Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 10 JAN THE YEAR IN ART BY DANIEL THOMAS Ansi rat i as Is shows IN 1964 the most popular exhibition with the general public was, of course, the Dobell retrosmctive. There were record atten- dances of over 150,000 (no precise figures exist). But It might be remembered that in 1906 twice as many people in half the time filed - rather quickly? - past Holman Hunt's "The Light of the World," a popular religious picture, then doing a solo tour of the colonies. Not only popular but also scholarly, the Dobell ex- hiblUon gave full oppor- tunity for evaluating his art-the sort of occasion where it's a pleasure to Mange gear from review- ng to criticism (Im- nodestly I would suggest hat my three articles did make some new and in- teresting points). The only flaw was the Australitn War Memorial's refusal to lend a group of important wartime paint- ings including "The Billy Boy." They must be con- demned roundly for for- getting their respom,ibility as a museum to scholar- ship in favor presumably of the Canberra tourist trade-especially since they did not commission the pictures, and for many years did not exhibit them, and since they have lent them to other less serious exhibitions in the past. But the blame for their caprice must also be placed on the organisers of those previous frivolous exhibi- tions, who spoilt the chance of loans being made on this Occasion. The general public was quite right to prefer the Dobell a ow to the isolated flashes of greatness from overseas. A big retrospec- tive which reveals one man's life work is always the mokt, moving and re- wardin' Kind of exhibition. Clarifying knowledge But Dobell has had many retrospectives- indeed his very first exhibition was a retrospective at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. in 1942. So in 1964 it was largely a matter of consolidating and clarifying our knowledge of his art. In fact, the most impor- tant Australian exhibition of the year was not Do - bell's but Arthur Boyd's (not seen in Sydney) at the Adelaide Festival, for it was his first in Australia. For the first time we saw him whole, an uneven talent, but undoubtedly a man to enlarge our experience. And who cares about mere talent when a. man is offer- ing the gift of poetry. Sydney also had Its first Proper look-though still absurdly brief-at Nolan's original series of 24 Ned Kelly pictures. And we were enchanted. Other museum exhibi- tions of Australian art were the admirable surveys of fields never previously in- vestigated - printmaking and pottery. A similar sculpture survey now on tour will reach Sydney in 1965. * * * Now, what about current production in Australian art in 1964? For MP there were only four one-man shows of new work that repaid close attention - paintings by Pairweather Wen Williams, and 'Janet 15awson, pottery by Peter Rushforth - the latter a beautiful, perfect balance between British and Japanese style. Faira eather's annual ex- hibition, less experimental than In the put two ur three years, continued In an old man's way to gain profundity grandeur and ease within his familiar synthesis of European and Chinese art; his lyric psalms about natural phe- nomena continue to be accompanied by crumbling expressionist heads, re- signed to their weary load of experience and wisdom. Williams, a Melbourne painter In his mid -thirties, finally gained the recog- nition in Sydney that has been due to him for the last three years. It helped that his exhibtion those to reveal a wider range than before, thous,. sup- Isecreisss the eather lip re sub- WILLIAM DOBELL His perception of Aus- tralian landscape could be the clearest and his re- sponse the most passionate In the history of our art. And like Ceranne's wrestl- Inge with Mont St. Vic- tolre. Williams' motifs - the You Yangs, Sherbrooke Forest - have each im- posed a distinctly original style, when all previous in- terpretations of Australian landscape have been made in terms of existing styles. Williams will undoubtedly progress to a more perfect realisation of his sensa- tions, will bring more of the directness found in his sketches to his firmly struc- tured oils. But he has already gone further than most artists: he has found something meaningful to say, and found a way of saying It. It Is now only a question of saying it better still. Independent of fashions Janet Dawson, 29, another Melbourne painter, held a Sydney one-man show, by no means perfect, but healthily independent of local fashions and so much more aware of the big dif- ficult things in painting that one should be able to predict an important future. Already she la probably the most adventurous and most skilful colorist we have: already we can ten- tatively conclude that the content Is an Interestingly submerged eroticism, and therefore far from trivial. All that is needed now is lots more paintings. If necessary, her ,defiler might lock her awsw for fiveew years from temptations not to paint. So much for the new one-man shows. Pima for a mention of Michael Tay- lor's good debut, and Jon Molvig's always painterly offering - this time lithely energetic, hungry nudes whose heads did not in- terest him enough to in- clude. And amends for edit- ing which ' appeared to diminish my enthusiasm for Hodgkinson's skilful touaches, may be his best hings yet, and at Barry Stern's for young Mel- bourne painter Peter Free- man's debut with much the most accomplished realism seen for a long time. But if asked to nominate the best new Australian work of art seen in Sydney in the past year I would propose the single large sculpture by Klippel in the Ganef), A inaugural ex- hibitioii Here was a re- lease of floodgates after a year's enforced idleness. Everything he knows about sculpture is put into It, and, magically, more than he pro'oably intended is found in the result. More than an incredibly rich and complex structure of junk metal forms, of rough and smooth texture, of slow and agitated movements, it was also (as displayed at Gallery M an enshrined fetish, or a quivering, snarling beast. Snarling, no doubt, at the weak and timid art that is always the greater part of any city's production at any one time. Pop Art trend Other individual works enjoyed were Lancelers "Kindly Shoot the Piano Player," Elwyn Lynn's "Strand," Milgate's "Cre- denda," all in the Rubin- stein Scholarship, Coburn's black -and -white picture in the Blake Prize, Belson's abstract in the Transfield, Strachan's frultplece In the Society of Artists, Olsen's "Mother," a further stage in his backward flight from pleasingness, deliberately coarse and insensitive in iaint-handling, but thrill- ng as ima e, Trends? Well, the Young Contemporaries, the exhi- bitions by Michael Shaw and Ken Reinhard, plus scattered pictures by Dick Watkins and one or two by the odd and elusive Richard Larter, showed that proper Pop Art (whose aim is to convert commer- cial art into fine art and thereby exercise its debas- ing powers) had arrived hi some quantity. And the previous avant- garde, of assemblage, had graduated to (deserved) official favor when Lance - ley won the Rubinstein Scholarship and Michael Knelling the Blake Prize, the two most highly re- garded of all the 50 or so art awards. Perhaps, after all, it doesn't matter that so few of those 239 exhibitions seen in 1064 were memor- able-at least there were a few, and some cities would not even have that. And the great groundswell of bad art and, more im- poart (Srtantydne. ofy d t has a ecen roulotoftine his, other cities don't) is necessary substructure for those who go _get off the ground. Art ia--A4L- traHa ,is Still Very much guys,,