Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

-2 JAN "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, JANUARY 2; 190 41 IWN~1~4~004 IMMOJ NNW The year in art 1965 wos nowhere as good as 1964, the best since 1939. We have had no foreign exhibition of importance when last year there were ate only four ex- hibitionsfirst-r of advanced painting, one from America, two from nig- land, and tras:. from Europe in general, but also first-rate Gothic art, Pre-Columbian art. and, in the decorative arts, English Silver of supreme quality. In 1965 we had only one minor group exhibi- tIon of not -quite-mod- ern art, the abstract - expressionist American watercolors where Fran- kenthaler and Held kept the ability to thrill while Sam Francis and most others did not. At David Jones there was a one-man show by the modern Greek, Spyrop- oulos, of decorative paintings of the highest order. And a single modern painting of stature, a 1950 Jean Dubuffet, was in the dune Gallery's French show. (Though it was not very recent, and it's untypical of today's art in being figurative. A year ago, with Richard Smith, James Dine, Morris Louis and Ells- worth Kelby we were closer to the, growth areas in modern art.) There were more good original prints than we usually see. The best were the Japanebe at the Hungry Horse and at dune's. Parisian Hayter-school etchings were at the Macquarie, and more are currently at Aladdins. Some excrbitantly priced American posters were at Chine's, some Yugo- slav prints at Komon's, and an official show of German prints was cir- culated. Established artists' prints in Clune's French show were very high points; etchings by Picasso, Braque and Miro, lithographs by Dubuffet and Chagall. Picasso Indeed the art of the past fared rather better than usual. Besides these Picasso etchings there were two Gan- dier-Brzeska bronzes also at Chine's. Matthew Smith's paintings at David Jones were pleas- ant. And the Rodin bronzes also at David Jones made the only roomful of sublime genius we saw in 1965. "The Art of Drawing" the year's major travel- ling exhibition, was weakened by an Austra- lian section, but unique in its offering of Durer. Andrea del Sarto, Tin- toretto, and Rembrandt through to Matisse and Picasso. Another drawing of immense beauty was the Ingres in the Art Gal- lery Society's selection from private collections which was another of the year's three or four wholly enjoyable exhibi- tions. It included ma tor paintings by Pissarro Kokoschka. The ri"." pots brought to Sydney with him by Shoji Ham- ada, and the jovial mediaeval English flagons circulated by the British Council. AUSTRALIAN TRENDS In Australian art we saw the first -ever sur- vey of our sculptures. This was more a duty than a yleasure. Klippel shone cs it as the real thing of course; Hohaus was a cha-ming discov- ery for his little figures' Jomantas, Walker and Redpath were pretty good; and Baldessin was a young newcomer whose promise was ex- citingly confirmed in a later one-man show. But most of the sculp- ture, though decent enough, was timid and conservative. Painting is much more vigorous. All the numerous competitions act to some extent as surveys, but the three most im- portant surveys were the official Common- wealth show of artists under 40 seen after its return from Japan; the Mirror-Waratah £1000 Tiek week in Ar By Daniel Thomas and a very enjoyable clarity show at Latch - ford's which attempted to define avant-garde tendencies. Although sculpture seems totally unaware of the newest tendencies it's no longer surprising to find that painting has very quickly re- flected current overseas developments - special- ist investigation of hard-edge areas and shapes, or of optical il- lusions have followed the big -city realism of last season's Pop Art. It's not so important whether it's done well, though Sidney Ball de- servedly won the Mir- ror-Waratah with hard- edge, and Col Jordon is an excellent OP art painter. It's just en- couraging to find that young artists are intel- ligently aware of what goes on today; 10 years ago they were not. Others to reflect the new geometrical trend were Stockdale, Sell - bitch, Raft, Watkins, Kitching and Redding - ton; but the very differ- ent surrealist and fan- tastic side of pop art was continued by Colin Lanceley before he left for England, in Michael Brown, and in Martin Sharp's debut. Again, first one-man of intor,r. which was after all hibition in 12 years. This most famous of all Australian painters roams the world for subject matter though for us he produced Aus- tralian Ian dsc apes, lightly populated with figures as camouflaged as beetles and insects, and as uncertain of sur- vival. And the exhibi- tion also had portraits of Australian ladies protecting themselves behind careful wash ex-, pressions, lipstick, and fancy hats, better than Ned Kelly ever protec- ted himself with his: fancy hat. Like Alice in the looking -glass, Nolan keeps running to stay in much the same place' that is, he has found different subjects, but the content is still the same - a sense of the vulnerability and frag- ility of existence. Tucker slogged admir- ably onwards. Pugh tumbled into deep dis- grace, Brack was a little misled by mirrors. Frenc h's exhibition, though opulent and handsome, showed little advance on several years back; his year abroad might invigor- ate him, as living abroad had increased the stylishness of Black- man (though not of course the poetry). Hes- sing's multi -level re- fractions wore too many colors. Olsen's "Soleil" ceiling and a couple of paintings continued this latter-day impression- ist's sensuous celebra- tion of everyday plea- sures, the tapestry based on his "Joe de Vivre" was by comparison both Flaccid and mechanical, sumptuous, tidied - up, but not Olsen. A paint- ing by Fred Williams in a mixed show was call- ed, by Wallace Thorn- ton, the best Australian landscape he had ever seen; I prefer Williams's gouaches. Klippel's s c u 1 ptures were perhaps the only wholly satisfying show of new work. But the most enjoy- able one-man shows of Australian painters were not of new work: God- frey Miller's studio con- tents and the Fair- weather restrospective allowed us to see these painters' entire develop- ment for the first time,' and the Fairweather show in particular was the year's most absorb- ing. Rodin So: Exhibitions you should not have missed were Rodin bronzes, "the Art of Drawing," Thai sculptures, "The Private Collector," "Re- cent Australian Sculp- ture," the Australian exhibition for Japan, avante-garde painting at Latchford's, Nolan, Klippel, Godfrey Mil- ler. Ian Fairweather. Works of art for sale that I would have liked to buy: the Dubuffet 11 painting, Picasso and .trhinvs at) nther 11 2 L