Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, DECEMBER 19, 1965 51 Art magazines The quarterly magazine Art and Australia its third year, and going very well indeed. More people should know about It. I strong- ly recommend a Christ- mas gift subscription. for it's the only art magazine we have. And although I presume it can't be losing money, I guess It's not making profits either! Its pub- lisher, Ure Smith is surely Issuing it for prestige, and as hom- age to the firm's foun- der, Sydney Ure Smith, who edited its prede- cessor Art in Australia altruistically and with- out profit for so long. Between the death of Art la Australia and the birth of its succes- sor was a gap of over 20 years with no art magazine except a few short - lived efforts, small, and with no col- orplate. To prevent the coun- try again being de- prived, every school and library in Australia should be subscribing. as well as every indivi- dual that can afford the five guineas a year, single copies slightly more, at 30/ each. Now, this is fairly ex- pensive, even for 80 glossy pages, a dozen editorial colorplates, and highly professional design and printing. One reason for the expense 18 simply the small readership in a country as small as Australia. Similar mag- azines in Europe or American can print many more copies of each issue, and thus charge less. So, more subscribers could mean lower prices as well as guaranteeing its exis- tence. A second reason Is production costs. This doesn't (as it should) mean editor's and auth- or's pay, for the editor gets nothing, the auth- ors very little. It means photography and block - making. The photographs near- ly all have to be taken by the publisher, when elsewhere art dealers provide them, only too grateful that their art- ists are being published. The color blocks near- ly all have to be made by the publisher too tat £00 or so each) when overseas many of them will be lent by dealers who had originally made them for their ex- hibition catalogues. . The accuracy of t h e color illustrations is extraordinarily h I g h. Since we don't see the original pictures, we don't often realise that nearly all the inexpen- sive art books from Europe that are avail- able here, and many of the magazines, in fact have extremely false colorplates. A r t and Australia has its high standards to be sure; but there can't be many art magazines where so high a proportion of the readers are familiar with the originals of what Is illustrated, and hence likely to be criti- cal of poor color. A third reason for its expense by comparison with similar maga- zines is no subsidy. Canadian Art, a closely comparable magazine. gets 25,000 dollars from the Canadian Govern- ment. ado do most small countries' magazines. If the very existence of the magazine is re- markable and if Its pro- duction is superior to most overseas art maga- zines, what of its con- tents? The most troublesome to produce must be the extremely useful di- rectory of forthcoming exhibitions t h r o u g h - out Australia (not ab.so - lately dependable, for some galleries seem constantly to alter their schedules); the list of prizewinners. State gal- lery acquisitions, and Auction prices. The II- lustmtiona of current Australian art would be valuable even without any writing, for they're not available anywhere else. This section could be enlarged. The articles on Aus- tralian art seem to bal- ance major presentation of at least one present- day artist (Arthur Boyd In the latest issue, Orban in the previous one, John Brack, Fred Williams before that) or an obituary (Batson and Melte recently, Marg- aret Preston earlier), against sometimes shorter pieces on early artists (John Glover in the latest, John Russell previously, and Condor, Roberts and Streeton earlier). These are the most permanently valuable parts of the magazine The week in Dv Daniel Thomas for in many cases the articles are the only major presentation of the artist in existence (Russell, Batson, Kl)p- pel, Tucker, Fair- weather). The early artists get radical re- assessment (Tom Rob- erts by Virginia Spate), or appreciations by artists such as Olsen (on Streeton or Glover) which are interesting evidence of present day taste. The first few issues had surveys of the state of painting, sculpture, architecture and print- making in Australia. Since then architecture has not appeared much; perha the profession's own journals look after It well enough, though they only report and never criticise, and the occasional blast could well come from Art and Australia. Pottery has not been surveyed and perhaps should; though again a special- ist journal Pottery In Australia does exist (though it's some time since an issue ap- peared). 'These surveys need not be repeated for some time. They have is now in been followed by simi- lar articles on New Zealand painting and sculpture. Apnt from New Zea- land, the magazine takes an interest In "the Pacific basin," and tries to forge links with Japan and the Ameri- can west coast, with articles an the art there. This area's unity is a bit artificial, though in- teresting enough. Less satisfactory la the treatment of fami- liar European art. Ex. hibitions that have al- ready been fully ells - cussed In overseas magazines waste space here, like Rorald Millen -lively on the Venice Biennale, or German Expressionism, OT Char- , s. Spencer-very stale mho. Only the most ad- vanced and unfamiliar world art seems worth including, like the "Re- volution in British Sculpture" or Elwyn Lynn on Pop Art or Clem Meadmore on ad- vanced New York Sculp- ture, which had the added interest of record- ing the views of one of our own artist expatri- ates, not those of a hack journalist. Otherwise it would seem best to be more parochial (including that "Pacific basin") and do what is not al- ready being done better elsewhere. Apart from current Australian art there is an occasional series on collectors. This can be tricky, for one of the two dealt with has since disposed of at least one of his illustrated fa v or it es through a Sydney gal- lery Perhaps the weakest aspect is the treatment of foreign exhibitions held in Australia. The Whetter Collection was Indeed discussed, but rather late, and with too few Illustrations for this mr important show in -ars. The Stutves- ant collection ;"as Ignored and so hnve been Museum exhibi- tions of Gothic art, Eskimo art Chinese ceramics, Old Master drawings, Picasso from Australian collections, and others which could well use the space given to the stale news from Europe. Let's hope the Lipchitz sculptures and the American water- colors now In Australia aren't forgotten. Sculpture of Thai- land however, regularly shown here in recent years, was dealt a oh in June, in what was an exceptionally well bal- anced Issue. It's still an outstand- ing magazine, perhaps better than we deserve. Buy it. What's on Art Gallery of N.S.W.: Special exhibitions. Medieval English Pot- tery (till January 2); Kenneth Armitage, ..zulptor, N.S.W. Archi- tecture Awards (last day): Model of Ittac- swede Street replanned; Loan, "River Band" by Sidney Nolan. Gallery A: Rubert Klippel. Clune: Martin Sharp, drawings, collages, ob- jects. Aladdins: French, En- glish, American color etchings, woodcut litho- graphs. Komon: Mixed show. Hungry Horse: Mixed show, and pots by Robin Welch. Stern: Mixed show under 50 guineas, and jewellery by Verlie Just. Written): Mixed show. Eldorado, 373 Pitt Street, Mixed show. in art Dominion: Mixed show. David Jones: Baroque wood -carvings, saints and madonnas. Macquarie: Mixed show, and "Physio- ilthen." Frances Jones: Marie Forli. Canberra Gallery A: Lithographs, drawings, etchings. Von Bertoueb, New- castle: Douglas Ram Salmi, printed fabrics. OPENING TUESDAY NeweasUe City Art Gallery: German Prints of Today. OPENING WEDNESDAY Barefoot, Avalon: Ken Ungley. OPENING THURSDAY Gallery A: Mixed show.