Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAM ' Sydney, N.S.W. Z6 St? 166 wo art teachers Joy Ewart and Julian Ashton are two art teachers who ore commemorated with exhibitions this week. Or rather Joy Ewart's art is commemorated In a retrospective organ- Ised by The Workshop Arts Centre, the school which she founded at Willoughby shortly be- fore her death last year. It is not Julian Ashton's own art, but the Julian Ashton School and its famous pupils over 80 years, which are commemor- ated at the Dominion Gallery, Joy Ewart's 89 paint- ings and other works from 1938 to 1983 reveal a much more consider- able artist than one knew from the occasion- al drawings and litho- graphs exhibited in re- cant years, when most of her energy went into teaching. Was anyone In Syd- ney doing such good ex- pressionist painting as she, during the charm school's heyday? If they admired' the self control of Braque and Cezanne, she was in tune with Van Gogh. Her paint was stirred as thickly us the early, turbulent Arthur Boyd's; It was indulged for its own sake in a way the smoothies of the time never did, Her color was sharp, resonant, and emotional; not simply a structural aid or a dec- oration of the forms, like theirs. (Indeed the recent cleaning of many -oils shows her to. have been an exceptionally line colorist). There are less suc- cessful pictures 'of course. In some the paint is caked and over- worked; In some she draws conventionally but in over -heavy paint- ed outline. But when the brush swings off on its own, not so much to describe any object, but rather just for the sake of filling the picture with a rhythmic swing, she is most impressive. The all-over flarnipg and curling linearism In the "Gloxinia" or "Fun- gi" paintings, or the "Fever II" lithograph, is the essential Joy Ewart. Creative activity Her teaching was in- tended less to train professional artist s than to release cre- ative activity, especi- ally in young people. Thus, even if she had been teaching for more than her 10 years or so, there would probably never have bean any possibility of an exhibition like the Julian Ashton School's at the Do- minion. Julian Ashton came to Australia in 1878 aged 27 and died in 1942 aged 91. He there- fore was late Vic- torian and much more typical of his period in Australia than Joy Ewart was of hers. There are only five works by him in the exhibition, and one would have liked to see more. A small study of a child in bed, 1894, is tender es a Tom Rob- erts; a note of viii - "gorily comes into the late Victorian lady overdressed in "The Paris Costume," no doubt intentionally; but the 1912 girl In front of fruit blossom though presumably in- tended for lyricism, Is too good, too well- scrubbed, for anything but a soap advertise- ment. One can see that he could give an excellent training in techniques and methods; but it's hard to see that he would have inspired people towards art as a way of life. Perhaps his teaching staff was also influential; Syd- ney Long in the Ed- wardian years, then Mildred Lovett, then Henry Gibbons from the twenties to the present, and, notably, Passmore in the early 19505. Or perhaps the students inspired each other, as they can if a school is big, and at- tracts the best stu- dents. And it was con- sidered the leading school for a very long time. In the 1930a East Sydney Technical Col- lege still hadn't begun The week in art By Daniel Thomas to f iourkh Dal filo Rubbo's school was the chief alternative. It's time Ashton's numerous descendants produced a history of this very important school. Such a history, how- ever, should not, like this exhibition, gloss over the Sydney Long period, or the recent Passmore period when Olsen, Upv:and, Bill Rose and the like made the last brilliant gen- eration at the school. The exhibition is most- ly concerned with pup- ils of the 'twenties and 'thirties, and fascinat- ing it is to see student work by Dundas, Do - bell, Passmore, Bellette, Joshua Smith and Eric Wilson. Many of the canvasses are major efforts done for the Travelling Art Scholar- ship. Many of them re- flect the influence of Lambert. One vintage year was 1933. Arthur Freeman won the Scholarship, with a portrait of Pass - more; Passmore was second with a portrait What's o Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Australian, Oriental, European, and Aborig- inal art. Workshop Arts Centre, Willoughby: Joy Ewart Retnspec- tive, (Sunday 2 p.m. - 5.30 p.m., Weekdays 10 am, -3 p.m., 7 p.m. -9.30 pm.. Saturdays 9.30 a.m. -4.30 p.m.). Dominion: The Julian Ashton School 1805- 1965. Education Depart- ment: Royal A r t Society of N.S.W. An- nual Exhibition. Darlinghtirst: Mar- garet 011ey, paintings 'and drawings. Walters: Henry Bell, paintings and drawings. !lemon: Gordon Shep- herdson, paintings and drawings. Clun e: Philippine baroque, carved figures. Farmers: Antique chairs, 14th-20th cen- tury (closes Tuesday). David Jones: Furni- ture, glass. pottery, paintings. Studio 183: Walter. Williams, woodcuts. of Freeman; and Jean Bellette was third. All are very impressive academic pieces, but more interesting in ret- rospect is to see Pass - more already showing a little extra opulence of color and tenseness of composition, Bellette al- ready stolidly setting figures for Caravaggist light to flow over. Not a very systematic exhibition (the early Crowley is nothing to do with Ashton, but with Andre Lhoto, but nevertheless full of in- teresting footnotes to our local art history. BRISBANE ARTISTS Margaret 011ey (Dar - linghursti. Drawings of, Paddington terraces. Paintings of Queensland, flowers, fruit a n d. people. The people are. mostly rather ordinary. and perfunctory. The. still-lifes have much. more at work In them.. And the flowers are Ob-t viously loved, though. everything is heavier. than it used to be. 354 to 150 guineas. Henry Bell (Walters). Brisbane artist, first one-man show in Syd- ney. Two kinds of pic- ture. One rather form- less and squiggly, con- cerned with water or plants. The other. as If to compensate, is arbit- rarily geometrical, and much less personal. The smallest are the best. £18 to £200. Gordon Shephi. (Komon). Anon t bane artiste' he o. man show het hoc he's been 11 d Komon's School" mix es some time, in a slaughte , all the 20 ps ss ten drawings Ilk koo.:. the beasts. many e. are of seven ,i br:sds. blood - spattaY e. and, with melting ,ireare , eyes emerging f. am 'lc.; deep blue-green lc, The paint-hand lig Ls slithery, the c npos1-1 hen usually a down- ward, swoonlis. curve. If they were oil r more snontaneous, less, that is more cerned with the left -I. .1 areas, one Would ef ,av more these Images ,f descent Into unconsciousness and death. n in art Little Gallery: Beryl Foster. Gallery A: Water- colors and drawings by 25 artists. Crane, Wollongong: Brian Blundy, paint- ings. OPENING MONDAY: Hungry Horse: Erwin . Fabian, sculptures and . monotypes. OPENING WEDNES- ' DAY: Macquarie: Jeffrey' Smart, paintings. Stern: Gareth Jones - Roberts, paintings. OPENING THURSDAY: Commonwealth Sav- ings Bank, Martin Place: Blake Prize. Frames Jones Studio: Joan Martin, paint- ings. OPENING FRIDAY: Von Bertouch, New- castle: Guy Warren, oils and watercolors. THURSDAY LECTURE: Art Gallery Society 8.15 p.m.: "The Byzan- tine Aesthetic" by Sir Steven Runciman. - ... Aft ...