Arthur McGhie

The recent exhibition in the Willeston Galleries of oil paintings by Arthur McGhie, who is a Wellington lawyer and graduate of V.LT.W. was, in my opinion significant and well worth seeing. McGhie has been painting for some 20 years and, surprisingly, has studied under Adrian Heath, He has also worked with David Romberg and has exhibited with, and is a founder member of, the English Free Painters Group; a group formed from the painter members of the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Quite clearly, McGhie exhibits some considerable talent—both latent and manifest—and has, as has been remarked on, a surprisingly flexible outlook considering his 20 years experience. The first impact one feels on meeting his work is that of his sense of colour. Indeed at first sight I was reminded in more ways than one, of the Fauve Vlaminck, of whom the critic Dorival said, "he does not suggest, he delivers a punch." McGhie, too, is a painter full of ideas. He possesses an enquiring mind and is concerned much, as evidenced in the canvases' titles, with a social awareness of a host of matters.

Perhaps McGhie's best point is his extreme freshness and its accompanying vigour and vitality. He clashes his colours together like cymbals and the effect is by no means unpleasant. McGhie s New Zealand landscapes—"Mount Egmont," "Wairarapa" and "Maraenui Lookout East Coast"—are especially fresh and vibrant and well worth seeing. The artist applies his paint very thickly and all illustrate his interest in mass. With these, are contrasted such semi-abstract studies as "Comrade Gagarin, I Presume" (which, by the way, though the technique employed resembles closely that of the Australian William Dobell. is no Dobellian pastiche), and "Coffee Bar Cameo." McGhie also does such titles as "Last Train" (one instinctively asks—where to?) "All Fell Out," "Women's institute Palaver" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." These latter canvases illustrate his use of symbolism.

McGhie has been criticised for " unsubtle use of colour," but I do not think this a particularly valid criticism: he would appear to be influenced by the modern French school. That he was influenced by Goya's more freely treated work e.g., Pilgrimage to San Isidro (novel in its own day) is, I think, certain. El Greco too, may have given some ideas as to colour; McGhie came under both these artists' spell.

Despite some concrete evidence as to a conflict between "accomplishment and aims," as Russell and has noticed, McGhie's progress should be worth watching, for as his exhibition brochure says: this show suggests some fairly clear lines of endeavour for future development. I personally, would like to see some more New Zealand landscapes.

—G.L.E.