Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 3 : Presscuttings, Sept 1959 - Sept 1967

~T'-'i.. ~fFJC ARE1"lo.l:y.T!:NO, I~ SO~E. Di~TI~~, M. FAR. Mo 3 i'IILE.S ~M- 1l\t INNER. Cll'{ --. JOURNEY 1••·················· = "Modern" art ia in the news : = at present, with the H. C. : • ltichard1 Prize painting• - • = including winning entry, : • '!Journey ·into the 'You : = leaut' Country No. 2"-on • = allow at the Art Gallery. : •...•............... , ····················~ • • • Som• have praised the = Richardt Prize • winning : ··················••; : The Courier-Mail asked A,rf : = Gallery director (Mr. Lau,,• • • Thoma•) to an1we, f~af : = queation, and to e•plflln : • the aims of the "mode,-n" • = painter,, This is whaef h• : • paintings. Oilters have : = criflcla•d them. Many com- • · • plain tltey cannot "under- : = atond" them and poae the • = queation: Is this Art? : ••••••••••••••••••••! . , • soy,... l . • ················~··· ... MUST A 'PRE LOOK LIKE REACTIONS to the Rlcharcl1 Prize painting, · now showing In the Art Galliry range from won• cler to bewilder• ment. ''Some people carinot look at many of ' tl\em 1 without a feeling of great elation; Others feel that some aort of a trick l11 being played on them. At any rate. nobody who 1tes them remnlna lndlfCer– ent. Why •hould works ot Rrt I ;!ret~ei~•oK~e c~~m~~.1;1o~t•~K~ dnrd which ennbles u• to say whether strnnge new crea– llons not seen before nre good or bad? Why should paintings which do not talt,htully re– produce a landscnpe or a nude model but, Inst.cad, ltke music, transmute thoughts, feelings, nnd visual Impres– sions Into pure colour or de– scrlptl1•e symbols move some people lo hostility? When Sir Alfred l\<!unnlng• wn, President or the Royn I Ac•demy he described nll modern nrt RS "violent blows nt nothing." He told 1111., , 1ory: A kick tll1l 1l ll l l 1I I 1, 11 11,1 A TREE? •·ell nble to paint a tree to 11,11111i1,,111111111111111,111,, ,,, 1111111111, , 11111,1111111111 111111!1111111, , , 1111111,11 11 11 ,1111111 100 /h! 1 \~ 0 ~t!i~e~i, surely that, By LAURIE THOMAS, being able, he doea not. director of th• Queensland Art_aallerv. BUT MUST HE? u1,11u1111111111u1111111111111u111t1f1111111111u1,1 own 1 unlllfe any other world; Is the artist simply a klndl ·•- • -• and to do It with that Joy ot auper rrcordln11 lnstru- The cr1t1cs of dlRcovery which Colum- ment faithfully portrayln1, bu~ felt In comln1 upon a ~~mtJ1: ;r~fu~~? heJ~t t:; 111111111111111IHI I tl I I 11111•11111•1 11 1 1•1:1 ne:o!:)l:: ::~dieU whether for example, the sense of M•nY or the most vocal the i·esults arn any good? w d hi h 1 kin ome critics of contemporary art 1 1 h u u::ine/~f a ~ree~•e fe!1 but are the people who know 8:Wi'•v~ J'ii~a "w~11 ~r '111'.ei· c&nnot express? ~~il~rga~~ ;'::?fo~t~~ ~f1.lho t.hatlcttohrereH~re.o n'::'r;;oo,j'°~~ We are all familiar with There Is no such thing aa • those ma11nlllccnt stale• Instinctive JudRment, only bnd subjects, only ~ood or ment.s-we call them meta• Instinctive opinions. When bnd poets. It doe•n t mat- phors-whlch poet~ mRk It come• to oaylng whether ter what an artist's subject when they want to con1•ey this or lhnt ls good or bad, ls 01· what his Intention Is. this sense ol wonder, or an opinion Is not worth What m11tters ls whethc1· he h th t t d lbe has done It with technlcnl w en cy wan o escr tuppence. It ls merely um- sklll. power, Intensity, something which ls be 1 ond ' lnmount to saying, f like wholeness nnd grcnl, reeling. the l'ench or purely 11 era! beer and you llke lemon- People sometime• !Ind dcccrlptlon. ade. ' People's private taste. these strange new worlds Poetry 1111·•1•11111, , 11•11 ,1, , Something Is ,omchow added to our understanding when a poet 1111ys things llke "n womnn Is a foreign land" or "Hope ls a morning In sjlrlng." We cnll a man a poet Just because he cnn mnke orcllunry language conl'ey something more than It seemed cnpnble ol. ~~.\\es111\\l~h or· 1 ~~~:ti1ng, like Picasso·,. n1·e In a ••n•e like metnphors. It would be wrong to accu~e artlsl.3 of fallin g to pnlnt n tree to look :i~e ,ic11 1 'ft'in1r~)i°'/n1t!~~Cloi1. 1 . nd One trouble Is that lhcre ore theh· own al!nlr, What ,;meaningless." But perhaps I h I I tI I they're looking tor the µeople mve anl( ng n , ie r wrong thing. Whnt Is the ~rr~lr~ou;~tlsd~~~p·e1~i~1~!~ "mennlng." tor Instance, of for a moment that private a sunset, or a Greek vase? 1nstc Is II Judgment about Palntln11s, like all works of the orll.<tlc or objective art, are made to be loved, vnlue of n work ol art. not to convey mcASages- H nrlisls lodn.v n1·e work- though they may do so. :w~lh~r· c\~~~;e::1~:~1;~•1';, rl;~:~ Cheap nnrl elsewhere, It Is cer- ~~~~!!Y ctr~~t tn·~~~n~~f:..sc\!~ 80 ~: 1 1 :~• 1 ~~• t~~ 1 •~:~11e Rnd sc~se. by?.nnllni, hend cl populal' pictures or the land• · d scape which some admire Christ. with Its ten tnres c• are hardly more than cheap llbern1cly distorted lo con- little forgeries from nature vcy ' \'lrlttmllty. ml~ht fool without any song at the ,nm• ulo bcllc\'lnll thnt the centre and no Inner beauty nrllst .lust couldn't d1·nw. of their own. "ll Isn't so long ago lhnt ls certain ly no common Mr. Chnrohlll nn<I I were stnndnrd. But the belle! walking together. Mr. Chur- thnl !,here m11,t be cnn tie chill snld to me. 'Allred, II you Into knots which mnke l we saw Plcnsso coming down · npprcclntlon Impossible. the street toward~ u~. wonlrl If you hnct been brought Thr !net that living But art ol the best kind p•ln1c1·s choose to work In Is never banal In this sense. 1hc wn.v they do Is brc•use One thing which sonic 1hcr have · ethln vasU may feel , ls a lnck of n dlllr.rent to express from sense or humanity In whnt what olher.s hnvc done. thev mny regnrd ns cold They nre Interested, tor absi.rnctlons unwnrnied by ~ 0 ~e/.f~'ln n;,~,tr ~,tc~l::f/•r~ ~ftr~~n: 11 ~\1.~p~/~ 1 1I;, s~r- c\)l~ l'P.pltcd, 1 By God, Wln~ton, I n~sc d1·nwlngs. yo11 ml~ht would'." ,•nslly !Ind Mlchclnugelo's A kick nnswers 110 question llorld palntln~ or The L11St nnd solved no nrg 11 ment. .Judgment utterly dlslnste- But let \IS ndmit I hnt. lul. They Cf\11 bolh be there Is nn 1111101111 1 of strong · vnluecl , but tor dlllercnt feeling ngninst. modern rcnsons. n1·1lsts. Auel II seems to be There ,.,·e, In fact, hun– ,·nglicly sulllnH?d up In Mlln- d1·t•rl~ at stnnclnrdg which nlngs' charge I hnt ther: ~r" :,"tpl~n~o n:~ 1 •~~N; ~~/;~~ "UtlllllQt jllllllt II tree to IOU which you 111l~hl sny they like n trcr," hnv1~ In common I~ qunllt.y. • th~•\~11~t·1f,•:~1,f;1d.hls ls not But how rlo yuu J111ige 'fheri 1 cnn br 110 doubt In Urnt '! the mind or u11ynne wl1u Onl;• by lmowlrdRe, There know!! Plrn~so's p~ncll drnw- 1~ 110 cnsy wnv. II lnK• m· the n~ures ur hi• ~ e111·1i• dnys lhnt he Is ,·r·rr I'·•.,----"'-"=- - = = =" exomple, In trylnR to con- recoRnlsnble re11t11re• or vey the million and limit- emotions. le... possibilities ol lhe Yet ortcn the most mind'• clrcnms, the cxplo- splrllURI rmoLl011s cnn he lllivc world Rbout I.hem, the conveyed only Jn the mrmL cxplO!ilVc world within them, elherCnl wn.v. ,.-; tu Brf'l– lhc hen1•t'l-l emotion!;,. the haven's Insl qunrlrts. An c~~cncc rnthr.r Lhnn the nl>~trnct pnlnllllft inn,· tluulJ mere nppr.nrnnce or the wlLh n new n11cl dcr,p lccl– whole subl le world or Ing Impossible lo nchlevc In my~tcry, lmn~lnallnu. n1ict nnv nt.hcr wny. fncl which lmpln~cs upon Some huve complntnc~I lhl'.'111, thaL "Orthodox" pnintlng IS Abovr nil. llw~· nrr mnk- l>elng J'ushcd Into the l>nck- 1111,1- lryln~ to mnk,• works to·oun Uy "modern" pnlnt- r,~n~ftruthlr}!1s~l:~~1 u~ 1 ~~lrc{\~'. 111 ~nc crit le or Ihe Rlchnrd~ nncsllnf: lur their own P1·1,.e hns actunll.1· st1~grstccl inkc-lllllc worlds or their th11t lhe competition shnulcl be divided Into 1wo ,ecllons -orth ox and modem-so that " nvent1ons11: JIIIUlter • would have a talt 10. 1 t Th~ misses the po n 00 g\f.i:Jtional 1 palntlnga were not pushed out by modern ones. It was simply that the better palntlnga In l\ny style puahed out the poorer ones. In the Rlcharda exhibi– tion, many "conventional" paintings - auch as those by Lloyd Ree•. Carlngton Smith, Ray Crooke, Ball Herman, Charles Meern, etc. ;;-;g;.: "n!1o':t~f~ff wo~l~ngslde If paintings were rejected It was not because they were old or new, but only be– c•use they were nol, up to the standard or the ones hung. The best 1•11111111111111111u1111u1111u11111r1 1 m And It the Richards Prize Is mainly ot modern work that Is becaust most or the H~!t r.,a1~:r: :,~~kln:heto~~a work ln a "modern" way. It Is true, perhnps, that many people who hnve been b1·ou11ht up to admire mainly ll!~ Q.,"~~t~~J'swo~f~ds~g~~ u\~ Renalsaance cnn't 101· the Ure or them see why non- 1·npresentat1onnl art ls en– tilled to be cnlled 01'1 at nil. It Is unlike anythln~ they bnve learned to cnll nrt. They should remember th•l all 111·ent artists . have been modern artists In their own dny-and nearly always rejected, at th·st, by the public for mnklnR paintings outrageously unlike whn t hod gone before. JI nrtlsls painted only tor populnr tnste there would ncvcl' be any forward move– ment-only repetition. But. you cnn look In vain throughout hlst.Ol'Y to !Ind R single grent wol'k ol art thnt hns eve1· been 1rn111ted by public opinion. The good thing about the Rlchnl'cls Prize exhibition Is 1hut It rr presen t.s some or lhe rcry best wol'k being c.lone now by i-:ome or the \'t'rr best pnintrrs In Aus– trnlln or. Indeed. nnywhe1·e. You mightn't like It. But t11111 ·, nol lhe point. The polnl Is IIHIL lhls 111 !net Is wllnl lhc lll'LiS:.S who ncLURlly prot.lut:e I he work nrc doing now nnr1 no Cnm1lc of plfb• lie nplnlo11 Cllll SIOJJ lht?m. It Is. I bellnr. onr or the ~~11;r;~,~r l~\'l~~~ltcn~:~11,~!'cr,~ b1•111~ done by It~ co1nttry's br.-.t nrtlsts r\nrl 110L to try tn ll•II n rti:,;ts !urn or wlrnt tlley :-hOllld pnlnl ' Attd If whnt I:,; b,.. lng done l,; oriJ,!lltnl, would we hn\'e It t'Olllmonplncc ? FOOTNOTF:: Mr. Thomas will glrr. n puhllc lt 1 ct11rc 011 Ihe H. C. H lrhnnts prize c111t'ie., In tlw µnllcry nt 8 11,111. on December 7.