ROTA EXHIBITION

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20494, 10 May 1938, Page 2

ROTA EXHIBITION

THIRD IN HAMILTON ART S PLACE IN SOCIETY ADDRESS BY MR C. R. FORD “ Throughout the world to-day we see the mechanical idea of life invading even the things of the spirit, but while the outlook in many lands is at the moment dark, there is no doubt that when Hitler and Mussolini and the r like have passed into merciful oblivion the artistic spirit in man will live on.” sa d Mr C. R. Ford, of Auckland. In the course of h!s address j at the opening of the third Rota Exhibition to he held in Hamilton under the auspices of the Waikato Societv of Arts. The present was Ihe thlr.d Rota exhibition and about the tenth for which the society had been responsible, said Mr J. Treloar. president of Ihe society, in his opening remarks. The qualitv of the pictures this year was very even and an additional interest was lent by the presence of several canvasses which might be termed “ futuristic ” If yon study your own reactions to these.” said Mr Treloar. “ you will And that they are not as violent a 6 they might have been three years ago, thanks to the educational influence of the society. *• The Waikato society was not represented by a large collection this year, he continued, owing to the absence of specimens of the work of Miss Ida Carey and Mrs Adele Younghusband, but there was a representative display of work by the younger members which was no discredit to the society. “ Not By Bread Alone ” Since the earliest times man had not been content to live “by bread alone,” said Mr Ford, and from the dawn of history had given expression lo his desire for the things of the spirit, and for the eternal. To the striking and enthralling manifestations of natural beauty, however, everyone was alive but it was the artist's privilege to point out the beauty in everyday things to those unblessed by the artistic vision. Recently there had been a tendency to the belief that an artist s duty w-as merely self-expression. but the *peaker ventured to suggest that the artist had a duty to get his message home to others. If he could not do this then as an artist he had failed. It was an encouraging state of affaire, however, that in this young country, w-hich had still less than a century of Western cultural history, and in Hamilton. the centre of a pastoral community, such an exhibition as the present one could be held. “ I congratulate you very heartily on this exhibition,” concluded Mr Ford, “ and on the part your society has played In It.'*