Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

-- I tLEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 15 NOV 1964 iimmommin the weei: in itsI by Dams it./ 1.111 III S Good imports, and what yon must regard as investment price H" pleasant not to hove much Australian art this week. The French paintings, tapestries and prints at the Clune Galleries include four or five things really worth going out of one's way t', look ot, and nothing at all is unpleasant. It is a smaller col- lection than the same gallery imported for auction last year, similar in kind (ex- cept that there are now no British artists), and rather higher in quality. That is, there are a few paintings by I a in illar masters of the early 20th century like Rousult, with a splendid example of his gloat:4 Christ Heads, Sig- nac. Forain; a few by com- petent followers in popular footsteps, like Montezin following the impression- ists. Lagar following the post -impressionists. Beauty Then quite a number of present day paintings, either an aged colleague of the early 20th century masters like Hayden with a very beautiful still-life; or good followers of great painters like Brianchon following Bonnard; or lesser, conservative con- temporaries like Bernard Buffet, Venard, Cudot, or Cavatiles (who offers Matisse still -Wes); or fin- ally, the frankly decora- the painters like Alzipirl. Thus there's the whole range from art to decora- tion, or putting it another any, front investment - paintings to furniture - paintings, Uncertain buyers should be told that POO or -WHO is the ,price r - tier to e-ainent-pairt- n4c-itohIL=tl'attel4oM the latter ng the strong- est and b. at painting its the exhibition. Below £2C00 it is absurd to hope for investment - painting unless it's diffi- cult and avant-garde, which none of this 1s, or of course unless it's Aus- tralian and unencumbered by Import charges. The Hayden has the highest art content of the paintings under £2000; but paintings like these at under 82000 are best re- garded as expendable luxuries, like a motor car. Even the furniture- pninting Aizipiris in t h e junior league 30Ogns. range are well -made, unpreten- tious objects of excellent craftsmanship and elegant design. Unlike the Bradi Earths and Mario Boccac- cis of last year. there is nothing really to be ashamed of. If some guidance is needed among the paint- ings, the Aubusson tapest- ries by Picart le Doux and Lurcat, being conceived in terms of luxury (tarnishing from the star t are by their nature safely guar- anteed value -for -money. They are rich and sensuous and big; and since so much more wall is covered for your money than by an equivalent priced decorative painting I cannot understand why they are not snapped up long before the,tnechanical Bernard Buffet. In the etchings and ll hographs of course there Ls more art than in the .ntings, and tapestries. One of the Miro etchings, "Woman and Volcano", is the best thing in the whole exhibition; every tiny mark has its own vitality, plus formal meaning, plus complex emotional mean- ing of universal accessibil- ity. Humility One could live with this for ever. Similarly the extrovert, erotic linocut by Picasso, though much more vir- tuoso and dashing than Miro's qu.sting humility. clearly reveals a great artist reaffirming uni- versal values. Other lithographs and etchings by Braque. and Chegall assault the senses by color not drawing, and although these are very beautiful, the color - printing process doesn't Mute allow the direct con- tact between artist and spectator that Miro and Picasso's engraved or etched lines so mira- culously achieve. Indeed Chagall who pre- sumably supervises the lithographs, and approves of them enough to sign them, doesn't always actu- ally make them. Some bear a second name, the name of the lithographic crafts- man who would have trans- lated Chagall's painting into a lithograph. There are, riusny subtle 'tVgreesol originality: and "The Shroud" by Rouoult although beautiful such lithographs are, in spite of Chagall's pencilled signa- ture, not normally regarded as originals by Cliagall. In- stead, museums would nor- mally classify such things under the name of the lithographic craftsman. They are best thought of as highest -quality repro- ductiOns, made by hand instead of by photo- mechanical processes. There's nothing wrong with semi -original litho- graphs, nor with decorative furniture-paintings as long as they don't pretend to be more than they are. Local buyers will no doubt soon learn to make the neces- sary distinctions. Meanwhile we are glad that dealers in the past year or two have for the first time begun importing some work by great ar- tists and lets hope they continue to do so. THE Dominion Gallery .A" hiss European paint- ings and drawings too, not emerged from various freshly imported, but dusty cupboards round Sydney. A couple of minor 18th century Italian paintings in poor condi- tion; Mr. Edwards' attrac- tive drawing attributed to Rembrandt but not unani- mously accepted as such; swinging Picasso lltho- graphs: an Anders Zorn Sydney views, 45 guineas portrait drawing pleasant to 135 guineas. These 0144 in a quiet Tom Roberts copy well-known early way: a very interesting Fauve oil of a woman by colonial engravings and Henry Martin. But other drawings, with the original mug names "fully guaran- teed" by the Dominion Gallery-Klee, Van Gogh, Lautrec - are very un- interesting examples of the artists claimed. CEDRIC FLOWER (Mac- quade) has 25 charm- ingly tongue - in - cheek artist's name added to Flower's signature. He chooses to imitate old, yellowed views, not well- preserved white ones; the figures in the landscapes are funnier than before. A deliantiut new kind If love -letter to the siren city of Sydney, What's on this week Crane, Wollongon g: Hedda Enderle, paintings. Underwood: Plower studies. OPENING TUESDAY Hungry Horse: Virginia Cuppaldge, hand -printed fabrics. Lennox, Parramalla: Old mai ; and engravings. OPENING WEDNESDAY Walters Gallery, 307 Newcastle City Art Gal- Liverpool Street (New Gal- lery: Stuyvesant collection, leryi: Margo Lewer,g, Contemporary European small paintings. Painting. Rudy Roman: Robert Ellis, New Zealand painter. Lenthall Gallery, 31 Walker Street. North Syd- ney (New Gallery): In- augural exhibition, five artists. Barry Stern: Ron Lam- bert, paintings; D. Ti ud- Dominion: European and geon, pots. Australian paintings and Little Gallery: E. Aavik, drawings. paintings. Macquarie: Cedric Flower, Sydney views, oil paintings. Studio 183, Edgeellff: Pottery, paintings, etc., from six countries, Workshop Arts Centre, Willoughby: Lori Sachs, watercolor, etchings. Civic Centre, Ryde: Ryde Art Prize. Following is a list of exhibitions on view around Sydney this week. TODAY ONWARDS Art Fallery of N.S.W.: Special exhibitions - Gothic Art (LAST DAY). Sulman and Wilkinson architectural 'a ward s, photographs. Von Rertouch, New- castle: New Guinea art; pottery. TOMORROW ONWARDS Clune: French paint- ings, tapestries, prints. OPENING FRIDAY Farmers: 15 tuineas and under. Van Berfrach, New- castle: 15 years and under. TUESDAY LECTURE Contemporary Art Soci- ety. Adyar Hall, Bligh Street, 8 p.m.: "Arehltee; lure and Town Planning' by Barry Seidler.