SAM CAIRNCROSS
Sir,-Mr. Ramage praises Sam Cairncross’s "energy amd drive,’ but from what I have seen of reproductions of the painter’s work in the Arts Year Book and your journal, the energy and drive seem limited to the appropriation of other painters’ ideas. Copying may be sound technical training (though I doubt it), but the results should not be offered up as originals without acknowledgment, thus "S. Cairncross after Matisse, or Rembrandt, etc." Wellington seems to be trying desperately to find a genuine contemporary painter, but will have to find something more impressive than the "Phaidon Press School’ as represented by Messrs. Cairncross and McCahon. CHAS. E. WARDLE (Hamilton).
Sir-I think I can reply for Sam Cairncross- on "Vincent's" question, whether the resemblance of his painting to Rembrandt’s flayed ox was intentional or a coincidence. No’ painter can escape the influences of his contemporaries or his predecessors, not even the most original painters such as Picasso. Besides, there is to me no other fesemblance, than that both pairitings represent a carcase. Sam’s picture reminds me of an empty pod, while Rembrandt’s picture invokes the image of a
giant flower.
THEO SCHOON
(Christchurch).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19490527.2.14.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 5
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192SAM CAIRNCROSS New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 518, 27 May 1949, Page 5
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