Art show for Army

Ruapehu Bulletin, 3 August 1990, Page 6

Art show for Army

Seventy-five years ago this August 8, members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force captured Chunuk Bair, during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign.

The Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum at Waiburu will commemorate the fateful battle by opening a new exhibition of First World War art nexl Wednesday. Fittingly, the exhibition features contemporary painting and sketches by First World War artists. It's title, "The Honorary Rank of Captain", is derived

from the way in which many of the official Commonwealth wai artists were commissioned with the honorary rank of captain;. Unlike other Commonwealth Governments, which were quick to appoint and pay official war artists to record the images of war on paper and canvas, the New Zealand Government largely relied upon

paintings by individual New Zealand soldiers being donated or sold to art galleries throughout the country. Amongst the artists whose work was subsequently lost to New Zealand was Horace Moore-Jones, who served on Gallipoli. Moore-Jones' paintings, which included many Gallipoli landscapes and the classic "Simpson and His Donkey", were shown to critical acclaim in Britain and New Zealand. When the New

Zealand Government, however, declined his offer to sell his painting, they were purchased by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Created by the National Archives, "The Honorary Rank of Captain" includes 46 works of art by 12 British Commonwealth artists. It has previously been shown at the New Plymouth Museum, and will remain at the Army Museum until the end of October.