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

"MAIL" Brisbane, Qld. ........ BUT ARTIST RIGBY SAYS: "Ws just a [ coincidence" Can you see a likeness in the two pictures; above? They show (top left) the' poster drawn bK Brisbane mit h -t7 the Brisbane elti- zen some wrong, where - scene gin son history as the expression should Y of be one of pride at the Brisbane, to he presented in o ity's bane evement. .. achi Art Gallery the City Hall from July 20 Bris to 23. and ... (Top right) the famous director (Mr. It. Haines) Zadkine tnot ument at said Yesterday that he and Rotterdam, to commeiniir- Nice. M. I.. Wade s ate the suf- fering of the Dutch people under a Nazi air blitz In the last war. A leading Brisbane art critic yester_ day drew attention to , , and Zadkine monument? the likeness. ,""'. ^i 0MY Was Just coincidence." But, Mr. Rigby said. use nan not nan the% "Purely roineIdenee." monument In mind. In; fact lie had not heard of 0. Ills aim hail been to pro -ti Zadkine nionument, dune a poster to catch the shows a human figure eye of the casual observer.; whose heart has been torn and to publicise the Saga.% nut, and whose arms are It hail begun with a tree reaching up to Heaven In in a swamp, and had he-, an expression of twisted "ale a symbol of nci`' agony. bane's struggle over M ears to grow from a yr. RIghy's poster has `e r to a (qtr. similar reaching arms nn He said I he "rearhingi his symbolic i:gure, similar hands, and similar ridges arms" theme was common' at the elbows. in primitive art and had; erept Into modern art. "If; The critic said this mug- is imnossible In draw. gested a similar expression snmething enmpletely of suffering and a crying sew." he said, bane Arts Ball committee resident) had invited Mr. Rigby to draw the poster. flies: had chosen it from 15 rough sketches of ferent Ideas. Thirty - six - year - old Mr. Rigby said any simi- ianty netwcen the poster A suggestion of plagia- rism in connection with artist John Righy's "Bris- bane Saga" poster was shoo nonsense, the Lord Mayor iAid. Grooms said yesterday. He e'lld the National Art. Gallery director 11r. Robert Fli1111P`, had advised a corn - owl ee nil the selection of thy poser. Ala ranoin said the Bris- bane Sap v as In be a notable event in Centenary Yea r - - less well known e being "The gesture and feeling are not even vaguely skin' ler. I have seen the devel- opment I I THE Queensland National Art Gallery Director 4 (Mr. Robert Haines) yesterday replied to a artist John Brisbane art critic's week -end comparison of Rigby's "Brisbane oster the famous Zadkine monunientSaga" at Rotpterdam with Mr. nettles said: "The - - - rritirtsm by the 'leading symbolises the struggle turned towards the sun. art critic' about John the early pioneers and Mehra monumental iph over the poster for 'Brisbane Saga' being Influenced by Z d dtilifefilretillt per period which has kine's writhing sculpture passed. is so superficial as to war- rant the "Their sufferings wire greater than we often re- member but their faith In the ward fu n and o ture rwar fad thd eirvision- up carried them on lobo Rigby's I The City Hall, rising figure, and there ran he tower, symbolises the drawings of his symbolic with no question of plagiarism, , achievement or lite last as the art critic inferred." , zciesn'et.i "SPIRIT' (11' SAGA" rum. ahead. 3 . , nes defended the Rigby poster as "an arrest- and ev memorable and he poster is striking, ing visual symbol giving will beeta reminder' not the spirit of the 'Brisbane Saga.'" He explained the mean- Mon, but of the debt ' only of this Joyful neva- ing of the poster: "The ("Brisbane Saga." a owe to the pioneers," we symbolic figure, not yet fully formed, rises from an scene and song history of Brisbane, will be presented age-old landscape with in the City Hall tram upraised and the fare July 20 to July 23.1 lin