ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20179, 6 March 1931, Page 16

ART IN NEW ZEALAND.

A PAINTER'S PRAISE. RETURN FROM ARIZONA. "I am delighted to see so much.'real art in New Zealand. I feel that even where there is not always knowledge, there is the instinctivo faculty for seeing what is the very test.'' In this complimentary fashion Mr H. Nevill-Smith expressed his opinion of art in New Zealand aftcij a three years' absence from the Dominion, principally occupied in painting in Arizona. Mr Nevill-Smith was born in Australia, but has spent the greater part of his life in Now Zealand. He is on a flying visit to the Dominion, in order lo visit his people in Timaru and his many friends in different parts of the country. He will return to America very shortly. During his last; trip abroad he" has done a great deal of singing in America —-from the broadcasting studios and the concert platform. He has also given considerable attention to watercolour work, in which, at the present, the United States are taking a very keen interest. Study of Appreciation., Comparing the characteristics of the different nations, in the course of an interview with Thtc Press yesterday he said that a peculiar analytical mind was growing up in the United States. There was a feeling, and a belief, that anything in art could be learnt by analysing and studying appreciation rather than doing the actual work oneself. The art teachers —and many of them were making a great deal of money—were giving appreciation lessons. They did the work and the students looked on. The same thing was going on in music but in that branch of art the radio, gramophone, and the talkies made the-desire on the part of the individual to study less and less. "There seems to bo a feeling here that if you take up one branch of art you must leave all others alone," said Mr Nevill-Smith. "It is quite different in America. Artists and sculptors are also fine musicians. On the other hand Chaliapin is as good a painter as he is a singer." Works Reproduced. Mr'Nevill-Smith hopes to hold an exhibition, of his works in Christchurch before returning to America. His subjects will include Old Mexico, Arizona, and the South 'Sea Islands. "I am very glad to be back in Christchurch," concluded Mr NevillSmith. "One thing I greatly appreciate is that many of my. old pupils here have carried on with singing while I have been away. It will bo a great pleasure to me to meet them again."