ART EXPERT’S CHOICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 679, 3 June 1929, Page 16

ART EXPERT’S CHOICE

HIS FAVOURITE SHOW PICTURES TALK BY MR. A. J. C. FISHER Eschewing general criticism of the Auckland Art (Society’s exhibition, Mr. A. J. C. Fisher, director of the Elam School of Art, in a talk broadcast from IYA on Saturday evening, made a selection of the pictures which appealed to him personally. lie commented briefly on the selected pictures. The self-portrait by A. H. O’Keeffe, he said, was worthy of purchase by any Dominion gallery. It was one of the best specimens of portraiture he had seen in New Zealand, and when looking at it, he felt that he was looking at the old man, not at mere cleverness in paint. “The Burnt Gully,” by Kenneth MacQueen, he liked because of the intellectual selection of paints in the landscape, and the way in which the burnt-out, desolate colour had been conveyed. Will Ashtcn’s “Font St. Marie, Paris,” was commended because of the excellent tonality. A landscape which appealed to him was the oil, “Hawke’s Bay Country,” by Roland Hipkins. The eye, he said, was carried along the ground, and the undulations of the country were carefully expressed. Praising the manner in which the artist had portrayed a type, Mr. Fisher expressed pleasure at “My Landlady,” a water-colour, by Frances Hodgkins. “Convent In Snow,” a water-colour by the New Zealander, Owen Merton, was favourably mentioned. In style it reminded the speaker of Cezanne, and he thought that future efforts of the artist should be well worth watching. A local water-colour, “The Ferry Buildings,” by L. S. Taylor, was also praised.

Luring his speech Mr. Fisher suggested that there was room for several small societies in Auckland, each with its own outlook and sympathies. The best work from each should make an admirable selection for the Society ox Arts to choose from.