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Art

by Helen Kedgley

A suitable case for treatment

The work of one of New Zealand's best artists, Patrick Hanly. is at present on display in the library.

A well-known New Zealand artist. Patrick Hanly spent four years at the Canterbury art school, and studied in Europe for six years. He has received scholarships from the Italian government, the Dutch government, the British Arts Council and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. His work has been widely exhibited overseas as well as in New Zealand.

The eleven paintings in the library are selections from the major series of the artist's work 1959-1967.

The "Fire" and "Showgirl" series painted while Hanly was in Europe represent what the artist himself would describe as his "corny" stage, when he was concerned to create socially significant and symbolic paintings. These powerful pieces of work are characterised bv an energetic, almost Feverish, application of colour.

By contrast in the "Figures In Light" series. Hanly's work has become more stylised, formal and ordered. After returning to New Zealand he was greatly affected by the light and space. He portrays this feeling in his paintings with impersonal people painted in hard light. Similarly in "The Girl Asleep" series, again painted in a beautifully controlled and restrained style, he captures the mood of the sleeping girl.

Finally with the "Pacific Icons" series Hanly has moved away from representational work and created abstract images of the Pacific "essentialness".

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The Benson and Hedges Art Award is at present being exhibited at the National Art Gallery.

With a very gent runs first prize of $3000, 26 selections from 214 entries, one would expect this exhibition to present some of New Zealand s best art.

But this is not the case. Most of the artists, in striving to keep up with overseas trends, seem to have confused originality with novelty. As a result their paintings tend to be facile and unconvincing attempts at emulation of overseas artists.

Ian Scott's "Mini Skirt", for example, can be distinguished from Britain's Allan Jones by his lack of technical skill; Don Driver adds his own personal touch to his coloured Stripes with pieces of stainless steel—must he!

Ralph Motere's "Black Painting" of the Ad Reinhardt variety is in fact divided into four by a red strip of colour, and Ray Thornburn uses fluorescent lights in his "Modular I" to add chaos to his confusion.

However, there were notable exceptions such as Michael Smithers" beautifully painted "Rock Pools" and Patrick Hanly's "Now and Forever".

The winning painting, Wong Sing Tai's "Outside The Inside Out" is certainly an impressive and powerful piece of work, if not exactly pleasing to the eye. The jail scene based on the artists personal experience conveys with a disconcerting reality the horror of the claustrophobic jail.

The bareness of the room in which the prisoner crouches menaced by a huge black figure is emphasised by the restrained use of colour.

Nevertheless, I do feel that the overall standard of the exhibition was disappointingly low, reflecting the poor quality of much of New Zealand art.