OUR DEBT TO ART

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2867, 4 September 1916, Page 4

OUR DEBT TO ART

FIRST PRINCIPLES IN PAINTING LECTURE BY MR. H. GRIFFITHS

In the plainest language, free from ; professional jargon, Mr. EL.'Griffith's expressed some very interesting views on art and ite place in the world, in a lecture he gavo on Thursday - night. Some extract's from that lecture we reproduce here. ■ "Let us tako the artist's faults-for granted, and let us see what lie is doing as a useful member of the com- , mumtjy Anat-olc France says: 'It is the artist's part to love life and show us it is beautiful. 'Without him we ' ,might, well. doubt tho fact.' I think that artists do help lis to appreciate the beauties and wonders around us, but their influence is not'readily recognisod. example, if I take a friend who is not acquainted with the arts'to show him some scenery, I usually have to let him stand on the edge of a precipice, or see water falling ■ 2000 ft., and even then I notice he commences to really appreciate the sight when he- ' hae'been told the height in feet, or the thousands of gallons per hour'going over the wall. On. the other hand, I suppose all the artists in the room . know that quite a short acquaintance with painting lias enabled them to obtain great enjoyment from quite simple pastoral country. 'The artist 'teaches ;liis lesson by fixing on his canvas something -of what he lias 6een and something of what he has enjoyed, ' and which wo can then contemplate . at ...leisure, . ' ' Art is Useful.

. "Most of us in these' busy" -times haven't time or leisure to''enjoy'the beauties of nature. There is usually the dust of a motor-car to obscure our view, or a friend to bo entertained, or anxiety to get somewhere' at\a certain hour, bufc_ when' wjo'-'get home tired at jiight it is possible then, :if a paint--ing or piece of sculpture happens to be near a. comfortable chair, we may unthinkingly contemplate it. and learn' that ail old milking shed..with a couple of cows chewing' tho' cud could look' peaceful and beautiful. The only way to appreciate'good music is to hear it, and train the ear to become sensitive to its boauties, and I thinkmuch the same applies to our eyes,' which we use even less than our oars. Make an ugly noise with an empty tin' outside a man's house, and _ he> pretty quickly fusses out about it; but put up an ugly fence, house, or signboard, and he will hardly 'comment upon it. Anyone "who helps us to appreciate the beauty around us is doing something useful, 'because he is extending our opportunities for pleasure. So we musfc.givo the artist so much credit. On the other hand all applied art.crafts on which, wo depend for our architecture, furniture, gardens,/clothes, etc., adapt to thoir own purposes forms and arrangements of colour, the general laws governing ■which hare been originally extracted from nature by artists. . ( "Living as we do in. cities in confined spaces, and surrounded by so much that is commonplace, our inclinations turn naturally to. bemitifyiiijt;as much as we are able tho ptifceiTiltid things we ore thrown into daily contact with, and quite a largo section of tho community is always earnestly endeavouring to dross itself with greater care, or furnish and decgratarjtsj.dwellings more ''elegantly.' In ty.c%j%6.1a.1 community, business houses"arc endeavouring, to produce pamphlets and jidvcrti.sing devices which please the eye .of. the beholder, or to produce posters and signs ■which would be attractive. Endless .mstaac&s might be cited of a definitely

'indicated want amongst us of.a better /Understanding of 'all such matters, and it is logical to expect that this will come from artistS, : who are, more than, any other; people, constantly studying nature, the source of, all heauty, and extracting' from their, studies basic, truths' ,upon which wo depend for so many of our aesthetic pleasures. I could go on at great length to show that artists iare not only useful but necessary to . the healthy development of a community, as, for instance, I should like to refer. ,to the' refining influence which arts exert, and how important their development is in the education of children, out I have so much, ground.to cover that'l miist defer these subjects to a future'occasion.

Big Facts anS Little Ones. "I'oU have: been, iri.vi.ted here to'-nighfc to see some lantern slides of masterpieces of painting and sculpture. A friend and I made these last year in Melbourne with a'view to, showing that the greatest exjionehts of these arts, irrespective 'of . their nationality, had observed well-defined principles in their effort to interpret ..- on a flat surface what tlicy ■ saw: v At! the present time it is exceedingly difficult vrto form ■ a simple theoryfrom the abundance of books, pamphlets, and lectures on this subject, and the_ more we read about it the more we become involved in tho puzzle.. One eminent writer declares that 'art is'not a . matter of copying nature, 1 and yet an. authority as high as Auguste Rodin states 'the. only theory in art is: to copy what you sees;' Now both theso remarks'seem insufficient in themselves. If we take, as an example a portrait in oil paint of a man's bead, wo find that light and dark tones .placed within certain limits will convey to all beholders a 1 definite impression of an individual head though no colour has been used'. The artist if he painted this head in monochrome ceased copying nature wlibn ho abandoned tho colour ho saw, which. partly bears' out the first statement, but he had to be very careful in copying the light tones and dark tones, and their boundaries, before he conveyed a likeness, . which , bears out Rodin's statement. Now 'I' think we may Ray the only theory in art is to copy what .we see, provided we recognise the importance of copying a big truth at the expense of a little one. For instance,-we wish to suggest in a picture that a tree is one hundred' yards from our foreground, and succeed in somo ,ir.easure in conveying this impression, but cannot add wealth ol leafy detail without destroying our illusion of distance. \Ve ; now have to decide which of'these truths is most important, and perhaps we find it difficult to decide in tho ease of a tree, but I can assure you it becomes very easy with our own heads, as, if someone has painted each hair upon our head very Jiicely, but has given ns tho frontal development of an idiot, wo usually decide that a lesser truth has been given, and that it is not the hair we want altered.

The Faddists. "You will easily realise with the' very limited medium of paint or clay that wo must not attempt to realise nature, and therefore have to sacrifice something. This leads somo painters to sacrifice all straight lines—composers of curly, whirly conipositions, all light and shade, composers of so-called decorative motives, or to sacrifice all form to colour, which brings u« to the socalled .impressionists. "f. flunk wo all have a- very strong suspicion that there is something wrong with them, <or ourselves, when wo seo such efforts, hut with our inherent modesty, and I may add foolishness, wo accept them all, and presently take sides and enter into unlimited argument with all and sundry to prove the straight-lino man or tho curvy-line man is 'it.' Now the only legitimate saori-

fieo. is the small .truth'to the greater one, ami I ivill show presently how this rule has been observed by the masters, and will also show to what ' excesses 'individuality,' as it is called, has led modern art; how it has lost all its general human appeal, and, no- longer a thing of beauty and taste, is reserved for a select few.

What ars Essentials? ' . "Some may have disagreed with mo for using the word 'scientific' on the invitation card, and I am aware that tho word is not usually applied to the* arts of painting and sculpture. 'Scientific' I understand to mean 'knowledge, of principles arranged systematically,' and as 1 am sure that it can bo ■demonstrated that impressions which we receive through our cvea reach .us inorder,' wo must' agree that the recording of impressions in the order in which .we receive them is scientific. "I have only tinyj-to-night to cite one example in support of this statement._ Suppose ;ours.elves looking at a. lady .in a black dross,-whom wo can only seo for a fraction of a second at a time. Our first impression' would ,bo a lady in a black dress, distant, say, 6 feet, to which; might be .added that she was tall, elegant, walking; or in repose. Our second impression might reveal that she had brown hair, or that the dress was a silk -one;'•our third that she was wearing a: fine cameo brooch, and so on. The eye receives these iriipressions. very rapidly, and if "it'is not necessary to record them we usually pass over tho elementary impressions without noticing them, to the details which happen to interest us," but I think I have shown that no matt&r how interesting tlm details; ■ they are not satisfying in themselves, and that a nicely-painted bangle will not excuse a misshapen ifrm. I think that one of the greatest errors into which" we fall is in trying to stato too many facts, usually too many, details Mi our paintings—and too often our original impressions become obscured. We should not- commence to record several impressions, but should always be-sure that wo. have received a single impression, and that we are not going to'permit any subsequent ones to interfere with it.

. About' Cootl Taste. "I have been asked to explain why tt is that those pictures usually referred to as 'pot boilers' are not at once detected as ( spnrious. I have decided not n> approach this 'matter until I get somo examples to show you. I iimy say that the task of critically examining it misdirected effort is never a pleasant one. I am far from blaming anyone for producing, too often under severs pressure, work be knows to be inferior, hut I feel that such results do not belong to tho subjects wo are dealing with to-night any more tlian tho study of diseases has to do with tho contemplation of hqalth. However, ;\on't run away with the idea that all paintings which show a want of gond taste are pot boilers. Nearly ait of them are earnest efforts. Good tasto is not easily acquired. Thai capacity to realise when suitable end fitting moans have been used to a given end is not possessed by anybody, and is rather tho result of a rarefullv cultivated and well-balanced mimi. ft Comparison. ''I n the main, the exhibitions in Australia. show work not at all in advance of what, I have seen in New Zealand, and although I find hero all the usual confusion and modern conventions, yet your artists are not so completely satisfied as the Australians, " and many I have met aro quite ready to welcome less haphazard methods than they have heon directed to, up to the present. One ours© you have almost escaped which ; ie doing endless harm to

young artists in- Australia. L refer to the wealthy: and -influential connoisseur. Melbourne abounds in these amateurs iu art, whose hobby is to discover sorao new gonitis every week, and although they lavish cjuito a lot of money on such discoveries, yet, in return, ;they-demand that young artists,; in order to : bo geniuses, shall be. 1111-: usual;'darirtg; aftd extraordinary, and, their patronage has proved fatal to many young and enthusiastic students."' Harmony of Colour. Mr. Griffiths then proceeded to exhibit somo charts and diagrams by the aid of which ho was ablo-to explaiu: and demonstrate conclusively certain scientific laws relating to harmony of colour and the use of light and shade. By this method ho v,-as able to present in a ■ 3iew-' and-, simplo. aspect certain somewhat hazily understood truths, and to show that tho principles- upon": which a good picture is founded aro simple and easy to grasp. A point niado by, Mr. Griffiths which interested particularly the female portioii of the, and whioh bo was ablo to demonstrate: by tho aid of tho diagrams,was that jio two colours would really clpsli if keyed to tho same tonal pitch, i.e., depth of tint, and that it would be possible' to, dress or to decorate a room with the most opposing colours and produce a harmonising effect if this rule were .observed.-. ' ; , \' With tho able aid of Mr. James Macdonald, .Mr. Griffiths screened isome. sixty slides of well-known masterpieces,, here and there interspersed with works of an inferior order for the purposo of making comparisons and emphasising the points ho had been making. He-' duced to black and white, and projected on. to tho screen, the dignity, simplicity';'<md'unity of', the-works of the greater men were at once apparent, presenting well-defined and simplo statements, free from the chattering brush work and adventitious aids which prevent ono from seeing tho work of so many of the modern men because of tho obtrusive technique.