day Lord Bledisloe expressed thanks to individuals as well as institutions in Britain who, without expense to the Dominion, had rendered the execution of the scheme possible. , The collection owed its presence in the Dominion to the enterprise and artistic enthusiasm of Mr. Percy Sargood, Dunedin, continued His Excellency. It comprised pictures executed at different periods during the last 60 years and the . names of artists represented were a guarantee that it was well worth inspection. Appropriately it included modernist, impressionist or cubist pictures, which although not conforming to the canons of art laid down by the rigid technicians of the old school, were at least characteristic of the post war period and represented an important phase in artistic taste and expression. He confessed to being among those who were sceptical as to its permanence or cultural value. However, these ebullitions of so-called modernism were not without their value in stemming ultra conservatism in the use of pencil or pallette and stimulating the originality of artistic conception. If New Zealand was to evolve a disstinctive school of artistic effort, inspired perhaps by her incomparable scenic endowment and picturesque Polynesian associations and folk lore, it was right and proper that she should allow herself the greatest possible freedom m its expres- . sion, unfettered by Old World convention or want of reasonable elasticity of technique. The crying need of the day was the intimate association of art in all its higher manifestations with the Ilves of the people. THREATENED TO KILL SOUL. The mechanisation of industry, its ever increasing Specialisation and the shrinkage of human industrial effort to a single isolated task in the building up of a single product in the factories had threatened to kill the soul of man and his artistic instinct, as well as bis resourcefulness and creative zeal. If a man was to enjoy greater leisure he must recover his soul and learn to indulge happily and profitably his artistic and literary instincts and cravings, and not merely those of physical hedonism. Concurrently with the artistic culture of world’s workers there should develop an artistic improvement of their industrial Output, and artists should be encouraged by industrialists to participate sympathetically and zealously hi the precess. Three centuries ago craftsmanship and the arte formed one vocation, and craftsmen of the highest repute were also great artists. There was now a growing consciousness throughout the civilised world. that art must be once more married to industry. Opportunities for developing and accelerating this trend were especially abundant in a country like New Zealand, which possessed such natural treasures as greenstone, gold and richly grained timbers and was in a position to make her future hives of industry things of beauty instead of blots upon the landscape. Let them carry art into the homes and thoughts of the people and deyelop the demand for what was beautiful, well proportioned and spiritually satisfying. It was not necessarily the case that the application of art to common things of life involved more expense, as by its encouragement they would be giving much needed employment to many thousands of people, and incidentally augmenting the nation’s most precious asset —its spirituality and love of all that was beautiful, harmonious and ennobling.