Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

Left Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Abstract 1962 Watercolour over pencil and carbon on wove paper 28.4X22cm Gift of Mrs L. Hirschfeld Mack 1976 Queensland Art Gallery Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Abstract 1960 Watercolour over monotype on thick wove paper 19.7x28.1cm Gift of Mrs L. Hirschfeld Mack 1976 Queensland Art Gallery Above Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack The World to Come 1940 Watercolour on paper 17.5 x25cm Gift of Olive Hirschfeld 1970 The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney The emphasis on qualities such as surface tension in Isle of Man may be regarded as formalist exercises in the manipulation of space, colour and form. Experimentation for its own sake is a feature of the artists 'Reflected Light Compositions' which he first produced in 1922. Hirschfeld Mack's descriptions of the experiments concentrate on the dynamic qualities of colour and forms, subject to change through movement through time and space.4In his teachings, Hirschfeld Mack also stressed the virtues of exploring problem-solving techniques involved in the manipulation of material and the possibilities of'invention through curiosity' emanating from creative play. Significantly, experimentation and play have a greater human consequence for Hirschfeld Mack. 'The driving forces', he wrote, 'are intuition, imagination and fantasy. The constant training of all these forces is important in building up the future of a spiritually alive society'.5In line with this, the artist shared the early twentieth- century conviction articulated by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, that a purely formalist vocabulary was of little inherent importance: Forms and colours gain meaning only as they are related to our inner selves. Used separately or in relation to one another they are the means of expressing different emotions and movements ... The elements which constitute the 'grammar' of creation are its rules of rhythm, of proportion, of light values and full or empty space .6 At the Bauhaus, much time and attention were given to the question of the psychological, emotional and spiritual attributes of colour, form and space. While no cohesive theory emerged, aspects entered into Hirschfeld Mack's visual vocabulary, for example the equation of yellow with triangle ( Isle of Man), red with square (or rectangular forms as in Abstract 1960, QAG), and blue or other cooler colours with the circle.7Hirschfeld Mack was also indebted to the notion of setting up tensions through polarities such as yellow/blue, action/negation, light/shadow and warmth/coolness — a dualism that may be linked to his study of Goethe's Theory of Colours (1810) which he had translated into a colour disc while at the Bauhaus.8 While Kandinsky hypothesised that certain hues had qualities that could be associated with the sounds of musical instruments, Hirschfeld Mack shared with Klee (along with a passion for Bach) a belief that art and music could be conjoined through musically informed rhythms of graded colours, spatial relationships and undulating lines. Hirschfeld Mack's preoccupation with the perceived synergy between art and music is explored in a review of his 1946 Melbourne exhibition.9Works such as Isle o f Man well represent the legato movement described in the review, while the painting Restless morning 1959 (QAG) illustrates staccato techniques through the deployment of abrupt, detached lines. In many works, Hirschfeld Mack supplements his interest in correlations between musical rhythms and the interplay between shapes and spaces, with forms that have specific symbolic or metaphysical connotations. The circle is one such shape — a symbol of protection and perfection — drawing attention to the disorder lying outside it. In this respect, Isle o f Man bears comparison with a group of watercolours produced by the artist in 1940, concurrent with the more obvious critiques of war. Works such as The World to Come (The Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Tale o f man (Growing) (National Gallery of Victoria) foreground human fellowship and organic growth. In The World to Come, a pulsating, circular form draws together and unifies the interlinked figures. The two elements, humanity and nature, are combined; contained within the spiralling form of a shell is the suggestion of interlinked figures and attendant notions of growth, unity and order.10 In Tale of man (Growing), energy and growth are conveyed through a spiralling momentum from inside to outside and reinforced by the graduated waves of colour/light harmonies. Isle o f Man is similar in its dependence on these undulating bands for its vitality and order, as well as in the repetition of shapes and colour values. Such formal attributes underpin Hirschfeld Mack's commitment to Bauhaus experimentation, and the continuing relevance of the artist's humanist ideals, during a period of immense personal hardship and dismption. Rodney James has worked as an education officer at the Queensland Art Gallery and is now a curator and writer based on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. HIRSCHFELD MACK'S HUMANISM 167