TAKE IT HOME TO DAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 945, 20 September 1957, Page 18

TAKE IT HOME TO DAD

\W E are by now so used to hearing of a public body taking a tentative sniff at culture and then scuttling away horrified, like a spinster with a man under her bed, that perhaps the following true story will not seem so very odd, In any case, I'll tell it, in all its fatuous simplicity, Takapuna Borough Council, on Auckland’s North Shore, has already to its credit ever such a pretty model of the Gothic, in geraniums, arabis and lobelias, with which it greeted the Queen three years ago. Maybe it should have stuck to such artless manifestations, for its latest nibble at culture has not been such a success. There appeared recently in the New Zealand Heraldas some will know, a staid organ not given to: unconventional alarums-the following tit-bit: "Working from the model of a £150 statue submitted to the Borough Council by a Sydney sculptor, a retired Murray’s Bay plasterer is turning out the ‘Reclining Woman’ figure in cement for a cost of £20. When the council was casting about for a cheaper statue, Mr W. Mowday, library committee member, had said: ‘Give me the sample model and I will take it to dad and see what he can do.’" Apart from the price, about which some confusion appears, there’s only one mistake in that: the "Sydney sculptor" is Christchurch’s own Alan Ingham, who worked five years with Henry Moore in England, was forced out of this country by lack of commissions, and is now in Australia. Otherwise this fascinatyag story of private enterprise scuffing away under the hen’s wing of a public body is as follows: Before Alan- Ingham left for Australia the Takapuna Borough Council asked him to do a statue for the wall of its new library. A small model was submitted, was accepted, and was, moreover, shown to its public at the North Shore Festival of the Arts in 1955. The commission was a firm one, and the agreed price £120, 3 Unhappily, when the finished work arrived in New Zealand, the head had been accidentally broken off in transit. In spite of the assurance of a knowledgeable architect that this could be perfectly well repaired by a competent stonemason, the council refused to accept the "Reclining Woman" who, insured by the sculptor at his own expense, had then to be handed back to the insurance company for breaking up before they could pay him his money. However, this idea that a stonemason could make a broken statue good as

gold again had evidently got around, with bells on, by the time the new council met ‘to consider what.on earth it was going to put in that empty space on the library wall. Mr Ingham, having been asked how much he would charge for a new statue, and having not unnaturally intimated that the price would be the same as before, plus £10 for a sample model, was now considered too expensive. It’s awful what art can cost, in a butterfat country. However, the brilliant idea of giving Dad some homework was hit upon: and delighted the burghers must have been when he signified his willingness to knock the reclining lady up again in concrete for a mere twenty quid. It should be underlined at this point that the model Dad was to work from had probably not cost Takapuna a penny, and was still, in law, the sculptor’s: but the council evidently wasn’t going to bother its head over such a trifle as copyright, All, indeed, might have gone merrily as a marriage bell thereafter, for the sculptor had his cash, he’d nothing to grizzle about, had he? And the council, where Dad, as goed as his word, would soon have a solid bit of art to sling up ‘on their library, the pride of Takapuna -if it hadn’t been for those beastly newspapers. As Mr Vincent Crummles once remarked, it’s extraordinary how things do get into the papers. The headless lady made the headlines: and the Herald’s suitably dead-pan item was followed at once by some disapproving letters. Douglas Sheath, a former Mayor of the Borough, wrote: "To copy the model without the sculptor’s authority and then place the resulting object on the face of a fine library building is a disgraceful act unworthy of a local authority, which should be giving an example in the community." Mr Sheath is a businessman, and it’s good to have so strong a voice coming from that quarter. Alison Duff, herself a sculptor and therefore likely to feel the council’s offhandedness very keenly, pointed out that this is a "classic example of the treatment artists receive in this country. It is also the reason why they leave it." She added the neat question: "I wonder if the committee member with the bright idea would agree to being operated upon by a plumber? It would probably cost less than the services of a doctor." In brief, the general opinion as expressed both in letters"and in the talk going around Auckland, is that, if "anywhere else you can do that there, you can’t do that there

’ere."" And I hope you '_ cone. The Takapuna Borough Council is ‘made up largely’ of business men: and when the dust has settled a bit I wish they’d look at the whole thing this way, instead of reiterating that Mr Ingham has received his £120 anyhow, he’s got nothing to squeal about. Busi-ness-business of any kind-is dependent on advertising in the press, on displays in shop windows. By refusing to have the original statue repaired (and this could (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) have been done quite invisibly)-by refusing to pay £10 more than the original price for a new statue, the council is denying the sculptor Ais advertising, his shop window. There is no other way for a sculptor to sell his goods, to become more widely known, than by getting commissions such as these, which enable him to show his work in public, Why should this right be denied to any man, whether he sells venetian blinds or statuary? Looked at in this way, it’s surely plain that the only thing the council can do to redeem its good name is to go ahead and re-commission that statue. It’s a lovely thing, as you can see from the illustration: it would do credit to the fine new library in the fine, not-so-old borough of Takapuna. Footnote; It has since been announced by the Takapuna Borough Council that Alan Ingham’s sculpture will not be copied and that the model is being returned to him. A local businessman has put down £25, with which he hopes to open a fund for commissioning another work by, the same sculptor for that vacant space on the Takapuna Library

wall,

Sarah

Campion