July 9.

*** The Members' Summer Show is remarkable, not for the one-third of entries rejected by the jury, nor for the governing body's decision to display at the other end of the gallery, as artists' choice, those rejects: both options have been exercised before. What makes this exhibition intriguing, in a depressing sort of way, is the apparent hidden agenda behind the jurors' choices.

Jurying is something of a thankless task, made especially problematic in Bermuda where it is difficult to find qualified people who are impartially objective. This jury falls short on both counts.

This is unfortunate, as a trio of jurors, invited by the Society as representing Bermuda's youth might reasonably be expected to at least have open minds. But in what appears to be an excess of zeal, their main accomplishment is to have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

This jury has written its own rules for this show, demonstrating a failure to understand the difference between the role of the curator with that of the juror.

"Traditional works,'' it proclaimed in its stated criteria, "were justified only by exceptional standards.'' Since many of the rejected "traditional'' works were by such "exceptional'' technicians as Vaughan Evans, Christopher Marson, Sheilagh Head, Valerie Weddup, Amy Evans, Maria Smith, etc., one can only assume that this jury was out to rap a few artistic knuckles.

While one may understand antipathy towards "traditional'' work, it is difficult to feel any sympathy for the systematic way in which this panel has summarily dismissed artists who, whether we like their work or not, do possess technical competence -- a quality glaringly missing in several of the pieces selected for inclusion.

There is a feeling, too, that this jury is more confused than most when it pronounces that works "should be of similar standard and style to support each other.'' The Society has never imposed such constraining rules, so it is disconcerting to see this young trio abandoning all pretence of artistic freedom, reverting instead to interfering, nannying tactics to impose their rigid views.

The suggested guide-line by the Society was that members might like to submit works on the theme of Hamilton's bicentenary -- only a suggestion, blithely ignored by most of the entrants and apparently having no bearing on the jury's final selections.

There is, of course, plenty of art that richly deserves inclusion in the jury's section. There is impressive work from Robert Bassett, whose colourful, Afro-Caribbean style figures beckon brightly from across the gallery. There are figurative portraits by the promising Jason Semos, painted with strength and assurance. Also working on a large scale is Fiona Rodriguez who, like Semos, uses the popular pose of a woman cradling her head on drawn-upknees for a fine figure study.

It is unfortunate for Daniel Dempster that his ineptly drawn male nude is hung immediately below Valerie Weddup's magnificently realised study of the same subject. The absurdity of this show is summed up when the viewer sees that Weddup's exquisitely drawn, matching study of a female nude reposes amongst the rejects.

Vaughan Evans, who produced a portfolio of Hamilton-inspired pastels, is making enormous new strides in every direction. His two studies of Victoria Park (rejected), employing richly luminous colours, positively shout with animation. Also split up by the jury are Sheilagh Head's two tenderly painted views of Hamilton as seen across the harbour, this time caught in the rosy flush of a summer evening.

Three of Christopher Marson's lyrically brushed watercolour landscapes got the chop, as did a splendid garden study by Maria Smith, distinguished by a new atmospheric softness, and an unusual composition from Amy Evans of Sound View, where she abandons her usual vibrant colour for skeletal trees straddling a cloud-filled sky.

The greatest outrage, though, must be reserved for the small gouache Evening study, where barely distinguishable figures drift through an understated landscape of softly burnished pinks, browns and blues. It is the work of Peter Peterson, one of England's most celebrated painters who also happens to be the President of the Royal Society of British Painters. Yes, this too was rejected.

PATRICIA CALNAN.