ACCEPTED BY THE ROYAL ACADEMY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 467, 4 June 1948, Page 7

ACCEPTED BY THE ROYAL ACADEMY

ABLED news from London the other day announced that Max Walker, a 30-year-old Dunedin artist, had had one of his pictures accepted by the Royal Academy. He had been in London for only 18 months, studying, working hard, and attending exhibitions, and the picture accepted was one of the first three he submitted to the hanging committee. It is a tempera study, 18 by 24 inches, called "Shops in Bayswater," and was painted from the window of the lodgings of another New Zealander, W. Lonie, formerly of Mosgiel, who is studying textiles in London. In New Zealand Max Walker studied at Dunedin under Russell Clark and R. N. Field. Here is what Russell Clark told The Listener about him: *Max came to my classes in 1934, immediately after leaving John McGlashan College, and was with me till I left Dunedin in 1938. After that he had about 18 months at the Dunedin Technical (Art School) with R. N. Field, also doing some part-time teaching there. That was, apparently, the end of his training, and it is quite remarkable that he has been able to achieve ‘so much with such short tuition. It, gives a very good clue to his personal make-up. He is unusually gifted with the ability to draw and paint and, what is probably equally important, the desire to use that ability. Varied Subjects "The quantity and quality of his work was amazing. He was always tremendously enthusiastic about anything he was doing and this was shown in the lightness and spontaneity of his work. His choice of subjects and the media in which he worked were varied. He went in for portraits, figure compositions, landscapes, and still-life, in oil, watercolour, and pencil, and often portrait heads in clay. This might seem to suggest that he jumped from one thing to

.for no other reason, because it illustrates the kind of misapprehensions about "modern art" that we in New Zealand can very easily come to share with people in Texas. If I appear to have been too harsh in my judgment, I can only plead that rough-riding is, after all, in the tradition of Texas,

another, but that is true only so far as it shows his enthusiastic interest in a wide variety of subjects." Russell Clark recalls how keenly Max Walker went to work on an old, dilapidated room which he rented in Dunedin, turning it into a charming and workable studio. That was the first of three studios he occupied in» the south. In 1939 he held a successful one-man show in the Savoy Gallery in Dunedin. It was his intention, on reaching London, to enter the Royal College of Art, and arrangements were made from New Zealand for him to sit a special entrance examination. But a hitch occurred somewhere and this was found to be impossible, Round the Galleries Shortly afterwards Max Walker met the well-known English artist Frank Allen, who took a great interest in his work. Allen suggested that as Walker already had an excellent grounding, he should not enter a school, but study on his own .by visiting the galleries and art shows on every possible occasion. According to his letters he followed that very sound advice. To be accepted by the Royal Academy on the first entry is something of an achievement; a great many artists have trieq unsuccessfully for years. "Whether we place great importance on Acceptance by the R.A.," remarks Russell Clark, "the technical requirements at least are most rigid, and it is proof that Max Walker must have had that part of his equipment well in hand. Slighting reference to the R.A. usually comes from extremists, or those who who place no value on the craftsmanship of painting." With three others-Lady Welby, Mrs, E. Welby and Kathleen Brown (a Christchurch girl)-Walker,will hold a show in a Berkeley Street gallery in September. An interesting note from a recent letter is on the cost of renting even a small gallery in London for such an ex« hibition. The charge is from £50 a week,