HAY’S ART AWARDS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 1

HAY’S ART AWARDS

The 1966 Hay Prize of £5OO has been awarded to a Christchurch painter, David Graham, for a boldlycoloured, hard-edge abstract entitled “Set 33.”

Prize-winners in the competition, which drew 329 entries from artists throughout New Zealand, were announced last evening when the exhibition of works was officially opened b ythe Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Seath).

First prize in the watercolour section and second prize for oils, each valued at £lOO, also went to Christchurch painters, to Doris Lusk

and Quentin MacFarlane respectively. In the section for prints, included in the competition this year for the first time, the £5O was awarded to Mervyn Williams, of Auckland, and Arthur Briscoe, of W.ellington, won second prize in the water-colour section. This was valued at £25. The sole judge of the competition. the fourth to be held, was Mr G. Docking, the recently-appointed director of the Auckland City Art Gallery. He described “Set 33” as relative to our times,” and likened it to a smoothlyrunning machine. In it there was an interplay of tensions, of horizontal | and vertical movements. “These movements are contained and resolved. The painting has a beautifully-balanced quality.” It- was, he said, an emphatic work, and—in response to a chaotic age—an ordered one. “Our best paintings com-

ment on life, and express the longings of the people, and this work of Graham’s does this,” Mr Docking said. Quentin MacFarlane’s “Marine Series.” an expressionistic study of sea and coast, was notable for its vigorous and direct handling of paint, its cohesion, and the strong visual impact it made, he said. He commended Doris Lusk’s “Portrait of a Young Girl” for its sympathy and humanity, and its beautiful use of the water-colour medium. The painting which was awarded second prize, in this section, “Systems,” by Arthur Briscoe, was a “scherzo-like arrangement of rectangular shapes, lines and dots over a background of delicate washes,” and suggested, with a certain wit, automation or computer programming. Mr Docking said he would like to have seen more entries in the section for prints. The winning seriegraph, “Aurora IV,” was, however, technically superb. | Criticism by H.J.S. on Page 10.]