DOI Heft:
No. 345 (December 1921)
DOI Artikel:Manson, James Bolivar: The Aberdeen Art Gallery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21393#0262
THE ABERDEEN ART GALLERY
There are many difficulties in the way of
a proper exercise of this function. In the
first place there is the opposition of the
public to overcome ; great art has always
met with opposition, and even merely good
art has in it something which is repugnant to
the untrained mind; moreover, there are
comparatively few works of real art created
at any time, and it is not easy in the case of
contemporary work to estimate accurately
the genuineness of its quality. There are
also things not easily avoided ; things both
popular and alluring. Cleverness in paint-
ing, for instance, is an attractive and mis-
leading quality ; it is too often used as an
end in itself, whereas it can never be any-
thing but incidental. 000
All art galleries contain a certain number
of dead pictures, and the Aberdeen Gallery
is no exception. Pictures are too often
bought because they are attractive, because
they are popular, or by painters whose
names are well known. But this also is a
delusion. Popularity is invariably bad, and
a well-known name is not a guarantee of
great work. It is the picture alone that
matters, and not the name of the painter. 0
The Aberdeen Gallery has indeed re-
ceived in the past by gift or bequest some
pictures which it would be better without,
and it is desirable that all galleries should
have the power to sell pictures which time
and reflection have shown to be inferior or
bad. Only thus can mistakes be rectified.
For it is the early years of a gallery's exist-
ence that are the most difficult, when the
committee is almost obliged to accept what
may be described as furniture pictures. 0
The Aberdeen Gallery was built by pub-
lic subscription in 1883. In 1900 it received
the MacDonald Bequest, a collection some-
what miscellaneous though above the
average, for Scotsmen have always shown
more instinct in art matters than the Saxon
race. Two years later a suggestion was
made to form a gallery of sculpture consist-
ing of casts of the great masterpieces of the
world. Largely owing to the energy and
clearsightedness of its present chairman,
Sir James Murray, this project was brought
to a successful issue, and resulted in the
collection which may now be seen so
attractively arranged, and which is such a
great possession, forming, as it does, a con-
246
" TO PASTURES NEW " (1883)
BY SIR JAMES GUTHRIE
There are many difficulties in the way of
a proper exercise of this function. In the
first place there is the opposition of the
public to overcome ; great art has always
met with opposition, and even merely good
art has in it something which is repugnant to
the untrained mind; moreover, there are
comparatively few works of real art created
at any time, and it is not easy in the case of
contemporary work to estimate accurately
the genuineness of its quality. There are
also things not easily avoided ; things both
popular and alluring. Cleverness in paint-
ing, for instance, is an attractive and mis-
leading quality ; it is too often used as an
end in itself, whereas it can never be any-
thing but incidental. 000
All art galleries contain a certain number
of dead pictures, and the Aberdeen Gallery
is no exception. Pictures are too often
bought because they are attractive, because
they are popular, or by painters whose
names are well known. But this also is a
delusion. Popularity is invariably bad, and
a well-known name is not a guarantee of
great work. It is the picture alone that
matters, and not the name of the painter. 0
The Aberdeen Gallery has indeed re-
ceived in the past by gift or bequest some
pictures which it would be better without,
and it is desirable that all galleries should
have the power to sell pictures which time
and reflection have shown to be inferior or
bad. Only thus can mistakes be rectified.
For it is the early years of a gallery's exist-
ence that are the most difficult, when the
committee is almost obliged to accept what
may be described as furniture pictures. 0
The Aberdeen Gallery was built by pub-
lic subscription in 1883. In 1900 it received
the MacDonald Bequest, a collection some-
what miscellaneous though above the
average, for Scotsmen have always shown
more instinct in art matters than the Saxon
race. Two years later a suggestion was
made to form a gallery of sculpture consist-
ing of casts of the great masterpieces of the
world. Largely owing to the energy and
clearsightedness of its present chairman,
Sir James Murray, this project was brought
to a successful issue, and resulted in the
collection which may now be seen so
attractively arranged, and which is such a
great possession, forming, as it does, a con-
246
" TO PASTURES NEW " (1883)
BY SIR JAMES GUTHRIE