ANTOINE BOURDELLE Drame D'Interieur AUCKLAND CITY ART GALLERY QUARTERLY NUMBER TWELVE— 1960 EDITORIAL EMILE ANTOINE BOURDELLE (1861-1929), This issue marks the recommencement of French acquiring works of art overseas and several DRAME D'INTERIEUR new acquisitions are reproduced. Bronze 24 ins Purchased by the Committee, 1959 REFERENCE LIBRARY The library continues to grow and we have The reaction of Antoine Bourdelle to the ex- been fortunate in finding several out of print pressionism of Rodin inaugurated a sculptural volumes. This year we have added 238 books. style which, in its reassertion of the relation- ship of sculpture to architecture, is almost VISITORS unique in the 19th and 20th centuries. As Bour- In late November we had a visit from Mr delle himself stated it, ' From the life in the John Hayes, Assistant Keeper in the London human model the sculptor must pass on to Museum. Having spent nearly a year in New the life in his work, and from that to its set- York he gave a lecture on that city. In February we look forward to a visit from ting against an architectural background. That Dr Ursula Hoff, Keeper of Prints and Draw- is the great law by which stone can achieve ings in the National Gallery of Victoria. She its august destiny in human gestures.' has already agreed to speak to the Associates It is in such works as DRAME D'INTERIEUR on our print collection. that this ' life in his work ' has its greatest GALLERY ASSOCIATES significance. These heads of Bourdelle are radi- The usual Christmas party was held on 8 ant with an inner life; light flicks and agi- December and everyone seemed to enjoy tates the surface of forms which seem trans- themselves. parent; the tensions here are not those of, this For 1960 the main aim will be to increase volume opposed to that, but rather (as the membership and a new brochure is being pre- name of the mask suggests) the tensions of pared for wide circulation. All members are the soul. asked to make a particular point of personal Bourdelle was much impressed by the poetry approaches to their friends. This is by far the of Mallarme and the symbolists, and his work most successful way of finding new members. has many equivalents, indeed he has been cal- FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS led the symbolist of sculpture. Although plans for 1960 are not quite com- This is the second work by the master ac- plete, the following exhibitions have been ar- ranged. New Zealand contemporary painting quired for the collection, the first MADONNA and sculpture — Australian contemporary AND CHILD, being a later work is very different painting — 60 Old Master Prints from the in feeling and style: DRAME D'INTERIEUR is pos- Monrad collection and European Painting sibly closer to the shadow of Rodin that 1880-1958 in New Zealand private and public spreads over much of Bourdelle's earlier work. collections. — H H K page two KAREL APPEL (Born 1921), Dutch TWO HEADS 1958 Gouache 24! x 19f ins Presented by The Contemporary Art Society, 1959 Karel Appel was born in Amsterdam. He studied at the Amsterdam Royal Academy of Fine Arts and in 1948 was a co-founder of the international group COBRA (linking painters in Holland, Belgium and Denmark). He set- tled in Paris in 1950, having his first one-man shows there and in New York in 1954. Appel has exhibited widely and is represented in most major collections in Europe and America. TWO HEADS is the second painting of this genre to enter the collection; it represents, however, an aspect of abstract expressionism very different from that of Karl Kasten (Quarterly No. 10). Unlike Kasten, Appel has forced his paint to yield messages, to create primitive images, violent and cryptic, and paint and image conflict, one confining the other. Beast and Man struggle through the turbulent surface; the crusted iconography of the old direction of abstract expressionism is dis- world stands in contrast to the landscape of tinctly European and the American version the new. has at least the appearance of being a Euro- Having its source in Paul Klee, this later pean import. — H H K Painting Classes During the past year regular painting and appreciation of the painting of other periods drawing classes were added to the Art Gal- and art in general and should be equally useful lery's programme of activities. This year these to both artists and to those who wish to classes will be continued but with some chan- further their understanding of art. ges being made. Two of the practical classes are For those who paint or may wish to learn being dropped and lectures intended to pro- to paint classes are planned to develop their vide a coverage of many of the directions and perception of the fundamentals of line, colour aspects of art are to be included. On Monday and composition. evenings we will follow this year's plan of keeping the Gallery open until 8 pm and lec- A class will be held on Thursday evenings tures on the permanent collection and on any (for more advanced painters) and a life draw- temporary exhibitions will be given from 7 ing class on Wednesday evenings. Every sec- pm to 8 pm from 25 April to 8 August. On ond Thursday, from 24 March, evenings of Tuesday evenings, commencing on 26 April, discussion and criticism will be held. These three courses of lectures on contemporary art evenings will be available for practising pain- will be given. These lectures will be illustrated ters only, either beginners or more advanced with slides and films and while planned to painters, and we hope will in some measure give an increased understanding of modern fill the often stated need for such a group. painting in particular they will relate this to an - C.McC. page three ARMAND GUILLAUMIN (1841-1927), French Pissarro. In 1863 he exhibited at the Salon SEASCAPE des Refuses where ' One has to be doubly Oil on canvas 21 i x 26 ins strong to keep erect beneath the tempest of Signed Guillaumin fools, who rain down here by the millions and Purchased 1959 scoff at everything outrageously ' — (Zacharic Among such names as Cezanne, Manet, Astruc). For a time Guillaumin tried to live Renoir, Pissarro and Monet, Guillaumin must take a second place as an impressionist painter. by his art but by 1868 was obliged to take a He worked and exhibited with the impression- post in the Administration des Fonts et ist masters but was not an innovator and as a Chaussees. He continued painting views of follower of their discoveries must be regarded Paris and the neighbourhood in his spare as a lesser artist, but at the same time given moments and exhibited with the Impres- his rightful place as a thoughtful and honest sionists six times, 1874-86. In 1891 a lottery painter. prize of 100,000 francs enabled him to give up He was born in Paris, took a job in the his job and paint full time; also to travel in Compagnie d'Orleans, painted landscapes on search of subjects to Provence, Auvergne, Brit- Sundays and in the evenings attended the tany and Haute-Loire, and in 1904 to Holland. Academic Suisse where he met Cezanne and - C.McC. page four HENRI MARTIN (1860-1943), French in Paris was named after him and he was con- OUVRIER AVEC UN PIQUET sidered one of France's greatest living painters Oil on canvas (1920) 23i x 30 ins of the period. Purchased 1959 For many years he exhibited at the Galerie In 1879 Martin became a pupil of Jean Paul Georges Petit in the group known as ' La Laurens in Paris and from the following year Societe Nouvelle' which included among he exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon. others Claude Monet, Albert Bernard and Jac- From the age of twenty-three, when he won ques Emile Blanche. an important prize, he began to achieve public Henri Martin is something of a rediscovery recognition. Up to this time he had been a as an easel painter in the impressionist tradi- ' classical' painter in the French academic tion, his many commissions for the decoration tradition but in 1885 he went to Italy on a of buildings seeming to have associated him travelling scholarship and his experience there mainly with a style of decorative art that has resulted in a decisive change of style and in- now lost its attraction. The easel paintings, fluenced the development of his technique. however, show an aspect of his work which Later he received many important commiss- links him with the pointillist style of impres- ions, including the decoration of the Hotel sionism and with Camille Pissarro rather than de Ville in Paris, for which he received the with official decoration. Legion of Honour. The Avenue Henri Martin - C.McC. page five KARL SCHMIDT ROTTLUFF TWO HEADS II Woodcut 1911 Signed in pencil Schmidt Rottluff Presented by the executors of the late Dr Rosa GEORGES ROUAULT (1879-1958), French Schapire, 1956 QUI NE SE GRIME PAS? Rouault's work comes from a group of his Who does not wear a mask? MISERERE ET GUERRE series in the Gallery, while Miserere No. 8 the Schmidt Rottluff is one of eight. As a mat- Etching and aquatint c. 1927 ter of interest, Dr Rosa Schapire was the Purchased 1957 artist's lifelong friend and compiled the defi- nitive edition of his graphic work. the hiding of the identity and emotions of the Schmidt Rottluff was a member of the well- wearer.