Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"T. LEGRAPH" 1 SEP iyoa Sydney, N.S.W. BESIDES its permanent Vic- toria is showing one National Gallery of evol utton and collections the new temporary exhibition. It is called "The field," and it is a survey of what is now quite a widespread new move- ment in Australian painting and sculpture. One could ee that it was becoming a movement here in 1965 (before that one can think only of '3ick Watkins, working in isola- tion). It began in Amer- ica and Europe nearly 10 years earlier, and it has becothe the "period style" of the 1960s and the main- stream of present-day art. It is a highly controlled art by co with the Impulsive Of the for it is could unlike t "act painting" sometlmea gi to the earlier "expregi 1st" movement! The new movement is enormously resented by the earlier one-by the artists, their dealers, and their spokesmen/critics. The re- sentment may be a little fiercer than for previous style -changes (though one would like to be given a comparison with the late - 1930s situation). If it is fi.ezer it may be for the following reasons: Some of the new artists are personally intelligent, pugnacious and articulate. and well able to hustle on their own behalf; they have sometimes been ex- hibited at altruistic, scarcely - commercial gal- leries (Central Street, Shrines) whose presenta- tion and cataloguing were usually much better than at the more profit -moti- vated galleries; they have had sympathetic critics from the start (Mc- Caughey. Lansell, Sweeney, and sometimes Lynn); and now-which has never hap- pened before-the move- ment while still young Is being surveyed in a major exhibition In a major museum, with a major ex- hibition catalogue. (All the 74 works are repro- duced, many In color. with essays, biographies and portraits. Such an exhibi- tion catalogue has never been published in Austra- lia before either). When the earlier movements emerged there was indeed a shortage of broad-minded critics. sympathetic deal- ers, and efficient art museum staff to make things easier for the artists. These reasons for r Denting the new moveme are trivial ones, and h not been much voiced, they are probably the real ones along with the irrational but acceptable reason that it Is hated simply because it is differ- ent. Instead the new.MoVe- ment has beret attacked for patently elisurd reas- ons. ART with Daniel Thomas 'NM(erred as ly impor gnat. yt p f.art his ..!F' mbl cation that th 15,1W Field" is composed =At, deriving from last year's exhibition "Two Decades of American Painting," Things simply don't move so fast (the influence of "Two Decades" is to be seen in student exhibi- Pons). One only needs to exer- cise one's memory to real- ise that most of "The Field" were working the Male way before the "Two Decades" arrived. Not to mention how little re- semblance is, and how much European influence is still presem. But the most common complaint from the old artists is that the new art is cold, inhuman, imper- sonal. Although some of the new artists indeed claim these same qualities as a positive virtue, one need not accept what an artist says about his work if It runs counter to one's experience as a spectator of the work. I find the new art warm, human, and personal when it Is good; the opposite when it falls - just as a failed "action painting" is dead and cold. These remarks have been prompted less by "The Field,' which I shall review when it reaches Sydney In October-November, than by a couple of paintings cur- rently in a mixed show at Gallery A. For example, for being American -influenced. But all art la influenced by other art, and here it is only a matter of replacing an influence with lean one. Neither r America are to nees. GALLERY A On entering there is a dramatic confrontation resentment with an 8 x 14 foot can- vas by Michael Johnson, titled "Anna" (painted in 1965, shown in Sydney early 1967, well before the "Two Decades"), It c o n- tains only a broad irregu- lar swelling ring, pressing against the edges of the canvas. Anna was his daughter, before her birth, and the image of preg- nancy and growth was eas- ily recognised by many people before the artist confirmed it. Johnson's paintings can also be about moonrise, about fighting. They grow directly from visual and other sensuous experience, and readily --dggamunicate this to their J.Bervers. They are roman- tic, warm, personal, in- volved with life; only their style is "hard-edge.'Another canvas is Ver- non Treweeke's "Ship Trip Triptych," shaped from three modules, and in spite of its hard-edge style us surrealist, that Is as poetically literary. as any magic realism. The modules read various'', as a paper hat, a steamboat, travelling along the wall, travelling at the spectator, spurting water through its funnel, floating on smoke. It is playful and funny. There have been emo- tional hard-edge paintings elsewhere. Harald Norltis (Central Street), a lesser practi, finer but hugely improved, can be easily read as a nal tire-painte.. Scandinavian sea and sky landscapes, sounds piercing ellences, Garry Shead (Wetter' Gallery) has never i,een better. He Is not anti - modern, simply un- modern. In a most direct way he states his pleasure in the sense of touch. girls' skin, fur, flowers. Without knowing It, one spread-eagled girl takes a pose from the Rape of Europa by Pitt old 16th century sensualist, Titian. "Fox in a Box" la I hi- champian play on the famous Raquel Welch nos - ter, with a rev !sal of the