Exhibition of Queensland Art: Commonwealth Jubilee Celebrations 1951

The same year the National Art Gallery was moved to its present temporary Several Travelling Scholarships had been awarded some time previously in Bris- quarters, which, unsuitable though they were, was a big advance on the earlier accommo- bane. The first two of these amounted to £250 per annum for a period of three years, dation. and were given by the Queensland Wattle League, for Sculpture and Architecture re - A few years later the Darnell Bequest was obtained through the strenuous efforts spectively, and in 1938 a Travelling Grant was obtained by the Queensland Art Fund of the Queensland Art Fund in raising the large sum of money which was necessary to from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and used for sculpture. At the moment a obtain it under the terms of the will. This resulted in £15,000 being made available scholarship of £300 offered by the Royal Queensland Art Society and its Younger Group to the Art Gallery, is being finalised. The initiative in this was taken by the latter, which raised half the This Bequest, together with the regular addition of important pictures from the money. Godfrey Rivers Bequest, and numerous gifts from the late Miss Treweeke, has increased With regard to the Central Technical College Art School, we find that the numbers the size of the collection very much. The Godfrey Rivers Bequest since 1935 now have increased enormously. With accommodation as inadequate as it is, it would be amounts to twenty-four works of art, including many major works, for instance, William impossible to make of it a fully developed Art School with scope commensurate to the Dobell's "Cypriot" and two large pictures by Eric Wilson, while thirty-nine paintings growing recognition of the importance of art in education. Evidence of this recognition including pictures by Charles Cundall, Rupert Bunny and Arnold Shore, and fourteen is shown in the fact that a Chair of Architecture has recently been established in the works in Black and White; have been donated by Miss Treweeke during the last nineteen University of Queensland, and that in the same year the status of art was raised suffi years. A generous Bequest from her of £2000 has just been announced, ciently to become a Scholarship subject in the Senior University Examinations, whereas But perhaps the most important happening of all occurred, when less than two twenty years earlier it had no place at all in the curriculum, in this connection the establishment of an Art Gallery there, is well worthy of note. The collection which is years ago ampler funds were obtained from the Government, and a Director was ap- being acquired by means of an annual grant allocated from the John Darnell Bequest to pointed to the Gallery. As .a result a change was wrought in the appearance of the the University now comprises two hundred and fifty paintings and prints. The dis- play interior of the Gallery which was breath-taking, and the display is now acknowledged to of these works only awaits the completion of the Gallery provided for the purpose be the most up-to-date and attractive in the Commonwealth. The arrangement, and in the University at St. Lucia. the colour and texture of the walls had certainly been immensely improved some time be.- fore, but to those who remembered the early days in that building when the pictures were Collections of works of art have been established also at the Teachers' Training s College and the Central Technical College. In both cases the Government grants have hung three deep on walls of painted plywood, criss-crossed with inch-wide coverstrip and three rows of piping for supporting the pictures, the difference is stunning, been supplemented by the students themselves. Another instance of the recognition of the need for art in education is the in- The Art Society, which began seven years earlier than the Gallery, has pursued creasing attention whish is given to art for children, particularly on its creative side, in its course more or less steadily since the beginning of the century, holding annual exhibi.. picture-making and design. The Teachers' Training College has been oriented in that tions of its members' works, occasional lectures, which are now a monthly feature, and direction for a number of years and an increasing number of young teachers from it for a long period a life class, which has just been revived. In 1900 it received a Gov. should help to bring about a "new deal" for children in the future. - ernment grant of £100 a year, and until this was discontinued, offered prizes for the As for those other means of enlightenment which are so potent now, viz.: books on best work in the annual shows. Its activities have always been much impeded by lack art, reproductions, and incoming exhibitions, they were practically non-existent at the be- of suitable accommodation, and in 1911 the sum of £500 wai raised to establish a Build- ing Fund. This sum has been enormously increased by careful administration and in- bookshops, the Public Library, but how few in numbers, and comparatively speaking, creasing property values, and it now stands at £10,500, certainly a record for an Art how dull and meagre! Society in Australia. A striking innovation which was inaugurated some years ago by To give some statistics—the School of Arts during the first forty-five years of its this Society is the encouragement given to its younger members, by annually sponsoring an independent exhibition of their work. The publication of a quarterly magazine, "The existence purchased on an average little more than one book a year, while in the last five Art News," is another innovation. years nearly two hundred books have been added to the shelves, in the Public Library too we find the same pattern of development with amazing results. A t the opening in The Half Dozen Group of Artists was established in 1941. Exhibitions have 1901 very few art books were in the collection. Forty years later there were just under been held ever since in which craft has been featured in conjunction with pictures. This seven hundred, but in the last ten years nearly double that number were purchased, and Group includes interstate artists in its membership. Activities have included gifts to with the addition of a gift of over five hundred books from the Art Library, the books seven institutions and six Junior Art Scholarhip awards of £10 with tuition fees for a on art now number almost two thousand five hundred. In the book trade too the same year. Also two Travelling Art Scholarships of £150 each in conjunction with the change is seen. Every book shop now has a section devoted to art, some in fact special- Queensland Wattle League (which was incorporated in the Group in 1944). is] ng in art books and reproductions. 4