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

rt S11111IIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ad and Circus The Telephone Boorhs bv R,chJrd Eile1 r Surrealism) and the sslng absence of anything alian, (aren't we 'Inter· nal' enough?), this exhlbl· ould more truthfully be d as 'A Century of Some ern Masten' or even tive Bits of a Century etc rely even to validate cally an exhibition that s to 'chronicle' the ments of a century for ustrallan public, a token .nee of the Heidelberg 1:- ,__,,.,.., , ..... ? For Instance, my companion Is a great one for Magrtne. Has books and books about him and seen nearly everything In reproduction . Well, I had to lead him gently Into a comer to recover his manhood when he ftnally came face to face with the single off Pr!;• 1 of his hero's work In the collection. It wu not helped, of course, by being squashed Into a tiny, dimly-lit alcove that wouldn't do justice even to a postage stamp, but - had bnn promised so much Realism - works by Wessel– mann , Rosenquist, Roghko and Estes burst on the scene like sunbeams through cloud. In a quirk of placement, the paln'\ngs themselves summed u;: .ny Impression of the his· iurlcal movement. Irr Edward Hopper's Hotel Window (1956) a forlorn woman 1111 at a window, apparently staring out along the gloom of the preceding walls of plctwa. You'd swear she wu think· Ing 'Well... ,o much for that an Australian public, a token presence of the Heidelberg School Is called for? Okay, so perhaps the Baron's collection doesn't In• elude any Australian painting. But If the Australian organisers are fair dinkum about giving us an accurate idea about our– selves, our place and our time In relation lo the rest of the art world, then even a peripheral, parallel appearance of some Australian painting Is necessary? If our Gallery Wallahs don'! feel that painters of the calibre of Streeton or Roberts deserve a look in on home ground, the, what hope Is there of a lit– tle International recognition? The same. apparently, would apply lo the best of our modems As far as an Austra– ,llan audience is concerned, the show's mos! vivid message seems lo be that artlsl1cally we haven'! and still don't exist. This cultural cringe factor Is not the only disturbing aspect of visiting 'International' exhibi– tions like the Thyssen Borne– mlsza. The problem Is not simply what Is significantly missing, but also the quality of what Is shown. If, as we are graciously Informed. this Is our once•ln-a-lifetime chance to see a Braque, Picasso or Magrtne , then all the more reason to make sure we are going to see them at their best. I heard a lot of saddened fans of one or other of the ex– hibited painters shuffle away muttering things like 'never knew he painted anything so little and dark' or 'always through! they were bigger and brighter than that'. .. .it is a pretty selective 'survey' that has such a lot of 'most important' . .. gaps. Perhaps that Is largely the problem. I'm beginning to realize that much of the real ar– tistry behind these art spec– taculars lies In the accompany– Ing publicity campaigns. Unfor– tunately a painting will not pro• duce the same psychosomatic effect as a well-sold headache powder, and ii is usually only against its own bener Judge– ment that the public can be persuaded that is has seen the most 'exquisite', 'beautiful' or 'important' of works__ . _ _ _ That inevitable breathless blaze of publicity can rarely blind one to all an exhibition's shortcomings. (Yes Virginia, there really ARE some Au:nallan modem masters.I Berna,·d Boles quite rightly makes the point In 'Art for a Client Nation' (Notion Reulew Feb 1980) : 'True, what we see here Is not third rate, but It Is third category' We see no great masterpieces!' I personally very much doubt that the Courtauld Gallery Is breaking Its neck to get hold of much In the present exhibition . True, things got much bener the further one proceeded through the sequence. Small, overcrowded and rather unmemorable earlier pieces (even the Fauves weren't at their wildest) gave way to some exciting American 'Action' and ·half of the century...things can only Improve!' This opttmism found Its vindicatton In t!ie final work In the sequence, David Llgare's brilliant. airy gesture of release Kit/mos - Thrown Drapery. One final piece of optimism resulted In another - the hopeful belief !hat our cham– pions of the arts haue remem– bered to secure us a little redprociti, In taking on this ex– hibition . If they can get $2 a head out of us (and at current attendance rates the exercise seems extremely lucratlue, ihe baron 's generosity notwith – standing), and get the Com– monwealth Government to underwrite rhe Insurance costs of the whole deal, then surely surely were entitled to a little something back in the way of artisUc exposure abroad. Of course, you might find your optimism In this regard somewhat tempered by what you dldn ·1 see at the T + B ex– hibition . If our paid Cultural Arbiters are not giving our own artists, dead or alive, much of a show on home ground. they are unlikely lo be doing so else– where . On reflection , maybe Hopper's woman In the win– dow was contemplating a Jump? Kate Colllns.