Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

They are all land- scape sculptures, ex- tremely romantic. Land- (scape might seem an unlikely subject for sculpture, but Henry Moore after all has made mountain ranges of his women, and worn - or natural rocks have provided much inspira- tion for 20th century artists. Landscape in fact hos always been a peculerly intense pre-occupation in Australian art and it's spillover into sculp- ture was scarcely to be avoided. Thus he ex- ploits pecularly Aus- tralian natural forms. For example torn tubu- lar ones tin the bronzes from wax) which might relate to the rolls of bark dropped by gum- trees; we recognise this easily, non -Australians never would. I have the advantage of recognising my native Tasmanian landscape In many other elements: delicate sub - alpine plants and grasses, windswept branches, smoothed rocks on stormy coasts - even those poignant friends from quiet childhood rookpools, the barnacle I and the sea anemone. But maybe it's not en- tirely a matter of Tas- manian nostalgia; it must also be a gener- ally Australian form - language he has evolved. For. It's daring child-. hood that an artist tor "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.V.' I j A new look at charity show i MORE than the usual number of worthwhile exhibitions, so first a mere recommendation, but a strong one, not to miss the charity exhibition at Latchfords, listed in the What's on column. Usually e x h ibitions anyone) constructs his trusts the deadness of a for charity do no service world, and Walker's dummy with its conven- to art whatsoever; some childhood was not spent lions' coloration of champagne and a few in Tasmania, but near pink -for -living -flesh. Or second - rate drawing- Colac In Western Vie- in an uncatalogued early room pictures are flung torts - in the Stony work two - tailors' together for one night. Rises to be precise-and dummys (grinning), line This is different. For I can't imagine a bet- up with an equally life - a whole week you can ter place for a land- less tailor (glum), while see an intelligent at- scape sculptor to be a mirror contains a tempt to focus on Aus- formed. There one man's silhouette, pars- tralta's extreme avant- finds fantastic volcanic (toxically much more garde tendencies. rivers of atone, sudden alive than the real Strange that nobody's petrified lurchings in tailor, or the solid dum- ever thought of at- the earth's surface. An nines. tempting this before in 1 Sydney. awareness of nature as Except for the few a sculptor, of geological A couple of artists movement and change, misguided attempts at ! flare, or at furriness, . have Assemblage, a would come easily there. these are surely his best couple have hard-edge, aintin p gs yet. But'd but the majority of the o I f 23 pictures divide be- BRACK far rather have no o tween Pop and Op. Be- John Drack (Gallery his drawings (76 sides those Sydney At, a Melbourne painter guineas) or one of the artists that the sharp- has not held a one-man arypoints that he ceased eyed will already know show in Sydney before, making years ago. Thepaintings are 100 to there is a first sight of .1000 guineas. two Adelaide Oysters, Udo Selbach and Sid- ney Ball,bourne Popsters, Gareth Michael week in MICHAEL SHAW ; and two Mel- Shaw (Do- Sandom and Rosemary minion) is a young WALKER S t e p h e n Walker Ryan. The charity is ,..,'. ' t English artist who reassuringly displays, an excellent academic drawing skill, - trained pop cancer research. as well as inventive de tClune) offers a one- sign, sonorous color, man show of sculpture; though, unfortunately, Sydney, if it's lucky. Dy scruffy handling. I have sees one a year amongst previously said he's the hundreds of paint- probably the best of the i Mg shows, so don't miss this either. Daniei Thomas _ew pop artists in Aus- , or outdoor pieces from though we've seen red and mad, upholds There are 10 domestic trails, and the splendid I "Lawrence Diptych," one foot to nearly six, occasional pictures over the claim. either in bronze (made the last ten years. He's I in Italy in unique casts a clever painter, clever from wax) or copper to the point of teasing, (welded in Australia; Subsidiary motifs might some since he moved be painted invisibly from Hobart to Sydney). black on black, and There are six little when at last seen they "Botanical Studies" in will shift :he observer's silver. Prices 00 to 750. whole mental focus. It guineas, which is very might be the painter's reasonable, face reflected, plump and natural and nice, In a mirror behind shelves of surgical in- struments, sharp, un- natural and nasty. The whole exhibition, In fact, is about the sur- gical shop windows, which I'm told he passes daily, at the top of Swanston Street. He rhymes a row of opened Scissors with the lees of a row of marching commuters; a reflected lady's spectacles with some obscure looped implement. He Con - His subject-matter de- I serves a note, for it's ! sometimes relevant to ; the pictorial success. His pictures are about dis- I placement from a natural environment. ' and the consequent creative possibilities; as when a piece of grit placed in an oyster be- comes a pearl. Thus T. E. Lawrence goes into the Arabian desert and produces "Seven Pillars of Wisdom." Or Michael Shaw himself goes to the Nullabor to work on the railways and per- haps produces some good pastels, but more important observes, for example, how very alien brightly colored packag- ing can be in that drab monochrome, and how the alien objects pro- duce a real -life surreal- ism. What's on in art Art Gallery of N.S.1V.: Special exhibitions - Recent Australian Sculpture (last day); Japanese woodcuts. Newcastle City Art Gallery: Special exhibi- tion-The Art of Draw- ing. Latchfords, 87 - 80 Foveaux St., Surry Hills: Pop, Op, Hard- edge and Assemblage 12-t) today until next Sunday). Clune: Stephen Walker, sculpture. Gallery A: John Brack, paintings and drawings. Dominion: Michael Shaw, paintings. Waiters: Maximilian Feuerring, paintings. Hungry Horse: Karin Schepers, Franz Kemp(, Adelaide painters and printmakers. Litt e Gallery: Dzems Krivs. The Stables, Parra- matte: George Finey, paintings eaodsbu, New- castle:castle: Desmond Dlgby paintings. Crana. Wollongong: Robert Curtis, paint- ings. OPENING TUESDAY Dar:Inghurst: Elisa- beth Cummings, paint- ings. OPENING WEDNESDAY Macquarie: Edwzg Hall. paintings drawings. Farmers: Owen Shaw, paintings. Stern: Ben Kyprida- Kis, pottery; mixed paintings. MONDAY ART FILM Union Theatres "Le Mystere Plcasso".Book- i711:4, David Jones.