The Art Society's Exhibition.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17112, 6 April 1921, Page 6

The Art Society's Exhibition.

do not suppose that the Canterbury Society of Artt would assert that, unlike any other human organisation, it is quite perfect. Probably the most that its executive would claim would ho that within their .limits they do their best. The general public, if invited to express an opinion, would, we believe, add that a very considerable measure of success attends the Society's efforts to promote a love of art. There is, however,,-one member of the public who does, not endorse:this opinion. A correspondent, writing in this issue over the pen-name of. "Fairplay," alleges that the Society 'has. developed into 'a "professional artists' selling booth," instead of-encouraging true art in the community, and charges the Hanging Committee with gross favouritism, to the "extent of admitting its friends 1 bad pictures at the expense af better works. These charges would be,serious if Lhej were .not' so ludicrously inaccurate and ill-founded. The measure of our correspondent's competence, to pronounce upon matters of art is seen in the suggestion that the professional artists should form a Society of Artists, to which no amateurs-should be admitted. "This," we are told, "would en- " able the Art .Society to have more "spaco on,its walls to entourage the "development and education of the "amateurs in comparing their works "with others on the walls, and so gain "more knowledge of their failings.-' An s exhibition, consisting Belely of thy works of amateurs would, of course, do nothing at all to "encourage their de'Avelopment and education," except in of those who learned thereby what to avoid. The only pictures of which; the inspection is, calculated to the "average amateur are those

of better artists, who in nineteen cases out of twenty would be professionals. From the point of view of the public, such an exhibition -would be no education in art, and would, we should imagine, be a serious financial failure.

To return, however, to our correspjondent's charges. Excluding the small loan collection, the works of Australian artists, the late arrivals from Auckland, the hanging of whidh involved the rejection of no local artists' works, and the art craft exhibits, 380 pictures were hung at the recent exhibition. Of these professional artists —giving that term the widest possible interpretation, and including a number of artists who arc riot wholly dependent on the sales of their pictures and on teaching—contributed about 140; the remainder, some 240, were the work of amateurs, that is, of people who do not make a living out of art, but merely add to their incomes by its means. Practically every one of these picture-selling amateurs put a price on his or her catalogued works, competing to that extent with t'he professional artists. The Bales, it may be added, included a number of amateurs' pictures. Ae for the charge against the Hanging Committee, the general opinion among visitors to the exhibition who were competent to judgo, was that the committo had beeiu if anything, somewhat too lenient in their judgments, and that the- exhibition would not have suffered if some of the exhibits had been rejected. Perhaps our correspondent would like to see a return to the custom of years gone by, ■when numbers of pictures which, did nob (deserve to be Admitted were hung on the walls of the small room, which, thereby earned the name of the "Cham'"ber of Horrors." Our correspondent does not seem to understand that the encouragement of art, arid young artists, and the education of the public in true art, are not necessarily, nor indeed often, compatible, and that the Society of Arts and its Hanging Committee seek to steer a middle course by accepting anything that shows good work, whether by professional or amateur, and rejecting only such pictures as show neither merit nor promise. That by its help., and that" of the few professional artists in our midst, the standard of art in Canterbury is improving, -was conclusively shown by the recent exhibition. J