Hay’s Art Prize To Extrovert Entry

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 10

Hay’s Art Prize To Extrovert Entry

David Graham, a Christchurch painter, has won the Hay Prize (£500); with a large extrovert yet tightly-or-ganised picture. Its bright, breezy colour is disciplined by a lattice reminiscent of a simple crossword puzzle (five across and five down), but here no clues help the uninitiated. While the slight curvature of its graticule prevents it from becoming a straight jacket it does produce the unpleasant effect of making the frame lines appear concave. The painting is a rich robust decoration; singing colour and witty subt-' lety will sustain interest after the honeymoon period is over.

I This fourth Hay's, Ltd. art competition springs no dramatic surprises. Instead it reveals Mr Docking, the sole judge, as a man of mature unexceptionable taste with just the right dash of catholicity to be a good director of an important art gallery. His decision to award the first prize (£100) for the best water colour to Doris Lusk’s “Portrait of a Young Girl,” will bring pleasure to many people. The utter simplicity and directness of this work gives it a command which comes from that rare, but blessed hour when brush takes charge and the work seems to create itself (one is inevitably reminded of Miss Spencer Bower’s drawing of M. T. Woollaston), the sweep of the simple neck line recapitulates the shape of the head which, in turn, reflects the movement of arms and hands. The result is a portrait of unforced candour.

Mr Quentin Macfarlane, also from Christchurch, gained the second oils’ prize (£100) for a picture full of the most superb blues, purples, greens and greys, with excellent passages of exuberant calligraphic painting, promising very good things to come. In the final weighing was the judge, like me, put off by those rather nervous unrelated jabs in yellow ochre? A nice pale polite refined jingle (arr. Arthur Briscoe) gained the second prize (£25) for a water colour entitled

“Systems.” Am I being too hard, for perhaps its delicate precision does at least honour its title? The prize for the best print (£5O) has been awarded to Mervyn J. Williams for his impeccable “Aurora IV.” The superb technical control, yielding as it does perfect gradation and large areas of unvarying maximum density, decidedly not easy, can seduce one away from more important issues in spite of its undeniable presence, this work lacks some of the neri vous energy and graphic sensibility to be found in some of the other prints. Of the “also rans” perhaps Susan Chaytors “Bush Captivity.” John Drawbridge’s “Orbit,” Thomas Esplin’s “Invocation II” and Russell Laidlaw’s “Oaro’ were the most unlucky. The exhibition as a whole shows that the fashion for “tatty” methods and frames continues to gain ground and that craftmanship has now become a dirty word. This art competition, courageously and imaginatively sponsored by Hay’s, Ltd., has now established itself as one of the most important if not the most important event in New Zealand. It has attracted worthy entries and Mr Docking in his capacity as advisor and judge has helped to further strengthen its reputation. —H.J.S.