Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

fro HTELEG PH" Sydney, N.S.W. r - - WNW TELIGIANI, BECOMES 12, 1%5 95 Martin Sharp AVANT-GARDE ort is always a higher form of journalism. It reveals and defines the moral ands social issues of our time in a way that ordinary journalisml never can. An angry play like Look Back in Anger, a beat novel like Along the Road, an abstract expressionist painting by Pollock or De Hoorn - big, all helped focus on important areas of life ten years ago or more. Occasionally, like the paintings mentioned, they will survive the years as works of art; but if Look Back in Anger and Along the Road today are as dead as mutton they really were important yester- day. Most avant-garde art has a built -In obsoles- cence. Its pleasures are extreme when it's new, but five years later will often be too late. Sur- vival as a work of art is guaranteed not by in- telligence and percep- tion, but by something mysterious called beauty, which la more a matter of form than content. It will be interesting to see whether Martin Sharp, now exhibiting at the Clune Gallery, will keep moving into new avant-garde nos- / turea as the years go I by, or whether the same sort or picture we see nowcee will develop and Iris workis very close to journalism indeed. There are the original satirical drawings for his OZ cartoons and for television graphics. Hie style sources are obvi- ously the old Australian black and white artiste like Livingston Hopkins and Victorian illustra- tion in general; Cotes Funny Picture Book Is never far from sight. He uses cut-outs from the more rampantly %litt In-up advertisements spreadsan for -til collages colorm on silver sheets of tinsel paper. He is very knowledge- able indeed about the communications indus- try (of which he him- self is at, exotic appen- dage). He is appalled by It, but fascinated too. To say intelligent things about this moat powerful and dangerous , of industries la an Ian- :portant function of ; avant-garde art today. , However, art. which lasts is less often a mat- ter of comment on the outside world than a projection of the artist's Miler world. I think Sharp does reveal per- sonal form -language in those paintings and col- lages of puffy, bulbous flesh growths which balloon and branch with an occasional syringe or screw to pierce them. And this form -language expresso a fascinated horror for the flesh not surprising in so cleanly a Boy Scout type as the crusader against evil he becomes in his straight- forward cartoons. II stress the clean and decent quality of Sharp, 29, and his young friends because in dis- tant parts. like Mel- bourne, readers of OZ are convinced they're expert in the nameless vices.) His pictures are very elever, very funny, very cheap (10 to 70 guineas). They Pre already re- quirknbly personal. But he does not yet handle saint ar well as rolls/re (brilliant things here with lies and eeetO. though there are some otteresting art nouveau "utilities abruit the de- .ien and color of the nichard Neville portrait, MEDIEVAL PO'n. Medieval English pot- tery., a ,BrItishs Ctrucil, exhibition from the Museum, London, la at the Art Gallery of N.S.W., and a easily the most beau- tiful exhibition of cer- amics for a long time. They came to light dur- ing German bombing and are mostly repaired. They are mostly Jugs of peasant manufac- ture, mostly 13th cen- tury, in a lightweight earthenware used for equally light and grace- ful forms, slender and subtle, 'They speak of Merrie England, MIXED SHOWS Six mixed shows this week. At David Jones'. quite a few Christian fig- ures in carved wood, mercifully without their polychrome, mostly provincial baroque from Spain or the Philip- pines. One alabaster Madonna and Child, Italian, One small ivory Nativity, Spanish of some quality. Three or four Greek ikons. The week in : By Daniel Thomas All displayed beautfully with furniture and pot- tery. The Hungry Home show is a farewell from Hiss Betty O'Neill, who has sold her gallery to Mr. Kym Bonython, of Adelaide. She was, It seems, operating phil- anthropically rather than commercially. 'the best abstract paintings available were the only kind that interested her; their presentation (unusual in Sydney) was always immaculate. She also exhibited crafts. I can't think of a single bad exhibition ever held there. Currently showing are her regular painters Plate, Rapotec, Coburn, Raft, Grieve, Stock- dale, Salkauskaa and Gleghorn. Downstairs precise, Indeed mech- anical. pots by Robin Welch. The Macquarie ranges very urbanely from What's o Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Special exhibitions - Medieval English pot- tery; Kenneth Arita - Are, sculpture; N.B.W. Architecture Awards, Newcastle City Art Gallery: Abstract water- colors by 14 Americans, Caine: Martin Sharp. Gallery A: Robert Kltppel, Hungry ROM: GIOUp show; Robin Welch, pottery. Walters: Group show. Stern: Mixed show; and Write Just. Jewel- kt dominion: Mixed Wolf. Darla Jones': Chris- tian baroque carvings. Macquarie: Mixed show and "physiou- then " Elierado, 373 Pitt St. (new gallery}: Milted Roland W kelln, through Loudon Saint hill la 1943 theatre cos- tume) and Sidney Nolan (two small drawings on glass 1910 and a large grey -green Queensland swamp 1947, so real you can almost sense t h e damp) to Justin CYBritr. and Margaret 011ey (a splendid flowerpiece and with Kevin Connor for expressionism, Rod- ney 1111gate and Ruler Backen for elegant( abstraction. Also exlsi bited are sPhysiolithen's by Professor Glan Pie- t tro Ravizta; they a r e little birds and men made of the stones and pebbles which he finds near his home in Swit- zerland. Not quite cute, and rather pointless. Barry Stern bad bigger (60 works) and less interesting mixture than usual. Mostly small paintings anti sketches. The He a Whisson is the only one I'd want. Downstairs, jewellery by Verne Just. The Dominion's mix- ture la in three parts. First contemporary Australian, some very important. An Arthur Boyd, Bride at a Forest Pool, several P a e s - mores. a small Fa Jr - weather, two good Dickerson, one a Sit knocked about, nei- ther recent, two excel- lent early Blackman's, an Alice in Wonderland and the oil on paper, " Moonlight, Avon s- tih," a middling Pug h, three Nolan drought drawings, and a line recent Nolan of Burke stuck on a camel's hump. Second, earlier Aus- tralian. Norman Lind- say, Blamire 'Young, J. J. Milder watercolors; Margaret Preston wood- cuts; Lionel Lindsay etchings, and some un- signed oils dubiously at- tributed, one of them to Phillips Fox. Tht third section is lower - priced and smaller con- temporaries. STUDENTS Students' work from four art schools is on view. East Sydney Technical College. the Phyllis Shillito School and the Orban Studio, on their own premises; the Ogburn Studio at the Education Depart- ment. At East Sydney the design seems more interesting than the painting. Ogburn's pupils are remarkably lively and varied in a way that hobby paint- ers (and many seem to be) usually are not. n in art Collectors' Rendez- vous: Ignacio Marmul. Spanish painter. Education Depart- ment: Ogburn Studio students, 4 Orban Studio: Orban4 Studio students. Phyllis ShillItet School: Students' show. . Canberra Gallery A:. Lithographs, draw togs etriesertouch, New.. castle: Douglas Ram Sam), printed fabrics. OPENING TUESDAY Darlinghurat Gal- leries: Christmas show. OPENING WEDNES- Rudy KDomAoYn: Mixed anawli A ddins: Original prints, French, English, es lets:,