Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" -3 Sydmw, N.S.W. By DANIEL THOMAS Shows from abroad IN 1964 I.visited 239 art exhibitions in Syd- ney. I reviewed nearly all of them and praised hardly any except those which came fro a outside Australia. It fact it's been an out - alai id ngly good year for the 'mat exhibition -goer, but the credit for this is due more to the art muse- ums and the art dealers than to the local artists, whose.: own productions have paled beside the im- ports. Most exhibitions from abroad, as always, have been of contemporary art and it is from them that I nominate my three top pictures of the year: Miro's etching "Woman and Vol- cano" in the Clone Gal- leries collection of French Art. and two American paintings, the Dine and the Morris Louis from the Michener collection - the Miro and the Louis fully typical of these artists, the Dine, judging from illu- trations, much superior to his usual work, perhaps even a happy accident, Simple beauty of life The Miro's importance lay in its sense of the wonder and the large, simple beauty of everyday life, especially the mystery of birth and procreation. Morris Louis on the con- trary was no kind of real- ist, but an arch -romantic, painting emblems of de- : tached ecstacy. the Men - able. While Dine neither im- mersed himself in reality nor projected himself in romance, but reminded us firmly that objects can have a life quite indepen- dent of their maker or their observer-that a coat per- haps, or a work of art cer- tainly, may have an aloof presence owning nothing to Its human associations, self-sufficient from the egocentric claims of man: the universe has its dis- continuity as well as its more comforting unities. The American show was Australia's first sight of the world's leading school, of painting at the present; day and was thus the most important exhibition for over a decade, not only for the year. Unprecedentedly we also bad other major contem- ' porary painting exhibitions from overseas. The European in the Stuyvesant collection look- ed expectedly old and tired, but well face -lifted, and very knowing about Cos- metics. The British Fortnight offerings at the Show - grounds and at the Art Gallery were unexpectedly assured, and the optical and semii,..op lutists Hoy - land, Lenny, Richard Smith and the Cohens sug- gested that at last the British might become con- tributors in art at an inter- national level. A giant Henry Moore Bronze was added to these abstract, paintings for safety's sake, he being a well established cultural nag -waver fir the British but nonct ieleas welcome. Other overseas contem- poraries of interest were the groups from Poland and Formr-s, the Japanese calligraph, s (they have a return season at Farmer's in a few weeks); and the individuals Jacob Pins with woodcuts from Israel, Ta- keichi Kawai with pottery from Japan, and Shanti Dave with paintings from India. Robert Ellis and Kees Hos made a tentative beach -head from New Zea- land. Let's hope we can maintain better links with the further Antipodes. Of course there's plenty from overseas that's no good, though it usually comes for propaganda rea- sons independently of the usual art channels. For example Air India with a worthy but dull round -hp of their semi -contemporary painters; the Ceylon Tea Bureau with a heavy- handed "boy wonder" aged 12; Air France with a hobo- artist who manages to con the more ignorant French officials in remote outposts (such as Sydney) into giv- ing him exhibitions; or our own Department of Ex- ternal Affairs misguidedly being good neighbors with some commercial illustra- tors from Viemam. And some of Clune's and David Jones' French and British pictures have been no more than expert little nothings, no more than furniture pictures, whose main purpose is to keep the art trade turning over. David Jones had a psychologically tense and llard to demon- strate how intimism can be sharp not soggy. But David Jones was stronger on sculpture and the decora- tive arts-Rodin bronzes. old Italian furniture, sculp- tures fri.m Thailand. Terracotta figures Newman's also had sculptures from Thailand, and from Tibet, though it ' was their ancient Mexican terracotta figures which werz tramendously import- ant Like the American paintings, a pioneering occasion, Australia's first extensive sight of a whole new world of art. Another folk art exhibit of Immense -harm was the Eskimo carving, circulated by the Canadian Govern- ment. Finally the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, provided the three most perfectly assembled exhibi- tions of the year: "Gothic .Art," "Oriental Rugs," and especially the "English Sil- ver" which included many world masterpieces. These three were models of what an exhibition should be: first comes de- light, but instruction Is also kept in mind, and anyone who wished could come sway from them with a full and well-bal- anced comprehension of the ubject. So the generous helping of overseas art, American and Asi 11 as well as the more usual warocean, old for once as welt as the endless new, made 1964 a vintage year, unlikely to be repeated for some time. Next week-The Year In Art (Australia).