ART MASTERPIECES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 265, 8 November 1937, Page 6

ART MASTERPIECES

EMPIRE LOAN COLLECTION EXHIBITION IN SARJEANT GALLERY OPENING BY HON. D. G. SULLIVAN The Empire loan collection of masterpieces of art was officially opened at the Sarjeant Gallery on Saturday afternoon in the presence of a large gathering of art enthusiasts by the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister of Railways and Industries and Commerce. The exhibition, which is making a three-year tour of the British Empire, will remain in Wanganui until Sunday, December 5. The collection comprises 63 pictures from the National and Tate Galleries/London, and is insured for 150,000. Many of the famous British masters are represented, and the total value of the collection is estimated to exceed £250,000.

This exhibition of notable paintings was first seen in Wellington 12 months ago when the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum was opened. Special legislation hafl to be passed in the House of Commons before the pictures could be released for exhibition abroad. The present tour has been made possible by the Empire Arts Loans Collection Society, formed in 1932 as the result of eiforts initiated by Sir Percy Sargood, Dunedin.

After being on view in Wellington, the collection was forwarded to Adelaide, whence it was sent to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Auckland. From Wanganui it is to go to Christchurch and Dunedin. On completion of* the New Zealand tour, the pictures are to be shipped to Capetown for exhibition in the principal South African galleries. While it has not been possible to represent the whole course of British painting within this number, an interesting selection has been made 1 and practically all the pictures are representative. Particular interest should be shown in examples of eighteenth century artists, who lain the foundation of painting in England, and in the artists of the present day. The majority of the pictures have been lent by the National and Tate Galleries. London, but one picture—an exquisite Raeburn—was lent by the National Gallery of Scotland, and the virile John, which comes from the Leicester Gallery, are welcome contributions to the exhibition. Mr J. Siddells, chairman of the SarJeant Gallery Committee, extended a welcome to the Minister whom Wanganui recognised was the Parliamentary representative of one of the loveliest cities in New Zealand.

The Mayor said that he was happy to be able to extend a very sincere welcome to the Minister, who was an exceptionally busy man with the control of three important departments of State. The presence of so many interested people was indicative that in this mechanical age the appreciation of art had not been entirely lost sight of. In this age there was a distinct danger of the human side of life being lost sight of. In associating himself with the remarks of Mr Siddells and the Mayor, Mr J. B. Cotterill, M.P., said that Wanganui was distinctly proud of its gallery and considered that it took second place to no other centre in this respect. The people of Wanganui took a keen interest in music and art and every endeavour had been made to cultivate them to the greatest extent possible. In this work, the Sarjeant Gallery had done very good work. Minister’s Remarks

“I have been in Wanganui on quite a number of occasions and I always feel quite at home here,” said the Minister. “I wish to thank the previous speakers for their kindly references to my city; it is indeed a very pretty city. I had the honour of being Mayor of Christchurch for a number of years and I have a great love for my city and a great affection for anyone who praises its beauties. “I know nothing about the technique of pictures but art galleries always have a living attraction for me,” said the Minister. Many years ago as a youth he had worked his way around the world and as soon as he would become settled in any centre he would visit its art gallery. In this way he had visited many of the best galleries in Europe and in Great Britain. Quite frequently now his mind would go back over the years to those happy, golden days spent in these galleries where sometimes he had been accompanied by someone wed able to explain to him the beauties of the work he was surveying. The memory and influence of those days would live with him forever. Now he only had infrequent opportunities of visiting art galleries but he still felt at home and happy in the at- j mosphere of them. Although reading had always been his greatest hobby, | he had always possessed a keen appreciation of art and beauty. New Zealand’s Potentialities “As far as our Dominion is concerned, with its wonderful scenic possessions and natural beauty, it should serve as a wonderful source of respiration for artists, writers and others,” said the Minister. “Then.are few countries on the face of the earth so abundantly blessed by Providence with scenic beauty. We posse! . everything necessary to inspire to the fullest sense the soul and mind of man and give the highest conception of Nature.” It was not usual, he said, for artists to flourish during pioneering days when so much time and activity was essentially devoted to progress but it was in the later stages when a degree of wealth ami confidence had been reached and the foundation of the country’s economic life had been laid, that the human mind found time to give expression to those higher things in life. There was sufficient promise already to give hope .that in the days to come the Dominion would excel in the directions he had mentioned. New Zealand, said the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, had not yet celebrated its first centenary and the country was not much older than the life of a single man, yet so much development had been carried out that, everyone could not but help possessing an intense pride in the people of the Dominion and what they had accomplished. “If we have not a sense of pride in their work and a feeling that they have achieved so much then there is something lacking in us.” Just as so much had been achieved in the world of material things the development and growth in the intellectual and artistic sense, inspired by the high educational fa-

cilities now available and the beautiful things which (Sod had given to the people, was such that there was reason to hope that New Zealand would be able to play a good and useful part in contributing to artistic and intellectual thought. The Minister expressed his appreciation of the efforts of those responsible for making this wonderful collection of masterpieces of art available to the peoples of lhe British Empire. "It will be a help and an exceedingly great benefit to the people of this Dominion and I trust, that the people of Wanganui will appreciate this unique opportunity to the fullest—that they will come to this art gallery in great numbers tc inspect the beauties of these pi -J lures." The Minister then declare! the exhibition open.