Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 1 : Presscuttings, 1959-1962

e itikN N 0 U NCE- MENT of the Chandler Gift of £5464 to the Queensland National Art Gallery is the best news culturally that the State has had for a long time. The gift is generous and welcome. But it raises again an old ques- tion : What is Queens- land prepared to do to give itself a fitting home of .the arts ? Whenever somebody makes a gesture such as Sir John and Lady Chandler have made, we remember how poorly the Art Gallery has beets served in public benefac- tion. Great things have been done with the Gallery at the Exhibition, under the pres- ent director (Mr. Robert Haines) and under his pre- decessor (Mr. Robert Camp- bell). Efficient partitioning and lighting have produced remarkable results in what tea once a concert hall. The temporary gallery is something of which Queens - lenders need no longer be ashamed. More worthy home? BUT is shame to be our yardstick? The gal- lery has been at the Exhi- bition Hall for 21 years. It should have a.. permanent and more worthy home, The time to consider that is now, when the proposed terms of the Chandler Trust open up conditions that em- phasise the need for more space. The fund is intended to purchase not only pictures, but other art objects-period furniture, silver, porcelain, pottery, of which the Gallery has little. Whore is there in Bris- bane a central site spacious enough to provide for that? Building shortages con be e xpected to go on far years. Completely new construction must be ruled out. One location that has been entioned is the former Gov- rnment House, now Univer- ity headquarters, at the end f George Street. It should vacated within two years, hen the new Administrative ection at St. Lucia is built. It is unlikely that the old overnment House building ill be used for other than a cultural or educational pur- se. The house is historic. It is dmirably set in grounds next o the Botanic Gardens and o the Technical College here art students are u ht. The question, then, should educe itself to which of two From handler gi t is challenge to al art lovers Institutions has the more pressing claim-the Art Gal- lery or a Conservatoritim of Music. Both hove a call on It. If it were to be the Art Gallery, the building itself would not be very suitable for the display of pictures. A' least, not without much al- teration, and even then only as another makeshift until a new gallery to conform to Queensland's climatic condi- tions could be erected nearby. Hot the building would lend itself well to the display of furniture and other lit ob- jects, and in the grounds there is ample 1'110111 for the placing of sculptures. A pressing problem H OWEVER, a new site for the gallery is not the point to which Queens- land art lovers should be giv- ing their immediate atten- tion. They should be doing something now to build on the Chandler Gift, to ensure a collection that will put their State on the art map. These are pictures of fairly good quality, some of, excel- lent quality, in the gallery. But, let us admit it, we still have not a worthwhile collec- tion. The Government surely will find a better site us soon as It has the opportunity, it has shown interest in the awakening support for art in this State. It met the cost of remodelling the present gal- lery. Alongside that hope, there is the not -so -encouraging fact that the State vote of 13750 a year for the gallery is barely paying staff and keeping the doors open, without providing for pur- chases. The trustees are forced back on to a few benefactions which, n11 the generosity of the givers, have been modest. If invested wisely, the Chandler Gift should return annual interest of £250 to £300; enough, say, for one modern overseas work and two Australian works every year. What' else is there at the trustees' disposal? Some notable purchases THE Godfrey Rivers Trust, established in 1932, gives an income of about £100 a year. It also provides nn art prize. Its trustees are independent of those of the gallery. Their charter is to purchase works from Aus- tralia and from overseas in alternate years. They are utk. "COURIER MAIL" Rrisbane, Old. Est. 1904 Phone MU 5195 Australian Press Cuttings St,tibridge Chaltibers, 443 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria. by H. J. SUMMERS restricted to paintings, but most of the money has been spent iu that direction. One of the notable pur- chases of the Godirey !livers 'Mist was William Dobell's "The Cypriot," now trailed at many times the moderate stun tor which it Was botallit. The trust ilas !Oren about 45 pictures to the gallery. Some of the best pictures in the collection hove been put there through the work of the Queensland Art Fund, which was founded in 1929 and wound up in 1950. It was through the activity of the members of this fund that the gallery was able to benefit from the bequest of the late Mr. Jahn Darnell. The Darnell Bequest was for £10,000, on condition that the public subscribed another £10,000 within Bye years. Of the £20,000 thus Required In 1935, £15,000 went to the Art Gallery. But the terms of Mr. Darnell's will mode it clear that he was giving the Money towards a new Art Gal- lery. It has been itarmnrked for that purpose. but the :MS - lees hove spent port ion of the Interest on new purchases Tie Queensland Art Fund brought 50 pictures to the gallery. One of its purchases was D. Y. Cameron's "Ever- lasting Hills," regarded as 'lie of the best in the whole col- lection. The revival in public Inter- est which brought about the formation of the Art Fund 23 Yeats ago led also to the gal- lery's being taken out of one long room in the Executive Building and being given something approaching a home at the Exile:Mon. A popular revival! THAT was history repeating itself. The Mur- ray Prior Bequest of six notable pictures in 1895 came out of the public movement that produced the gallery's foundotion - Ft movement in which Government, City Council, and citizens com- bined. The call to -day is for a similar revival. which will lift the Gallery into national class ns a collection. A £2000 bequest was made last year by the late Miss M. T. Treweeke, who had given several pictures in her life- time. It was her wish that the money should be spent. at the trustees' discretion, on Australian works of the more conservative school. Through this bequest nn early Streeton. two McCubbins, and n Tom Roberts have been added. About half tile money tins been spent. There have been individual gifts. In the recent class are 25 contemporary English 01111 French watercolours and drawings. presented by Mrs Lucy Cerrincton Wertiglin, of London. who has promised to folios: this with a gift 25 oils. The gallery trustees con tribute 100 atilnens a yenr a prize in memory of the la Professor H. C. Richards, wh 1111$ their chairman. The Hnl Dozen Group of Artists pro rides a biennial prize I drawing. Quectisliuurs Art Gallery has never had any large be- quests to contour° with thos that have enriched the Syd- ney, Melbourne. and Adelald galleries It lins not been Mil to afford the purchase of of masters. Tina might no matter so murk if the gaiter, were given a better oppor tunity to raise strindarda o appreciation to give voun Queensionders a more acut sense of contemporary ar Yalta's. Thal is what It is at tempting to 110-on n shoe string. Which comes first? THERE is, in this poverty of public support for the Art Gallery, a sug- gestion of the riddle of the chicken and the egg. Has so little been forthcoming In gifts because there is so little in the externals of the gallery to inspire the giving? Or has the Government failed to do more in the way of building because public support for art has been so niggardly? The obligation is two-way. It Is to be hoped, then, that the appeal the National Gal- lery Society Is launching for public subscription will be generously met. It will give us a chance to show what estimate we place upon our- selves as a community. From "COURIER MAIL" Brisbane, Qld. Overseas works at art gallery THREE displays of specia Queensland National In addition to a com- plete rehanging of the Gallery in chronological grouping ranging from the Heidelberg School (1891), the main interest centres in a showing of 25 works of estab- lished contemporary English and French artists. These have been donated to the Gallery by Mrs. L. C. Wer- thehn,,of London, as a token of esteem for the director of the Gallery, Mr. Robert Haines. These pictures. which are the first half of the gift of fifty, comprise a challenging display that will be sure to create a storm of contending opinion. A number of the pictures will not please the majority of viewers. Some, such as examples of the work of Kathleen Walne, "Interior" and "Conversation Piece." and certain landscape': by John Strachey. Roland Sud- daby. and John Melville, are almost frenetical in their leek of colour discipline. John Melville. however, re- veals work of a much higher calibre in the clean and pur- poseful lines of a black and white nude "Seated Woman." while a small "English Land- scape" by Roland Suddnby features assured overlaying of water-colour in uncompromis- ing brushwork of browns and greens, Perspective INDIVIDUAL treatment without distortion Is achieved in "Solve, Wales," a water-colour by A. S. Krauss. There Is intensity in Vivian Pitchworth's "Reclining Node," and admirable concen- tration of atmosphere in "Dieppe" of W. R. Sieltert, A black and white "Land- scape" by Glyn Morgan. com- posed of Nisi() essentials em- bodies a fine sweep of brit - [incest perspective. A broken sky endows with amplitude "Sussex Land- scape," n superb water-colour by L. D. Rust. Arresting subtlety is focussed in the foreground pool of a wnsit drawing, "The Form," by Mie- n Gibb. but the same Sr - I interest will open at the Art Gallery to -morrow. tIst's wash and pastel "Cor- nish Fishing Boats' fails through distorted lines of the nearer vessel. Included in the display of new paintings purchased from the £2000 Treweeke bequest, Is the Gallery's most recent ac- quisition of major importance, Australian artist James Quinn's oil of his son, In which the warm humanity of the portrait is strikingly heightened by the controlled tension of dappled lighting in the recessed background. Art needlework THE needlework exhibition features a wide range of art needlework ranging from two early 19th century samplers, through pictures in petit -point, a picture in black silk and human hair, to 19th century needlework accessor- ies. Highlights are the still Yield colour blending of a piece of Jacobean woolwork of 1558, a silk-embroidered waistcoat worn by George III, and a portion of a Queen Anne dress with flowers of pure silk.-ERNEST BRIGGS. ale