Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. Chinese ceramics la 4000 -year debt TO speak of Chinese ceramics is not a way of avoiding the phrase Chinese china, Ceramics include earth- enware as well as stone- ware and porcelain, and it's only porcelain that is meant by china. And of course, It's called china because it first came from China, where it had been made for many cen- turies before Europe began to make it only 200 years ago. It was during the Ming dynasty (14th, 15th, and 16th centuries) that the classical blue and white porcelains were perfected. But when the rather in- ferior waxes which were made for export reached Europe they often were mounted in precious silver or gold, and imitated in heavy earthenwares like delft. The exhibition of 4000 years of Chinese ceramics now at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. reminds us of our debt to China, the country where ceramics reached their highest development, and where this craft has become an art. The first room you enter is devoted to the Ming dynasty. Besides the blue and white, there are a few green and yellow waxes, including a !tumble tile, and a group of heavier green glaze ware called celadon, which is inter- mediate between stoneware and porcelain, and which also is found in the earlier Sung dynasty, Present-day taste often prefers the plainer Sung dynasty stoneware% whose appeal is wholly in the simple form and the rich glaze itself-like the green celadons. the lavender Chun ware, or the rich brown-black Chien ware which the Japanese call temmoku. Or the appeal is in a minimum of brush decora- tion or carving as in the Tzu Chou wares. The Sung dynasty section also has early porcelains-the grey Ting ware or the pale blue "chine -pal." Less pure and contem- plative are the extrovert earthenwares of the earlier dynasties, the Tang, or the Han, which take us back more then 2000 years. The forms are bolder, they have more bounce; the glazes are vigorously painted and splashed. And these early dynes ties have ceramic sculp- tures as well as pots. The little figures of horses, dancers. actresses, govern- ment officials, musicians, servants, were made for the tomb, They were buried with the dead man so he would be equipped with all he needed in after -life. Such burial practices are found in other parts of the world as well, but in China they reveal, exceptionally vividly, an animated and open people for whom one feels a living sympathy. Earlier than any dynasty are a couple of late stone - age pots, about 9000 B.C., immensely handsome, though not unlike pots made by other peoples at a similar primitive stage of development. The third room contains porcelain of the Ch'ing dynasty (which followed the Ming), plus one or two 20th century Chinese Re- publican pieces. This period which used to be very popular with collectors 50 to 60 years ago, has a great deal of pictorial and symbolic enamelled decoration - that is, painted over the glaze, unlike the under - glaze blue. It is very pretty; a lot of color begins to be used, the "familia verte", "fam- ine noire", "famine rose" The week in art By Daniel Thomas de-boeuf" glazes. A lot of imitation of early ceramics takes place, Ming blue and whites, or celadons; and bronze or wooden vessels are imitated too. But the skill is fantas- tically 'nigh, and in this exhibition the pieces from the Yung Cheng reign Il- lustrate this late period at Its best. It is interesting too to see the less admired 19th -century porcela i n a and to find that they are curiously parallel with our own 19th -century develop- ment. Tne exhibition is drawn from museums and private collections in Australia and England, including some loans from the Victoria and Albert Museum, Lon- don, It offers the chance of a lifetime to come to grips with the subject. There are exhibits of marks, and of other study pieces such as broken shards and glaze specimens. The catalogue is 10/-, but 'nas many il- lustrations and is in fact an excellent little textbook. Farmer's survey Farmer's fifth annual survey of Sydney painting is very interesting. Eleven artists have three or four pictures each. Apart from Peascod and Warren they are either young or relatively un- familiar. Milgate's fine "Experi- ment in Depth" begins to look dashing after his svelte rubbings and stain- ings. Bitching has a shiny aluminium -clad wall con- struction that looks maybe too close to a btt of machinery. It's about electricity crossing gaps if I remem- ber my science classes rightly, and if it concen- trated even more on this cruciform gap it might find irrlevances to elimi- nate elsewhere wit h doubled effect. Perth -Smith, seen 'in quantity for tht (remark- in two years, a ably improven, these are rich, but unified puddings of wanton trees and women and hills. abstract - expressionist but less Alan Davie than previously. Michael Shaw is the only one to produce very com- plex images with very simple forms; as clear as a poster, and thus pop art in style, but it's about more than just the vigor of the mass media. He seems to be saying something about the rela- tion between people and their clothes, and which of them is more real. A nude reclines more as a discarded heap than a living figure; a half-length is unpeeling multiple lay- ers as if she were an arti- choke in fruitless search of Its centre, when the peeled off layers are what mat- ter. The other exhibitors are Wendy Paramor, Ron Lambert, Stephen Earle, Ray Coles and. Ken Rein- hard. One-man shows Sheila McDonald (Wat- ters Gallery) is using col- lage much more than pre- viously and it suits her very well. There have been teased bits of sacking to imitate paint splashes be- fore; now there are also small squares of paper or fabric dancing around the picture. The effect is deli- cate and Japanese. The postcard -sized paintings are sometimes trivial, the larger ones mostly rather good. Thirty-four works, 18 to 125 [mimes. Robert Owen (Stern) is a young Sydney painter born 1937, now in Greece, whence he sends two kinds of pictures for a first one- man snow. Coffee - brown nudes sketched in broad callig- raphy on white; and hes- I sian collages, either land- scapes where a bit of rough darning across a hole ra- ther charmingly stands for the setting sun; or nudes, mostly fragmentary with a preference for the but- tocks. These safe nate monochromes achieve' so. certain decorative useful- ness, and they are sure of themselves. Thirty-four pictures 18 to 85 guis. Barry Stern's preybus mixed show featured 4411 - other new artist, P e e Crest, English, born 7, trained in Rome, five ish abstracts of warm lls with nicely torn post9d. Teens The Boys of Gr Ile High School (Cinne) re 14 to 16, an age en child art has lost all he magic t had at .I nd when only a few fu re professionals are still at R. 'Yet here is this un- expected age group ill having a ball at their t. Their teacher isn't n d, but it's obviously en Reinhard and he is obviously a marvel us teacher. What is mor , in tune with the mid- ns than pop art iconogra y? And to get down to a it of carpentry and mud - Ina in what is still ; he art class is a very curia ng move. So the "Glass Wheel" flashes lights at you,1 an assemblage of beer cans rotates with dignity; neat- ly stacked rows of cigarette packs in a frame makes op. The rebels amongst all this cleanli- ness are Jeff Hilton and Darrell Smart who make a dirty sculpture of a draped chair housing a still life of drunken, floppy bottles. , INPOON.prank, What's on in art All Gallery N.S.W.r Sc.- OM exhibition. - Ion Fa, weather (ley weak); Chinos* Ceramics. Farmer's.-.Survey 5; Elmo Sydney painter, Hungry H.,'.,.-Eight Paint - ors. DernInloni-Mixed Show. DarlIngliumli-Georga Law- rence, paintings. Gallery A.-Chen. RddIng. ION W Faiting.. afters. Sheila McDonald. sainting.. LIMN GalNry.-Edith PAintIng, Komon.-Yugoslar PrinN. Commonwealth Savings Ranh. martin Pim. -Mouth and Foot Artlits Noumi-Qantrie photo- Npahrrs. - Worlohut Art. C "7 VI :41.1;rtad.,'"Ilgristle. - Michael hitching. Contr.-1a MONO A. - Sento Taft's Oceanic Sculpture. OPENING MONDAY Gram. Eras.. Chattwood. - Gram. Art Prue TUESDAY LECTURE. Canto An Satiety ''Atr asa"r 51 Sat, m by Gorl snd Daaht OPINING WEDNESDAY Aladdln..-Nmen Mason, New Zealand pone,. I. .-Roy Flub., paint, "'tune. - International litho. graph.. Stern,-11.1en Dunlop, Impel Anton,