APPRECIATION OF ACT

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1932, Page 8

APPRECIATION OF ACT

LOUD BLEDISLOE’S VIEW.

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS,

WELLINGTON, February 27.

In officially opening at the Art Gallery last evening a fine exhibition of British contemporary art, his Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, expressed the belief that there was a real yearning on the parti of the more educated section of the New Zealand public to he brought more in touch with the higher forms of pictorial art. ' Although the present collection of works was'being exhibited by Mr E. Murray Fuller in'" rather depressed times, he was certain’ that the atmosphere was appropriate to’a keener sense of art. - : 'r •, • His Elxeellency said that if he had any doubts as to the justification of his opening the exhibition—and he had none—they would have been removed in the first place by a communication he had" received from Sir William Llewellyn, president of the Royal Academy,’expressing the earnest hope that he would support in every why possible Mr Murray. Fuller’s enterprise. He had received; also, a similar letter from Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton, president of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colour. But,' above all', ■he was justified by the exhibition itself, of which’ he'had had the privilege of a'private view the previous morning.

He did not propose to speak of the pictures when many present were experts oh. the subject-of art-in general and '"-British artin particular. ■:'lndeed, had he the temerity to embark u pon such ’ a task he would have bben effectually warned out of it by reading the 'perfectly admirable, most scholarly’ and well-informed preface to the catalogue which liad' been written by the chairman, Colonel A. D. Carbery. ’ 1 y

BRITISH ART ON HIGH PLANE. His Excellency remarked that mention was made in the preface of the artist Constable as the great English- ! man who', after producing certain notable pictures; among which wa» the “Hay Wain,’’’ exhibited at - the - Paris Salon,' had' convinced' even;: French contemporaries of'the ascendancy :iir certain. 1 ' ’ spheres of 1 British fr,pictorial art. Colonel Carbery had written: “The -machine age of industrialism . and utilitarian philosophy settled upon I England ' like a dingy pall, and for half a 'century clouded the sensibility of our artists.” Colonel C'arbery might have added with' truth ; “and indeed the sensibility of the British public.”

: Then came the sentence: “Searching and revealing drawing was the vital impulse of the new schools, so that the.skill of the English artists in the graphic "use of line’became everywhere acclaimed.” Rut• the most • significant sentence of all was the one 'which declared that British today' never ■ stood bn - a firmer basis of craftsmanship or on a higher plane of aesthetic excellence. 1 1

ill AVOIDANCE OF WASTE. .1 . •• - •• • ■: • - •. There was a certain eminent poet, • j William Wordsworth, who was a con-. ’ temporary of Constable’s, 'his Exceljlency continued. Wordsworth had ut--1 tered these very remarkable verses: “The world is too much with us, late anil soon, getting and .spending, we ' lay waste our powers.” If their ! powers were wasted in their search, ! perhaps to-dap their almost frantic I search, for industrial and commercial gain'; if they did not develop that ’ higher, more aesthetic and spirtual .side of their beings they were not receiving that medicine which was most calculated to avoid that waste. He could not help thinking that New Zealand had reached l that stage in • her development—whether she acknowledged it or not—when she had a craving for being brought more, closely in touch with pictorial art of the - most elevating amd informative character. •TIT.. I I n A y-M'rro tliiOnfl

'Mr iiurray Fuller had organised fiiicceissfuilly, probably more than any other man of British race, exhibitions in various parts of the Empire in order to draw attention to the merits of modern British pictorial art ; and in somewhat depressed times he had now enriched Wellington with works by outstanding British artists.

Tf, as his Excellency believed, there was a real yeani ng on the part of the more educated section of the "Sew Zealand public to be brought more in touch with the higher forms <d pie- , al art. he eoulTl mot help thinking that "an exhibition like the present one was going to be of very real service to the country. It might he said

that the moment was somewhat inopportune for such an exhibition when ,‘imos 'were bad and that, people burdened with taxation were not in a position to expend surplus money upon rmr’.-s of art. still lets to purchase works of art with the object of presenting them to some public gallery. But' it was only right to remember that periods of booming commercial prosperity had not in the past been periods of great intellectual or artistic uplift. (Indeed it was in a period similar to the present one, just after the Napoleonic Wars, that there had been a great advance, a great move forward, in the realms of science and art. KEENER .SENSE OK ART.

“Well,” said bis Excellency. “I am certain ’of this; allhmigh there may not ho much money in our pockets to purchase works of art I do say the atmosphere which surrounds us is appropriate to a keener sense of art. Vhs cultivation ot that taste will ct o

much >to pure that , intellectual, atnd mental depression from which so many of us are suffering.

“I believe I am right in saying that nine-tenths of the pictures in this exhibition are of artists that are represented in the National or Tate Onllery at Home. Of those 1 urn not surprised to find special mention made of the late Sir William Orpen, who was. 1 believe, a close friend ol Mr Murray Fuller, and whose somewhat pathetic portrait painted by himself shortly before, his death appears o.i the- left side of this room.” H s 'Excellency went on to speak of certain pictures in the collection which had particularly appealed to ,hnn. Hje .read also a sentence -from <3ir 'Herbert-'Hughes-hstan'on's letter to him. in which Sir Herbert had said that probably no" group of pictures comparable with the present one had been seen in Wellington before. Before declaring the exhibition open his Excellency expressed the earnest h«pO ( that those in control of public gallm-iew would have the courage to refuse ruij bishv pictures. Exhibitions similar to the present one would ■ result n a great move forward to buVd up those galleries with pictures worthy ol them.