Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, AUGUST 12, 7962 67 The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas THE exhibition of entries for the Helena Rubin- stein Travelling Art Scholarship, now at the A r t Gallery of New South Wales, again demonstrates that this is easily the most important art award in Australia. Not only is it t h e wealthiest (£1000 plus f300 travelling ex- penses), but also it is the best conceived and it does most for Aus- tralian art. The competition is by Invitation only, and the artists are chosen not from students, who often lade away, but from those in early maturity, usually In their thirties. E.sch year about 10 artists accept the Invita- tion (Molvig and Olsen were the only non-starters this time). Since each is allowed five paintings, their artistic intentions can be comprehended more fully. The result is an ex- hibition comparable with the periodic "12 Ameri- cans' or 15 Americans" held at the Whitney or the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Very even group Brie Smith's win need not indicate that the Milts etiought his paint- utrful as they are -absolutely the best. In I very even group of en- tries, the fact that he was lather older (48) than most, and had never been abroad, could have been taken into account; such personal considerations are another good feature of the award. Not surprisingly since he bee won the Blake Prize four times, moat of Smith's abstract paintings are of religious subjects, cruci- axiom'. Golgotha, a Pieta. If his content is much as usual, the appear- ance of the pictures makes a return to his saturated colourism of some years ago His Olsen -like phase is over, nor are these new pictures over -conscious of We requirements (or taste) of architects, nor, like other recent work, do they suffer from the needs of a naturalistic light -sym- bolism which filled his re- ligious pictures with white. Evanescence has been re- placed by weight. and now that the white is gone, his seemingly inborn gift for color is reasserted. pure Intense reds. greens, and violets glow with a far more moving and inward light. Slightly disturbing The Pieta, though possibly the most beauti- ful In color, is the only one to preserve a slightly dis- turbing measure of naturalism In its figurative elements. A diagonal-view prototgrro; the figures has been sbosen, where a more rigidlyfrontal one like the eructflxlons would have better suited the demands of his stylisation. Hessing's work, not much seen between Rubinsteins, has developed more stead- ily than Smith's. His art Is very sophisticated, bor- dering on chic, but too deeply ameerned with the mysterious process of evolving and elaborating Its own internal forma to cross this border. Like the best rococo art It has strange elegant spiritual- ity. Ross Morrow, at 30 the Youngest exhibitor, has made the biggest advance on work previously seen. With Rapotee, he is the most painterly of all, in the sense that the very brush stroke becomes a long joyous swoop. Occasional flourish There Is an occasional flourish too many, the color is occasionally suspiciously charming (doing nothing structurally or symbolically, just looking lovely) but on the whole his forms are more strongly organised than ever before. Though abstract, these are a new kind of Austra- lian landscape with a bright clear light pervad- ing them. The mystifyintt titles - "Spud Cock,' "Hump the Drum"-sound as if they might be found in a dictionary of Austra- lian slang, and are pre- sumably a reminder of nationality. Or do they re- fer to oil wells? Rapotec's more decisive pictures explore the same world of experience, and are more tonal, and have something of the air of oil - painted watercolors, delicate forms hovering in dusky spaces.' Rose and Coburn are two artists who. In recent years, have apparently had guilty feelings about their rela- tively stationary styles, and who have set to and struggled to change. I for one was perfectly happy with the old styles, grow- ing as they were in pain- terliness and in calm con- viction. However, they have both now achieved greater free- dom of handling, greater spatial complexity, a change in color, and a de- gree of wildness to replace the calm. Coburn's pro- gress is considerable. and both are showing excellent paintings, but they more than anybody are In a transitional phase, and would benefit from a scholarship. The three remaining artists are figural I v e. Dickerson sends some landscapes from Cairns, a new environment which, in the better examples, has taken the sting from this urban commentator, and attached him to the Palm School. Clifton Pugh's eompe- --What's on TODAY AND NEXT WEEK Art Gallery of N.S.W.-Special Exhibitions-Mod- ern Japanese Prints (FINAL DAY): Helena Rubin- stein Travelling Art Scholarship (both 2 p.m.-4.30 pm). ALL NEXT WEEK Sydney University Gallery.-Dr. J. W. Power, paintings. harry Stern.-Ken Moore. Itomoo.-Jon Molvig. Hordern Bros.-Housewives' art competition. OPENING WEDNESDAY Macquarie.-lan Fairweather. Terry Ciene.-Fifth anniversary show. Education Department Gallery..-Society of Artists' spring exhibition, David Jones.-Watercolor Institute. St. Ives Community Centre.-Paintings by leading artists, 8 p.m. Open to public Thursday -Saturday. 9 am. -9 p.m. THURSDAY LECTURE 'Avant-garde painting in Europe and America,' by Elwyn Lynn, Art Gallery of N.S.W., 8.15 p.m. FRIDAY ART FIUMS "William Dobell," "Russell Drysdale," Qantas House Theatrette, hourly, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. with rather more economy of means. "Experience in the Far West" is one of his finest paintings, generous and large in feeling as well as size. Daryl Hill's increasingly romantic abstraction ap- pear- quite gentle by com- parison with these. They sltions of himself and his wife as Orpheus and Eury- dice record (so the Mel- bourne newspapers told usl a personal torment which is now happily resolved. His painting suffered at the expense of his emo- tions, and one hopes his tender vein, usually better CRUCIFIXION, by Eric Smith. than his rather forced horrors, will be reassert- ed. Donald Laycock's lift. - high heads of ancient Egyptian a n d Assyrian statues crumbling in an orange light are the big popular success of the ex- hibition. Their impact is tremendous, seen through a great arch, off the main roomful of abstracts. They evoke ideas of timeless, In- destructible forces, they question our purposes and our existence. Within a short time they might cease to say any- thing, for painting seldom carries such abstract ideas easily. Anzac House ART patronage from commerce is becom- ing quite usual; from the great institutions it has been less frequent. It is particularly exciting then to see what Anzac House unveiled on Friday in its Hall of Remembrance. The entire end wall, perhaps l4ft, x 24ft., is filled with a specially com- missioned tapestry, woven last year to a design by Jean Lurcat at the Aubus- son works In France. He is the world's greatest liv- ing tapestry designer. The tapestry symbol- ises the Army, Navy and Air Force, in an innocent medieval way, by animals and flowers. fish and birds -all Australian. The kan- garoo, platypus. waratah and banksia are all there, looking a bit French, but quite at home In their red, blue and green on a black starry flrman,ent. At the centre the min Is a blazing yellow contain- ing wattle blossom, and the Southern Cross. It is an object of incred- ible luxury and splendor which lifts the spirits, but LURCAT'S tapestry at Amor House. which also, in the profound simplicity of its symbol- ism, is a perfect memorial to the Australian dead. It will be cherished for centuries. Nolan rHE Rubinstein Scholar- ship.' brings the Aus- tralian art world to Syd- ney each year In the same way that the Society of Artists (opening next week) used to. Amongst the visitors was Mrs. Skinner, of the Skinner Galleries In Perth, whose large show Of new paintings by Sid- ney Nolan during the Commonwealth Games in November will certainly make Sydney people repay this week's visit. Ken Moore AT the Barry Stern Gallery la an exhi- bition of paintings sent out from London by Kenneth Moore, an expatriate Aus- tralian. These may or may not be similar to the "orgas- mic paintings" which were apparently a gimmick of his. They are mostly vert- ical swathes, not dynamic and fluid, but carefully outlined, and petrified as coral. Specimen titles "Scarlet Joy," "Happy Pink," "Cath- arsis." Colors: smart pinks and oranges. Best paint and canvas; good gold frames from London. T APOLOGISE for a slip of the pen last week which made Douglas Dundee a member of the Commonwealth Art Ad- visory Board. This should, of course, have been Douglas Pratt.