Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

Future directions in a:rt Reflections by KATE COLLINS 1114 ..• made It at a.1L Th• gho1t of poor old Orwell can lade gratefully 1w1y now that the long•rena• torecat1ra of gloom and doom have run over time. When lbe mosl relevant dale of modem tima bu arrivcd, withoul so much u a bang or a whimper, where are Wf to tum for our futurology? To nnct out just who WU watching In 1913 and whom to watch in 1984, loot at the Penpecta eahibltlon, at the Quocnaland Art Gallery until January 13. Dcscribod u .. ,he most oontempo– rary, cb1llen1ing and innovative" sample ol future directions in Austra– lian art. the biennial Penpccta sounds the perfect visual substitute for Orwell'a literary dusic. The uhibition bu taken over the entire lower le¥el of the .-uc,y, and thOK who haven't vaporucd them• selves witb too much Cbriatmu cheer abould be juat about fit enough to manap one circuit. from paintinga, to drawiap and photography. Putu,.tradaemergc fairly rapidly, and becaUIC lhc Penpecta attempts an '1c1octie aampling of artisu and atylca ~tbi• the .. OOfllLmporary" guidelines, 11'1 a.re to uaumc that these trends ap– ply acnerally to future Australian art. laa't it fun. alicking your neck out? Painting 1tay1 big The fint impreuion ia chat, despite all the recaaion thinking, painting will ... bis. t ,- eater the painting end or the cdibkion, John Firth-Smith's cnor• mo111 acrylic on canvas, "Winter Roundl", uaaulta the eye with ita ahccricale. Withia thla vut area. Firth.Smith hu•delicately counterbalanced the raw energy of two rod spirals like mini ""' tornadoes against the linear precision of a aiant pme of doll and duhca. The whole thin& looka a little like the cover of a well-uacd telephone book, magnified a thouaand times. The scale, if not the abstract style of "Win• tcr Rounds", ia echoed by the urban militants like Tony Coleing. Coleing'a hufe peuimlst manifesto, "Recent Wan', hu an inner city graf• fiti style and size that make it look un– cannily like i factory wall or the side of a slum housing project, peeled off and tranaferrod to the gallery. It hu a gritty, corrugated surface and the style is deliberately anony• mous - stcncila and spray pack paint brina it into the realm of Do-lt-Your– aclf art which in some artistic schools ia seen u the nirvana of political mass conaciouaneu. A C10mforting if some– what dubious idea. Only the scale remains the same in the painting by that darling of the trana-avant prdcn, Juan Davila. Da– vila ia one of thole contrO¥enial artista who have the rare talent of inducing outrage and loathing by thc'sim.11le act of putting pigment on canvas. He ia totally and defiantly unrepen– tant about the storm he created at the Srdncy Biennial in 1982 when some of his aexually explicit worka were confis– cated and carted off to immortality by police ancr beinf labelled "blantant porn" by the Festival or Light. Officialdom has of coune now had long enough to learn that you don't do that s;irt or thing to so,ncone who ii just about tojoia the rankaorDrysdale and Whitely in culturahtardom. r ·- ·······---••1·•·-· ..... ~ ., I ~rtt'--- ' J JUAN Devil•'• "Sentimental Hl1tor, of Auatr•ll•n Art", .. patriotic 11n1l1Jllltle1 •Ill tJt outraged at the title and flltlne. But mouths will undoubtedly still On the strength of this one work, froth at the sava~c physical brutr there's a good argument for a whole strength of Davila s satirical attack. new antipodean chapter in that classic P~triotic sensibilities, at the very least, of the unclad, Sir Kenneth Clark's will be outraged at the title and theme book, "The Nude". of his "Sentimental History of Austra- The most encouraging sign of the lian Art". You can't lake liberties like times to emerge from Perspccta is that that with our greatest national hero paintinf is still the most exciting area without copping a bit of the old Thun• 1n the visual arts. der Down Under Compared to the big, lively colorful Annette Bcnzor's hyper realist acryl!cs and oils, the photography and painting, "The Snake ls Dead", was dra".Yings look surprisingly timid and rather courageously called "the ulti- static. mate feminist statement" by The AfC h some cases like the interminable Melbourne, and ultimate or otherw1~· Abramovic-Ulay color sequence of the de,erves a lot of attention. art.sis seated at a table, the static cf- Add up and analyse all the clues in fe,t is deliberate. These photographers this intriguing work before you decide Sf,tm to share the belief of John Dunk– just which side of Ilic sex-political bar• t· -Smith that time and the boredom ricadcs it takes, if any. reshold arc relative. Just as absorbing is the way the It brings to mind that line in Pascal painting transposes the best traditions bout "the trouble with us is we cannot of still life to the Great Aussie Out- bear to stay in a room on our own". doors, with biblical and classical allu- ,ll11vc a close look at the photographic sions in tow. ~fcriors in the Pcrspecta and you'll , lie&_in to understand just why we can't. - ,- Queensland art11ts figure quite s~r~ngly_ in this national survey of ar• t1st1c things to come, and their range of styles and thcmca is a good indica• lion that, even where some people least expect it, variety bloon\l and schools - of thought contend. Farmyard charactera Madonna Staunton', untitled draw– ings pursue a stubborn commitment to understatement. The little dun-colorod lozenges of pastel and crayon hover nervously on the edge of organisation, like a television screen that's got someting mildly wrong with the verti– cal hold. There is nothin~ hesitant, on the other h.ind, with B111 Robinson's love– able farmyard characters, His ubiqui– tous chooks, cows and goats have be– come almost the signature of this Queensland painter of pastoral idylls. Although Helen Lillccrapp has now left us, many will recognise some of her locallr.-made creations - "found objects" hke twigs, torn-out pages and strange medical paraphenalia all neat– ly arranged in glass-fronted boxes. This artist's fascination with the human body is inexhaustible. To put Perspccta in perspective, the future of Australian art secm5 fairly unfrightening. Holography, whizbang photography and the whole silicon bag of tricks notwithstanding, pe,inting still seems to be tops. Good old paint on canvas and the bigger the better. There arc still realms of the imagi• nation, it seems, that can only be ex• , plorcd and given full fantastic range with the eye, the palette and the brush. 1 Reassuring, isn't it?