PENWOMEN’S LEAGUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 5

PENWOMEN’S LEAGUE

ADDRESS BY ART DIRECTOR Enthusiasm for the merely sentimental and emotional expressions of pictorial art with no appreciation for the intellectual side of draughtsmanship or of tonal graduations was deplored by Mr. Fisher, director of the Elam School of Art, in an address to the League of New Zealand Pen women yesterday. Good draughtsmanship he defined as the “power to create the illusion of the third dimension on a flat surface.” and instanced several old masters, notably Leonardo da "Vinci, whose work was an example of that vital illusion, solid substance, while expressing to a degree all the mentality of the artist. For “sloppy sentimentalism” in art, the Victorian era held pride of place, not only in England, but probably in the whole world, and the work of the modernist, though often grossly exaggerated. was laudable in that it broke away from the mere imitative, and sought to develop a higher conception ef art and a taste for the essential intellectual quality of draughtsmanship. He made a strong plea for a keener and more intellectual appreciation of art in our own country.