The A rtists’ Corner

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 235, 23 December 1927, Page 14

The A rtists’ Corner

i | W. ROBERT JOHNSON, |- WHO CAUSED A SENSAj TION WITH HIS RECENT j SYDNEY SHOW, IS VISITING AUCKLAND I BUSINESS AND ART W. Robert Johnson is a young New Zealander who has broken into Sydney art circles with almost startling rapidity. What is more he is showing the Australians how to handle in paint their own colour and light. Mr. Johnson, who is an Aucklander born, arrived by the Aorangi for a stay of several weeks in the city of his birth. He returns with honours thick upon him. His recent show at the Grosvenor Galleries in Sydney was one of the art sensations of the year. Practically the whole collection was disposed of on the opening day. Since then Mr. Johnson has concentrated entirely upon his oils work. Formerly, he was a partner in a commercial art enterprise, and painted—working out his own theories in light, colbur and form—at week-ends. SKETCHING TOUR PLANNED Now, he is back in New Zealand planning a sketching tour of the Mangaweka district, which, he says, has something to offer the painter entirely different to any other part of the Dominion. It will be extremely interesting to see what Mr. Johnson will do here after his Australian experience. "Already I find a considerable difference in the light. It almost seems as if one will have to recast one’s ideas of New Zealand entirely. The greens, for instance, seem extraordinarily vivid. In certain light they would be extremely difficult to paint.”

Mr. Johnson is determined to show the Sydney-siders on his return that New Zealand is not entirely composed of geysers, free-ferns, pohutukawa trees, and scantily-clad Maori maidens. That Is why he is going to the Mangaweka—there is something different for the painter’s eye to dwell upon. Here is an interesting item for Aucklanders. Mr. Johnson is seriously thinking of forwarding some contributions for the next Society of Arts show here. Whether his next exhibition in Sydney, some time next year, will interfere with this decision, however, the artist is not quite certain. It Is just possible that his work might prove a little expensive for Auckland. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that he will exhibit here. It

would be Indeed a stimulus for young painters to see what the Australian critics declare to be a particularly virile treatment of their peculiar problems. “I would like to see a keener interest taken in Auckland art by business men,” says Mr. Johnson, who quotes many examples of wealthy Sydney patrons. Undoubtedly they have been largely responsible for the decidedly healthy conditions as far as art is concerned there to-day. WHY NOT NEW ZEALAND? Outstanding has been Mr. C. Lloyd Jones, of the firm of David Jones, who financed Mr. Sydney Ure Smith’s production of “Art In Australia.” Mr. Johnson also instanced the Commonwealth Government’s decision to spend £7,000 on national portraits, Melbourne City Council’s vote of £2,000 for a mural for the new town hall, and Brisbane’s £5,000 order for a sculptured group. Quite pertinently he asks: What is the New Zealand Government doing in the way of a national portrait gallery of our famous men? Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson will not be among the 15 New Zealanders who have been invited to exhibit at the Grosvenor Galleries in March. The only Aucklander invited to show in this New Zealand exhibition will be Minnie F. White, whose work, to my mind, was an outstanding feature both at the annual show and at the Sketch Club’s exhibition. —ERIC RAMSDEN,