Patrons of Art

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 68, 11 October 1940, Page 5

Patrons of Art

HOSE who are with love for works of art are generally without money enough to buy all that they need before works of art. Those who are with money enough to buy all that they need, and more than all that they need, are generally without love, in the least, for works of art. Patronage of art in New Zealand is confined-necessarily confined-to the wealthy, who are, in ways peculiar to themselves, practical. They think habitually in terms of money. That is why they are wealthy. They assess the value of a painting by calculating what it would

fetch at an auction sale. What is the size of the painting? Whose is the signature? If the size is approximately twenty inches by twenty-six inches and if the signature is that of a man whose work, for a very long time, has been accepted, by a great many persons, as goodif the signature, this is to say, is that of a man whose work is in the style that- was generally

admired by the gentlemen of England in the time of Victoria-the painting is worth bidding for, They fail to recognise, these practically-minded patrons of painting, that art, true art, is representative of the place and of the time of its origin; they fail to recognise that art in New Zealand to-day, such of it as is verily art. is representative of this place

end of: : this time.-

L. H.

Booth

"Things As Seen

By An Artist,’ 3YA September 18),