Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 1 : Presscuttings, 1959-1962

N.S.W. 111111111111111111,11,111,111111,1111111111I 111111 II I Brisbane, Qld CHILD ART Ivey, . COLLECTION of paintings by manY children in N.S.W. country towns are included in the 300 selected paintings now showing at the Fifth Inter- national Children's Art Exhibition. For the first time Fin- land. Israel, Mexico. Indo- nesia. New Zealand, East Germany and Lord Howe Island are represented. Exhibits a leo include Courier Mail Art Show ex- hibits and the Queensland Art Gallery manila; and a selection of paintings and !Diger paintings by some children from the Spastic Centre, completing the re- m csentation of twenty countries. Sponsored by the Aus- tralian Council for Cniid Advancement, Artaonjunction with the Council of Australia, voluntary proceeds will aid the Spas- tic Centre, "N EWS" Adelaide, S.A. 5, 11.4.041.40I H.P. AS AID TO ARTISTS THE introduction of 111 litre purchase system at Brisbane's National Art Gallery as a why of boost - Iii local artists' sales was suggested last night by the Gallery Director (Mr. Rob- ert !UMW. Mr. Haines was address- ing a meeting of the Queensland regional group of the Royal Institute of PUIIIIC Administration. Ile said that In the United States some gal- leries invited local artists to send in their work. People, usually restricted to members of the Gallery Societies for security rea- sons, were then free to rent a painting, returning It when they liked, or pay- ing off the price in instal- ments until they owned it. Asked what he thought of aboriginal painter Al- bert Namatyra, Mr. Haines said that by top standards he was a third or fourth - rater. While he captured the local colour of the out- back. Namatjtra tended to paint just as he had been taught. Gallery closing for 3 days I The Queensland Nationali Art Gallery will be closed to- day, to -morrow, and Friday, and will re -open cm Satur- day with the following ex- hibitions: Australian Women's Weekly Portrait Prize, Exhibition 1957. Henry Caselll Richards Memorial Prize, Eithibltio 1057. L. J. Harvey Memorial P EithibItIon Ian EUROPEAN INFLUENCE IN THIS ART SHOW Week's urt notes II, NANCY CATO While moon -watchers are absorbed with the two satellites circling the earth, a new double star has risen in the small firmament of Adelaide's art world. Once again we have a stimu- lating influence from Europe. This time it is from Germany. with the first show here (at the Royal Society of Arts Gallery, North terrace) of paintings and litho- graphs by Udo Sellbach, and works in tempera and gouache by his wife Karin Schepers. Sure composition, strong plastic design, and planes of pure color, with rough, dry contours deriving perhaps from his interest in litho- graphs. are found in the Painting of lido Sellbach. An effective use of white and rich yellow gives a brilliance to many canvasses, such as "The Backroom" end "Still Life with Yellow Cloth." Social emphasis Other still -fifes ("Cloth on the Grass," "Meadow Fish") recede into blue-green distances, There Is an extraordinary depth in most of these, entirely different from the fiat-pattern techniques of the Paris school, Mystical figures bearing fish, stage-or circus-players, head of a boy In a fur cap (this last is a lithograph with the strength of a Katlic Hellwitz), all have an ex- pressionist and social emphasis characteristically Nordic. "Show People 2" is a dramatic, balanced work, rich in color and imagination. The half -dozen litho- graphs are finely executed, "Balkan Women" in three subtle colors. Numbers 19 and 22, both still life compositions, are outstanding. Work is 'lush' MRS. Sellbach, whose husband is an art master at St. Peter's Col- lege, paints under her maiden name of Karin Scheyer& Her work, de- riving from the Jugendstil of the 1900s, is lush, complex, richly pat- terned, and highly imaginative. Her fruits and flowers are like sea -things, her masks like exotic butterflies, her marine growths like tropical flowers. In the difficult medium of tem- pera, in which egg -yolk is the fixa- tive, she has some lovely warm colors (e.g. "Mexican Holiday.") "Birdmen in the Wind" is clear, , PRAISE FOR ART BOOKS clean, light, as if it might become airborne at any moment. The gouaches are as rich in color RS they are in pattern and form. Among all this unpruned vegetation the plain, workmanlike charcoal of city scene comes us something of a relief. This is really two art shows in one; but each complements the other and together they provide a most interesting display. * * * TONI Graham, young Adelaide ar- tist who recently sold his stage design for "Crime and Punishment" to the Queensland Art Gallery, is doing the set for the Adelaide Theatre Group's next show, "An Italian Straw Hat," to open at the Willard Hall next Thursday. He has designed an extremely clever permanent set, with witty rut -outs and cloths depicting Pari- sian rooms and street scenes of the nineties. Barry Pree, who had such success with his costumes for "King Lear," has made drawings for the period costumes which ex- actly complement Toni's sets. 041^". 5150 ...........455 "COURIER MAIL" Brisbane, Qld. "THESE three art honks should he popular in the beet sense of the word." Director of the Queens- land National Art. Gallery Mr. Robert` Hatrtek made this comment after examining the three mag- nificent art books, selling. by The Courier -Mall as a Christmas book offer. Each richly -bound book contains 16 large-slze, full - colour reproductions of the most striking paintings by celebrated French artists Cesanne and Gaugin and a group of 12 Dutch masters, Including Rem- brandt, Frans Hale, and Vermeer. The history of each painting and the life story of the artists add In the value of the volumes. Buy them at The Courier -Mall Book De - pertinent 239A Adelaide Street, or at The Valley Shoppers' service in T. C. Rehm Ltd., for 65 . "COURIER MAIL" Brisbane, Qld. 1+,4 .-7 ART REVIEW by DR. GERTRUDE LANGER WINNERS IN 2 CONTESTS ON view at the Nekinal Gallery, together with the previ- ously reviewed portrait exhibition, are land- scapes for the Henry Caselli Richards Memor- ial Prize and drawings for the L. 3. Harvey Memorial Prize. The moat accomplished landscape painting is Sall Herman's "Street Scene, Ten- nant Creek." However, the prize has been awarded to Francis K. de Silva, whose "Zillmere" is not entirely without merit, but certainly does not compare with the Herman. As to the "equal runners-up," "Market Gar- dens" by H. Carstens and "Holiday House" by D. D. Williams, both commonplace paintings, one can only won- der as there are at least halt a dozen paintings more worthy to be singled out. Nice feeling There is a nice feeling In Pamela Macfarlane's "Sicrub Country," composed in planes of varied greens. The background in Bron- wyn yeates' "South Coast. Landscape" is fine, but feeling and treatment in the fore- ground plants are not quite congruous. Then there are Roy Churcher's expressionist "Figure in Landscape" with vigorous handling of blue and orange. A. E. Read's heavily textured. brooding "Monsoon Landscape," Charles Bush's "Townsville Scene," Margaret 011ey's somewhat chalky "Brisbane Suburban," Phyl Waterhouse's wispy "Brisbane Gardens." "Beat winner" In spite of shortcomings in each of these, they are all more interesting paintings then the winner and the "runners-up." In the drawing competition we find nothing that is out- standing by high standards, either in the conventional portrait drawing by Arthur E. Read, which won the prize, or in the other entries. Some of the entries have a certain charm or humour or competence, but none has real power, verve, character, or sensitivity at the fingertips, which are the hallmarks of first-class draughtsmanship,