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Art

Bronze sculptures, simple pottery

Jan Walker

At the Rothmans Cultural Foundation at present there is an exhibition of sculpture by Theo Janssen. Mr Janssen originally came from Holland and has been working in New Zealand for some ten years. The work exhibited is chiefly executed in bronze and the sculptor has taken great care to allow the texture of the material he is working in to fall into naturalistic lines and form pleasant unmutilated shapes.

The emphasis on large spacial areas such as in "Hello" and "All right, the Cat comes for a dance too" gives his work a generous and well balanced effect. His design work is excellent, far better than his sketches suggest. Several of his crucifix pieces particularly combine delicacy with strength in their design as well as their content.

Several of his smaller pieces lacked any particular conviction in their form. Where Mr Janssen is being light-hearted as in "Hopscotch" or serious such as in his religious artifacts his work has beauty and strength, but where content is less important then the standard of his work drops accordingly.

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At the Willeston Gallery in Victoria Street there is at present an exhibition of domestic pottery by Paul Melser. This young potter, who became professional in 1966, has been turning out a large and varied number of pots. There are over 300 pieces in this exhibition alone.

Although many of the pots are pleasant and light to handle it does not seem that Paul Melser has yet come to a happy solution as far as combining the utilitarian and aesthetic purposes of his pottery. Many of his pots look awkward and clumsy with over-glazing—spoiling the normally simplistic line of his work.

The range of Melser's work shows his enthusiastic response to the properties of his clay and where he has allowed free rein to his abilities his pots are well-designed and attractive.