Editorial

It sometimes happens that an artist who is subsequently discovered to be of great significance is almost overlooked by most of his contemporaries. Such, it seems, has been the case with Robert Nettleton Field. Known to all those in New Zealand who had some idea of what the modern movement was about (and they were few), Field was in the 'twenties - his first and most creative productive years in this country -thought by the polite society of Otago to be sadly misguided, if not crazy. His intuitive, creative, spontaneous way of putting his paintings together seemed merely wilful to those whose ideal of 'art' rested on some sort of approximation to the coloured photograph.

In an interview with Elizabeth S. Wilson soon to be published in The Bulletin of New Zealand Art History Field recalls the ludicrous instance of the committee of the Dunedin Art Society rejecting a portrait painted about 1925 that he had submitted; and three years later accepting exactly the same painting (which had remained quite untouched) with a remark as to how much the painter's work had improved. Such was the lot of the innovative artist in those unemancipated days!

As usual it is individuals who stand out and who live in history by justice of their vision and foresight; and it is fortunate for the development of New Zealand art that the Superintendent for Technical Instruction in New Zealand at the time was W.S. La Trobe, who saw the desirability of bringing out artists of experience and background who might help to raise the standards of art education throughout New Zealand. Field was one of the first and best of these and was to have an influence as an artist and a teacher stretching over half a century.

Here we publish what may be the first lengthy essay on R. N. Field for decades: an article that includes some substantial extracts from his pieces written at the end of the 'thirties for our predecessor Art in New Zealand.

Two other main features of this issue are an article on Milan Mrkusich's important Monochrome series; and a section looking at the work of Some New Realists - younger artists who are exploring some of the many faces of that genre of multi-faceted, and often disputed, meaning: Realism.

Here an interesting painter who was working in this country before the First World War, Edward Fristrom, and his interpretations of the landscape, are discussed.

With this issue we print the first section of six pages sponsored by The Auckland City Art Gallery, containing illustrations and news about exhibitions, acquisitions, what is happening generally at the Gallery. These pages are paid for by the Gallery and written and edited by its staff. We are most grateful for this support, and we are confident that readers of Art New Zealand will be interested in information about an institution which has just appointed a new director and whose various areas of extension to the public are fast developing.