Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

fact that neither of these awards received enthusiastic support from Australian critics (Margel's work was well received internationally), they did reveal an emerging tolerance for abstraction.1 The exhibition 'French Painting Today', which contained abstract works by Pierre Soulages, Jean Marchand and Hans Hartung, toured Australia in 1953 and indicated to the art world that abstraction was taken seriously overseas. Gradually, improved communications began to lead to a greater understanding of modernist concepts. The war had contributed to a change in thinking. Almost worldwide there was a distaste for authoritarianism and regimentation. Existentialism and philosophies such as Zen, which placed an emphasis on the individual, began to replace the neoplatonic theories of the prewar years. In art, this emphasis on the individual was reflected by Abstract Expressionism in America and by Tachisme or Art Informel in Europe. In Australia, however, responses were not so direct and therewas a period in which the constructive elements expressed in works such as Studio abstract and Diatropic mingled with a more painterly expressiveness. This can be seen in the many abstract works of the early 1950s such as those by John Olsen, William Rose and Margot Lewers. Like Studio abstract many of these early works were based on a place or an architectural structure.12For the public such images were often associated with the notion of progress, of being modern, of going forward. The same could be said of Margel Hinders use of metal in Diatropic. The subject matter of growth and plant life was, however, to fuel a more reflective branch of Sydney abstraction, with artists such as Frank Hodgkinson and Leonard Hessing often being inspired by forms in the natural bushland to produce abstract works expressive of organic qualities.13 Both the Hinders had always been interested in the expression of movement. As early as 1933 Frank Hinder had tried to depict rhythm in his work Dance of the Koshares 1933 (The Art Gallery of NewSouth Wales) and in the 1940s Margel Hinders carvings of birds and animals, such as Leaping cat and Currawongs, both c.1945-52, captured the moment of action.14 In the early 1950s both artists became increasingly interested in the idea of movement as expressed in terms of time and space by the Hungarian-born artist László Moholy-Nagy. His book Vision in Motion had been acquired by the Hinders in 1947 but it was not until the period of works such as Studio abstract and Diatropic that they focused their investigations more fully on the development of these ideas. In Studio abstract , Frank Hinder has abandoned the use of curves and circles that he used in his previous paintings and has concentrated on the use of straight line, light and transparency of colour as a means of investigating time and space. It was from this period that Frank Hinder began to develop an increased interest in light, which would later lead him to the construction of his luminal kinetics of the 1960s and 1970s. Around the same time (early 1950s) Margel Hinder had stopped using wood as a material for her work. Her desire to articulate space had led her away from the concept of sculpture as three-dimensional form, and the use of metal enabled her to open up her constructions. In Diatropic, this has allowed her to introduce light to the interior of the work. With the manipulation of line, light and space she has effected shadows which suggest the passage of time. Margel Hinder intended the viewer to move around the work, experiencing all aspects. The idea of motion, which in Diatropic is expressed by asymmetry, shadow and spectator movement, was in other works developed to the point where the sculpture itself revolved. The Hinders were two of the few artists in Australia at this time who were sensitive to Bauhaus principles. They saw visual art as interrelated, with music, architecture, dance, engineering, design and theatre as parts of a creative whole. Frank Hinder worked in design, theatre, puppetry and kinetics. Engineering became a part of their life, especially in the construction of Margel's large sculptural commissions, such as the Captain Cook Memorial 238 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965