“BEST READ PEOPLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 638, 15 April 1929, Page 10

“BEST READ PEOPLE”

ART IN DOMINION MR. ARTHUR HIRST’S VIEWS “New Zealanders are, I believe, the best-read people in the Empire. They are certainly the best educated generally and have the potentialities of a great understanding of fine art.” This was the opinion of Mr. Arthur Hirst, F.R.S.A., a New Zealander resident in London for some years, expressed during a leeturette on “The Place of Fine Art in Education” broadcast by station IYA last evening. Education was defined by Mr. Hirst as a process beginning at the cradle and ending at the grave. Schooling was only a preparation for the more important part which followed. In this process fine art should be “everywhere and all the time” until living became itself a fine art, a great creative effort. The purpose of art was the fostering and satisfying of that love of the beautiful without which we should be beasts. It also aroused and stimulated man’s highest emotions and, as his powers of understanding and sympathy grew, his capacity for love and helpfulness increased. Fine art arose in the artist’s desire to express his emotions fittingly and to give visible and permanent form to his visions of beauty. It required the harmonious co-operation of heart, head and hand. If love was missing it was mere craftsmanship. If we could exhalt fine art from its present subconsciously realised place in our lives more into our daily consciousness it would help us to realise our own spiritual worth, said Mr. Hirst.