NEW ZEALAND ART

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1939, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND ART

NATIONAL EXHIBITION VISITS TO SIXTEEN CENTRES. G n NOTEWORTHY CENTENNIAL PROJECT. With a view to stimulating interest in New Zealand art, and to provide a visual survey of New Zealand’s achievements in that field during the B past century, the National Centennial 1 Art Committee which was appointed by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr - Parry) has. with the co-operation of provincial Art Committees, now completed the organisation for a comprehensive exhibition of both retrospective and contemporary work to tour the Dominion during 1940. ”1 am very pleased," said the Min- ’ ister in making the foregoing announcement, "that the Committee and the Art enthusiasts associated with it. have been able, notwithstanding developments overseas, to complete arrangements for this most important contribution to the cultural side of our 1 Centennial observances. This could not have been achieved without the wholehearted support of Art Galleries, Libthe art enthusiasts associated with it. the Dominion, and the thanks of the Government are due to them for the assistance they have so freely render- ) ed.” The Minister advises that in an exhibition of such importance, it is not intended that paintings shall predominate. Sculpture, book illustrations, cartoons and caricatures, etchings, lithographs. wood-engravings and drawings, will all be featured. There is a wealth of the most interesting material available in the Dominion’s museums, art galleries, libraries, and private collections, and the bringing I together from all parts of the country of a comprehensive collection of this nature is undoubtedly an outstanding achievement in the history of New Zealand art. “A most interesting section." the Minister added, "will be the early pictorial work drawn and painted by the first visiting artists to New Zealand when it was almost a terra incognita, and much of this is practically unknown to anyone outside a limited circle in one or two of our main centres.” Another group of special significance will be the cartoons, drawings, and caricatures of early colonial days, the beginnings, in fact, of a virile native art which has produced a David Low. It will be of special interest to New Zealanders to know ■ that this world-famous cartoonist has made available five of his recent "Evening Standard" cartoons for the Exhibition and has made a gift of three of them to the Government of New Zealand.

No proper survey of New Zealand Art will be complete without a strong contemporary section which will form the logical conclusion to the survey of the first hundred years of New Zealand art. Owing to the question of space, it will not be possible to make this as fully representative as might be desired but all New Zealand artists of note today will be represented by at least one of their outstanding works. In keeping with its national character. the Exhibition will be shown in no less than sixteen metropolitan and provincial centres, opening in February, 1940. and closing early in 1941. The importance of the Exhibition from an educational standpoint cannot be too highly estimated, and special arrangements will be made in each centre for visits of school children. Public lectures on interesting art subjects will also be given.

Another educational feature of the Exhibition will be the catalogue, which will provide the first systematic survey of art in the Dominion. It will contain biographical notes of the artists, past and present, together with numerous illustrations, and a foreword on New Zealand art. Both in its appearance and content the catalogue will be worthy of the Exhibition and it will undoubtedly be a most useful aid to a proper appreciation of the works on view. The Minister expressed the hope that both for its unique cultural value and its association with the Centennial observances, the Exhibition would receive the generous support of the New Zealand public.