Book review
Through Fifty Years: The South Canterbury Art Society by R.D.J. Collins Published by Hocken Library, Dunedin, 1983Reviewed by IAN LOCHHEAD
The role played by provincial art societies in the cultural development of nineteenth and early twentieth century New Zealand was, as Roger Collins observes in the introduction to his history of the South Canterbury Art Society, an important one. At a time when many of our public art galleries existed only in the dreams of culturally ambitious citizens and dealer galleries had not yet emerged, the annual art society exhibitions provided an important occasion for artists, professional and amateur alike, to display and sell. their works. These exhibitions also provided the public, whether in Auckland, Christchurch or Timaru, with almost their only opportunity to view the works of local artists.
It is thus valuable to have the activities of one of the smaller art societies carefully researched and documented to place alongside the histories of the larger societies, including those of Auckland and Christchurch. in scope and ambition, Through Fifty Years cannot compete with Robin Kay's and Tony Eden's lavishly illustrated history of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Portrait of a Century, which appeared at the same time. Nevertheless, this modestly produced, unillustrated account of the fortunes of the South Canterbury Art Society provides a valuable adjunct to Kay's and Eden's work.
Founded in 1895, the South Canterbury Art Society was a late starter in comparison with the Otago Art Society established twenty years before, or the Canterbury Society of Arts, founded in 1880. The aims of the Society, 'to promote the study, practice and enjoyment of the fine arts; to assist artists to dispose of their works; and, as funds permit, to establish an art library and art gallery in Timaru, 'were unexceptional, and like some of the more senior art societies elsewhere in the country, it gradually assembled a small collection of works which now form part of the Aigantighe Art Gallery collection.
Throughout its brief early history, however, the South Canterbury Art Society was overshadowed by the larger and more prosperous art societies of Dunedin and Christchurch. Although a nucleus of local artists could be relied upon to exhibit, a significant number of works were sent to Timaru by the leading artists of other centres. The young Frances Hodgkins exhibited regularly between 1896 and 1913 while Petrus Van der Velden sent four paintings and seventy-four studies to the second exhibition in 1896. The contributions of these two artists, along with those of C.F. Goldie, are listed in detail in appendices, along with previously unpublished press reports of their work.
Included among these reports is an account of Van der Velden's visit to the 1896 exhibition. The painter seems to have conferred dignity on the occasion by his very presence, the Timaru Herald reporting that 'the members of the (Art Society) council, who were hurriedly called together, profitably spent some time with the great artist.' One can easily imagine Van der Velden, the assured professional, dazzling his audience of enthusiastic amateurs with inspiring thoughts on art.
In spite of the Society's auspicious beginnings with two exhibitions in 1896, the third exhibition was delayed until 1898. A fourth 'Annual Exhibition of Paintings and Wood-Carving' opened in May 1899 but the fifth exhibition was annual in name only since it did not take place until 1910. The small population of Timaru and its surrounding districts, plus the proximity of the larger and more vigorous art societies to the north and south apparently made it impossible for the Society to sustain regular exhibitions. The Society's seventh exhibition in 1920 was apparently its last of any, significance until the nineteen fifties. Annual showings have been held since 1953 but these, as Collins remarks, have been dominated by local artists and have largely perpetuated the conservative tenor of earlier exhibitions.
It would be misleading to suggest that the South Canterbury Art Society played anything like a leading role in the history of the arts in New Zealand. Nevertheless its erratic development can be seen as an instructive footnote to the wider history of the growth of art institutions in this country. For this reason, and for the new light it throws on the activities of artists of national importance, Through Fifty Years deserves to find a readership well beyond the South Canterbury Region.