Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. THE Contemporary Art Society is really very remarkable in staying olive, and kicking, over so many years. Most exhibiting societies fossilise; others, more decently, die. It can't just be an open- minded commitment to the new that keeps it alive, for Contemporary Arts Socie- ties in Melbourne and elsewhere have crept in and out of the grave. It must be partly good man- agement, a n d Sydney should be reminded how lucky It is to have this art society. The current exhibition at the Dominion makes me think we have too many one-man shows. It is no problem these days for any artist to find a gallery to himself; the mixed exhibition in town scarcely exists any more. Yet the one-man show too frequently turns an artist into a mere manu- facturer - of a roonifull of brand -imaged goods. While here, in this mixed show, we suddenly find pictures that look as if they've been thoughtfully brooded over, painted for their own and their artist's sake, not for how they'll contribute to a tasty room - full. Perhaps some people only have one or two good pictures in them per year; they particularly need the mixed shows. Nancy Borlase for ex- ample has just about the most satisfying picture in the exhibition. A. sense of scale, of sober monumen- tality, has always been a great strength: now it Is wedded to a controlled interwoven swing of com- plex movements. Quietly confident in its unasser- tive, close range of dull wine reds it hes the com- fortable grandeur of baroque architecture. There aren't many who mature with the years like this; it's more common to go sour. If Nancy Borlase stands best for the satisfactions of maturity (there are others who are getting along nicely: Guy Warren. de Teilga, Casaab, Sheila. Mc- Donald, Tom GreeL, Viola G Bromley, Guy r e y - Smith. Elwyn Lynn), then Col Jordan stands best for the excitement of youth which the CAS is specially expected to offer. Cool With Variations la only the third picture we've seen from him and it's pretty good. A sort of electronic 0.p, It has two red slotted bands Jerking upwards above a sideways travelling row of quivering blue and green electro- gandlograph-type shock waves. Another gratifyingly good beginner is Colin Still, reappearing like Jor- dan from the "Young Contemporaries". There he had the Opera House as breasts, now he has an- other piece of pop, called Marksman, rather vis- ceral and wavy, centred upon it man's red tongue, while a rid ecstatically brandishes a rifle in one corner. Harm . . . hmm. Apart from these ab- solute beginners the pop- ish avant-garde has Rein- hard's best yet, a perfect- ed statement of his large nudes drawn on white, ac- companied by red painted diagrams, solid boxes, and ex collage mousetrap; Wat- kins, endlessly inventive, clashing fuzzy with hard- edge, airy space with fiat diagram, etc.. etc.: Michael Shaw. sharply, observant; and Richard Zarter slyly concealing much academic figure -drawing skill be- neath a few rows of large tiddlywinks each decorat- ed with unlikely portions of a nasty old man'n face. Also to enjoy - a very sweet naivete from Mrs. Hessing; and a symmetri- cal bug-eyed scrawl by Oleghom, slightly Un- nerving, like Sawa. There la one sculpture no prints (unless Rates' is a print), a few water - What's o Art Gallery of N.S.W. Special exhibitions: The Art of Drawing (LAST WEEK), Le Gay Brere- ton Scholarship (LAST DAY). Darlingburst: Massimo ()ample!, loan exhibi- tion (LAST DAY). Clune: Louis James, paintings. Gallery A: Leonard Hessing, paintings. Dominion: Contem- annuporar al y e xhib Art ition.Society, Komon: Clifton Pugh, paintings. Macquarie: Leonas Urbonas, paintings, Stern: Maurice Cant - Ion, drawings and paint- ings. esneuanvoggitosrseaUaan- etch ings: Jutta Feddersen, weaving. Underwood: Derrick Andree, paintings. n in art BOAC House, Castle- reagh Street: Israeli graphic art. Von Bertouch, New- castle: Coolly watercolors, native flora. Macquarie Canberra: Kevin Connor, OPENING MONDAY Farmers: K iyoshi Saito, Japanese woodcut artist, 1.15 p.m. (ONE WEEK ONLY). OPENING TUESDAY Darlinghurst: Lance Solomon, paintings Little Gallery: Nicho- las Heiderich. OPENING WEDNESDAY Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, Photographic exhibit from United States Information Ser- vice. Walters: Wendy Para- mor, paintings. The week in art By Daniel Thomas colors (Salkauskas, Kub- boa. Margaret Woodward), and a spirited little ink drawing by Patrick Boileau. HESS1NG Leonard Messing (Gallery A) is elegantly erotic, Just the same as what his last exhibition was all about. Mouths. noses and all sorts of erogenous zones, tufts and crevices are put to- gether into a mostly - hand - painted collage, thOugh a bit of real col- lage occurs. Sometimes there are wings which must belong to the eagle, Freud found in Leonardo, What's new is not the con- tent. but the look of some pictures. Light tonality instead of dark, a couple of large forms instead of the usual attractive bad- ness, color instead of tinted grey monochromes. I may be slow on the uptake but I don't think any of the new approaches are as happy as the old- style "Birth of the Pad- dington Venus." If "Spots on the Rainbow" Is friendly -satirical about his mate Janet Dawson's splendid color In her re- cent "Rainbow" painting, then satire is confirmed again as a poor starting point for art. Of course he's one of our really first-rate artists. And his drawings (No. 4) and collage studies ("Mack the Knife," and the uncata- logued "Indifferent Mech- SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, JUNE 27, 1965 49 The need for mixed shows anisin") are the best of their kind in Australia. PUGH Clifton Pugh (Kona)) has an Aboriginal aeries of paintings, a St. Francis, dressed In sacking collage with the Australian birds in a series of 10; and some gouaches. His work is generally whiter and brighter, sometimes kicked at by vivid out -of -tone outback orange cliffs., As I've often said, he paints very nicely, with a gentle touch, he sees accurately his bits of grassy back- ground (or a portrait face though there are none here). But lie still cannot organise, i.e. relate solids to each other coherently in space, or make pleasing shapes. Thus in order to avoid the even uniformity which suits him, he invents unbelievably banal decora- tive patterns, like the Abo- rigine dancers' knees and legs happening into a spoked wheeL He should distrust his invention and his imagination, and keep very close to nature. r.':