SOCIETY OF ARTS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21419, 11 March 1935, Page 12

SOCIETY OF ARTS

ANNUAL EXHIBITION MOKE THAN 300 I'AINTINGS HUNG A lotal of 327 pictures lias been hung and catalogued for the annual exhibition by Ihe Canterbury Society of Arls which will be held in the old Art Gallery, Durham street, i'rom March 22 till April 13. There will be a private viewing of (he pictures on March 21, and the exhibition will be opened publicly on the following day by the president, Mr Sydney L. Thompson. The exhibition, which contains paintings by the members of art societies in various parts of New Zealand, is said to be of as high a standard as last year, though there are not as many portraits as usual. The total of pictures is only about a dozen less than last year. The bulk of the pictures are by local artists, Wanganui, Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin being the only outside centres from which artists will be exhibiting. Oils and water-colours are in almost equal proportions. The exhibition will be augmented by the work of two artists abroad, Mr James Ccok, a member of the society who is now painting in Spain, has sent some very interesting pictures, all his subjects being taken round the city of Gerona. Mr Cook went abroad in the first place with a Sawtell scholarship, then returned to New Zealand, anh has now gone abroad again. Mr Cedric Savage has also sent three paintings from Australia. A notable feature of the exhibition is in the inclusion of a place of honour of eight paintings by the late Miss M. O. Stoddart, done not long before her death. They have been included in accordance with the rules of the society which permits the estate of a member to exhibit his or her work at the exhibition following the painter's death. This is, therefore, the last occasion on which Miss Stoddart's work will be able to be exhibited by the society here. A slight alteration has been made this year in the hanging of the pictures. With the exception of some of Miss Stoddart's piantings, which have a place of honour in the ballroom, all the white-mounted pictures have been hung in this room, and all the gilts and ether frames in the permanent gallery.