Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 78 kr,Y 0b SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, APRIL 18, 1965 45 SHOW CONTEST WORTH SEEING Try to sustain interest beyond the marvellous folk- lorish crafts in the Showground Arts and Crafts Pavilion. Pictorial needlework, goblin pottery, and best of all the sugar cakes in the form of full -sailed galleons, or of boots, or round-bellied brides veiled in sweetness. For beyond is the most remarkable of all Austra- lian efforts at art patron- age by competition - as many as seven competi- tions are held simultane- ously, with Australia's highest total prizemoney 82100. However much one dis- approves of set subjects "rural," "industrial," "human image" Or set styles ("traditional" or "modern"), by the time the prizes become so num- erous we begin to get the same wide range that an entirely open competition would produce. When more competition! are becoming invitational in the interests of a high quality exhibition - the W. D. ant H. 0. Wills for 1985 will be by invitation only - the competitions open to all must also be kept alive. For only in them does the new talent emerge, later to supply material for the invite- tionals. And among the big open competitions these Easter Show annuals point the way for the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman to es- cape from their strait- jacket of endowments in perpetuity - just most ad more prires. After American museum annu- als have between one and two dozen prizes. Here at the Show, ex- cept that some of the trad sections, end the sculp- ture section, were ton kindly chosen, leaving in too much that is amateur- ish, is as good an annual round-up as Sydney will see this year. In mixed shows one cannot analyse the nature of an artiste contribution. Instead we look for new /..0%Wi1/4.01.1....""i"oisseViii.../VS.Wei". What's on in Art Sheaground, Arta & Crafts Pavilion: Seven annual art competitions tclosing Tuesday).. Gallery A: Col in La nceley assemblages, lit hographs. Darlinghurst, Sall Herman, New Guinea paintings. Stern: G. Sanguinet- II, sculpture; mixed paintings. David Jones: Fine do Decorative art. Macquarie: 40th an- niversary. mixed show, Australian paintings. Ratters: Wi 11 1 a m Mercer, wooden bowls. Royal Art Society. Nth. Sydney: Autumn exhibition. Fournient, Nth. Syd- ney: Mixed exhibition. Quixote, Avalon: Drawings & Prints. Lure. Von Bertouch, New- THURS. LECTURE castle: Max Feurring, Art Gallery Society: paintings. 8 p.m. R. Haughton OPENING TUESDAY James on the "Recent Dominion: Michael Australian Sculpture Emit, paintings. exhibition." Little Gallery: Eliza- beth Durack, Crane, Wollongong: Robert Grieve, paint- ings. OPENING WED. Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Recent Austra- lian Sculpture. Official openingn r, 5 3oof . p.m. 13e n I s Hungry Horse: Primi- tive Pacific Art. OPENING THURSDAY Clune: John Olsen. paintings & tapestry. OPENING FRIDAY Von Bertouch, New- castle: Mary Beeston, paintings. TUESDAY LECTURE Contemporary A r t Society: Adyar Hall, Bligh St., 8 p.m. Ste- dhen Walker on Sculp- rad industrial (donor, soft pNlged cu David Jones), always a weak section, was helped by pruning to eight entries. Winner, Edward Hall who has decongested his sur- faces and gain luminosity. and has also set strong linear rhythms flowing through, Vastly improved. Note also the mountain orrtre igaTeHeugearn.port !on Modern induct r lal (donor. Dank of N.S.W.) went to nn gay Louis James, delightful but, neither so industrial nor so memor- I nooses, improvers, and' ork. steely - blue confrontations. zontal girder w and pu le, titt. Roger to see, or to iden try, as Icenza t ' rt. Note( arranged four deep reced- nu `mine' mage ing behind a rail as if at Escape from the net For example in the trad rural (Donor, Rural Bank) we find Clifton Pugh, who counted as modern not so long ago, consorting with a gentle impressionist like Lance Solomon, and com- ing second to him. His poorly structured composi- tion compares 111 with Solomon's solution for the 'delicate featurelessnesa of much Australian land- scape. Third place was Paul Jones', escaping from the net of his flower - painter's reputation, wills stuffed birds in a Nolan - scraped landscape. Jones' flowers were always alive. Also to notice, Frederic Bates, as usual an illus- trator. though an exceed- ingly good one, and in this sensitive dessert-landscape almost without the taint. Landscape watercolor (a new section, donor CBC Bank) went to Beryl Mal- linson first, Uldis Abolins second, and Brian Str tton third. Not very interesting, though a Lance Soloinon watercolor was a pleasant and unfamiliar sigh: Ing Jacques Villon terri- tory. New name to note: Margaret Woodward. The Human Image (donor Warwick Fairfax) went to Dickerson, regain- ing some of his old form. Also a good tropical nude by Margaret alley, a. typical philosophical MU - gate, and a new Judy Clo- w*, doing dark monu- mental torsos like worn rocks. _ T Is e sculpture Mize (donor. Farmer & Co.) seemed correctly given to Bob Parr, but otherwise the exhibits were impossible a coconut shy. Probably ar- _ r for Pop, and Vance Liibus for improve- ment. The modern outdoor subject (donor R. F. Swan) was Elwyn Lynn's for a, bit of still, frosty earth, good but not so good as his beat Rubinstein's last year. Also note the rect- angular clash of Gilliland's "Change of Season" the hat layers of an excellent Guy Grey-SI-nit' desert in W.A., the beautiful cool airlines of a Dick Watkins, a forest by Fred Williams, a violent landscape by Eric Smith. Better than usual: Margo Lewers and Stan de Tellico, the latter his best ever In "Late Hot Afternoon," a lovely bit of warmed up, ranged thus deliberat y, as the level seemed very low. Yet this is the only serious sculpture annual In Aus- tralia and deserves better entries and better treat- ment. STERN At Earry Stern the mix- ture of paintings is worth seeing for a 1959 John Brack, 7'he Shelter Shed, infested with hectic pink schoolboys in a chocolate brown gloom. And a new bit of painterly pop, a fair- ground scene by Ben Hall, recently back from Eng- land, where Michael An- drews must have interested him. Stern's main show is sculpture by Gino Bangui- netti, 16 pieces, modestly priced at 20 to 50 gns. He can't have been working long, for although he's still not marvellous, only begin- ners improve so much from his very bad old days. Most are green, in patio- ated copper rods and wires as openwork constructions, either standing or for the wall. Sheltered Light, with cogs is one of the best. WELCH Robin Welch (Hungry Horse), a young English potter now working in Mel- bourne, makes matt glazed stoneware that really looks like stone - Travertine marble to be precise. Very precisionist, with flanged or squared machinery-like forms, he is a most valu- able addition to Australian pottery. The crocks and the ashtrays are particu- larly successful; the large sculptural garden orna- ments are not (all potters seem to beat their heads at this wall: Englund, Levy, Sahm) despite the lovely glazes. MARLER William Marler (Wai- ters) is an old man from the South Coast, who was encouraged by the sculp- tor Gerald Lewers to carve Australian native woods into bowls and platters. Some of them have a shade too much sculpture about them-curled-over lips and rims --but the plain ones are sensitive tributes to beautiful materials. 51 bowls, 3 to 45 guineas. SCHLUNKE David Sehlunke recently at Barry Stern has already won competitions, but this is his first exhibition. Aged 22, he is a protege of Ar- thur Morris, paints tangled bush, preferably grey, and adds a few rocks, blossoms, and especially birds-Le., he usually adds too many different things. At times the landscape slightly re- sembles G. W. Lambert, Pugh, or Ray Crooke. Quite a few do not succeed-the flights of cockatoos are buried in holes, not float- ing free-but those few that do have solved rather difficult, if old-fashioned, problems.