Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

New leader • 1n ·cultural activities THE Executi¥e Council appointed Mr. Ke¥in Siddell yesterday as Queens– land's new Cultural Acti¥ities Di– rector. T he Cull\1re \1 1rn ter llll'. N C\\'bl"\J',\ I MIid ~I I', Slcldi!ll. M. hurl het' n oM • m t: dlrflrtor "'111tr luM No,·c111lwr, whf'ln Mr. Ar• t llu r C r t~e,l y l'PIIJ'fld 1hrrmgh ill health. T h,~ JlO.:,II J(111 l'ltlT\t.'., llrl llllll:ll ~nln rr n ( S~li.U74, ~, ... Nell llelT sslcl ,\l r. Sidrlt 1 II wn \\'f•II known nncl !11•111,, 1·,•1.u1rtlNI m Queenslu11;1 ,·11l1u rnl rlr– ch•"'· nnd wnuhl ht'lllj;.!' wlcl,• ex11rrie11ce lo his poslllon. Mr. li'lddtll hold• a de– ~n•r In "1U!ilc nnrt :a n1. plumn nr 1•:rturatlon n Ith honour'.! from i\lclhourne nh·cr,.lt)·. He Jol11ecl !,he Quee1h – la11d Eclur11tlo11 Oep11ri– nu•1H In l flill :i~ R s11pr1·– \' I :,. o r or mu'ilc ntter teul'l1i111,: nversPal-'. Mr. Siddel l ,rild .Vl'.t rf·· d a-" I h n ( . CUllUJ'illl.,, Quec11sl11 nd wns settII 11µ Into n pel'lnd which cnuld bo In teresting lo lhc \\'hole com111un lL.'1. ..1'hli, I!!' partknlM rl.,· sn In ,•Jtn,· or the Stutr f'.mr. rrnmcna·~ 11Jans to en– ••ouraae the rluvc-Jo1unc11t " r C II I t II r II I racllllles lhroui-hont lhr. St:1t,," hf" ~;thl. "ThP (' plnni; IIH'IUdf'! lht• (',-.,tn bll~h111en1 of 1hr Q II e e 11 S I H ll d Cult l,l'llJ MR. SIDDELL n111ny 11wil11 ir~ out&icfe Ihe IIH'I l'UJ)Olitnn Ar n. ..111 f111·1. IW0· fhl rds or 1 11 c c11l111rnl rnclllnes llt-111 ' l:OCOllntJ,!(ocf <'~il-lL n 11 1~I d e Brishu1w," he .~uld, ... _ Ccn1 re nn 1hr outh bn(11, ScuiJ)fOr Moore Still working As he approaches BO on · Sunday with blr.thday homage rain– Ing on him, Henry Moore feels 20 lifetimes WOUid not satisfy his obsession with work. 8urprJatn1ty alight In build for a aculptor whose monumental worka can 4wart 11 •k.Yllne, he says llll!J>Jy: "One hu to fight tor tJme to work." Henry Moore, who haa been called the rreatest llvlnr Enrti..hman and the m01t Important arUst since Plcaaao, la at least the most notable artist Brltatn has produced I.his century - even though he has ~n Widely crJttclsed. Moore sculpts strange shapes. Tiny heads perched atop huge bodies and out– alzed feet: a single reclin- ing figure may be spilt Into three pieces. His work has been an easy target for fault find– ers. Prince Phlllp once ob– served of a bronze medal– lion sculpted by H~nry Moo re as a zoological prize: "It looks like a mon– key•, gallstone." Holes A n Englishman, · Sir George Cnthkln, said: "I can't see what the hell f.s the point of putting up a large chunk of stone with holes In It like Oruyere ' cheese'' To a 10~0• Mayor of Auckland, New Zealand, a Moore nhlblllnn WH mnre outrareous: "I have never seen lhe art railer:, so d•– aecral4!d b1 such a n • •·· aeallnr IIKhl," Mr. J. ••. Lu:dord Hid. Moore \\'Orks In all weathers, obedience t,0 his credo that aculpture Is an out-of-doors art, yet des– pite Wind and rain he looks 20 )-ears younger than he la. His smnll bro\\·n hands stay quiet 11.s he talks. The eyes itre blue and steady, the skin pale beneath slh•er hair. at80 From PATRICIAMORGAN and MP in London But It la hla totally untn– ttmldattn1 manner and &e• renlty that are most ar– resUnr. He could be 11 farmer, a vet or a vicar, but above all a man at peace with himself. I met him this \\'eek at the Serpenune' Gallery, In Hyde Park, where aome of his great potent bronzes ahrlnk the familiar horJ– zon. It Is one of the numer– ous ·trlbutea to his birth• day. In the art world, Henry Moore·s 80tl1 annh•ersnry Is the event of the decade. Although he finds the occasion ''not so much ex– hausting as disrupting.. he ma t t e r-or-ractly accepts that "where there are exhl• bltlons people want to see the artist." I asked whethor, a• a man of aach m•••lve <on– e e p ts, Au•tralla'• great open space• had any •IHI· clal Interest for him. ··w,11 It has always been too tar tor me to go," he said. "But from the Austr•• llan settings I hnve seen In lllms. some or the spaces and the wlld. unknown parts must be unbelle,•nhle. "I feel anyho\\' a lot of em o t Ion a I and personal connection \\1th Australia \\1thout ~olng there. "I have had seven or eight Australian assistants In I.he last 20 years. I think one or t\\·o of the earlier ones told any youn~ Aus– trallnn painter or sculptor who happened to be com– ing to Londo1, •go nnd see Henry Moore, he might give )'OU R Joh.' "The.v hnve all been very good workers." An even closer Australian oonnectlon f.s wlt.h Mr. Eric Westbrooke, ot the Mel– bourne Art Gallery, a friend and fellow York• ahtreman. Mr. Moore understands too, the size and mystery that make Ayers Rock a sacred place l-0 I.he aborl- 1tnes. "From primitive times human beings have tended to worship large rocks. par– tlculorly those in Isolated places and where there L, no expJnnatlon of how they got there." he said. "When r wns about 10 or 11 my father took me to see a famous rock nea r our home and It h•cl a big Im• pact on me. I find 1.he shnpe or It repented In some or m~· sculpt ure." It wa., about that lime tho t young Henry decided the pat.h he would follow. Greatest "I he•rd a teacher talk• Ing about Michaelangelo os the grenlest sculptor who e,·er lived. From t,hcn II anyone osked 'Henry 11·hot, do .rou want to do?' Instead or saying a troln driver I sold • sculptor. "M;r mother and lather "'er e the greatest ln– fluenc.. In my Ille. ~ty fa. !her \\'H a miner but he 1tarfed ..-ork as a 007 of nine scarlnr cro..-1 nn a farm. "He ..-as a renl In• tellectual. By the time I \\'AS going to grammar school t\t 13 or 14 he could help me with my algebra and he knew the \\•hole of HENRY MOORI with a stork sculpture repre– senting a man and a woman. Shakespeare. He taught himself mining engineering rrom books and qualified to become a manager. "My mother was to me the rock, nbsolute stabll1ty. Mine was the opposite to the situation of D. H. Lal\•• rence, I.he novelist, whose lather was also a miner. But his lather was only concerned with his plea– sures, drinking, carouslnr and womanising. D. H. z:.awrenee•, mother was intellectual one.• He uys hla devotion mother la fundament expreuect In hla work. "All my f11Ure1 are wo en, re&Uy," he remar quietly. Pew honora remain l-0 beat-Owed on Moore. honor&l'J' doctorates elude Oxford, O&lllbrld Harvard and Yale. He tumid down a km thood In the flftlei but eepted the much rarer der of Merit from t Queen lut year. He h hla n&allnL "I couldn't acoept ltnl1ht.hood," he Aid. " people 10 around aayi 'Sir Henry• It mak111 l' think of yourself u a dI ferent penon because y didn't belln I.hat way. took me two day, to write nice Jetter baell to the • thorlUes saying why didn't wlah to accept It". I asked htm, what hop remained. "The hopes have always had, to d some good sculpture wo that aaU1fle1 some am b· tlona. - "That la what makes good writer, a good ICU) tor, a good musician, good dancer. a good ten player. or a good rootballr You want to produce wh nearly satisfies your nmb> tlons. You can never h sRtlsfled or you 'll'OUJ stop". · Henry Moore Is not rell • gtous In the church-rotn sense although when h~ was conllm:ed at the ag, of 15 In the Church ot England, he walked dO\\'ll the atsle feeling "a loot off I.he ground",