NEW ZEALAND ARTIST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 446, 11 December 1930, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND ARTIST

After an absence ot 20 years from New Zealand Miss Myrtle Lee, granddaughter of John Gully, the artist, has returned to Wellington, for a short visit. Miss Lee has followed in her grandfather’s footsteps with considerable success and has made quite a name for herself in England during her absence from the country of her birth. In England, as elsewhere, Miss Lee remarked the artist was having a hard time. The new rich at Home did not buy pictures or books, and the new poor could not. It was staggering to see really good work on the pavements executed by artists who were literally down and out. In former days, when things were bad artists could often make ends meet by doing a little teaching. But in these days there was practically no one to teach, for no parent would encourage his children, if it was necessary for them to earn their own living, to take up art as a commercial proposition. Ajt in England was getting away from the early Victorian pretty-pretty, and the revolt, she thought, was good. She hoped that New Zealand would one day develop its own distinctive art. In Maori art, an art much neglected, they had something unique and first-class. In the prow of a canoe, for instance, there was an art school in itself, and it was a pity that more attenion was not paid to Maori design, for much could be based on it. “Some day, when it is better known and more widely studied, Maori art will come into its own,” added Miss Leo.