Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

'dr "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W Prt in0 Afro.-Braiilian Ionic or Beat art? ABSTh 4CT art is just as often emotional and passionate as any other kind of art. And it is by no means the only kind of art that can be reserved and chilly. It's simply a language, and can be used any way the artist chooses. To be born In a place and time where, say, geometric ab- straction is the visual lan- guage is the same sort of fate as to be born in a place and time where Australian English is the spoken language. If recent exposure to a great deal of flat abstrac- tion hasn't taught the local Sydney audience to recognise personal and emotional differences with- in the style, and especial- ly if they still resist see- ing "warmth," or "human- ity" in any abstract art, then they should try the sculptures and paintings of Edival 1211MOU at the Austradan Sculpture Gal- lery in Canberra. Ramona iv Brazilian, part Negro, born 1940, and now lives in Milan. The exhibition is here because the Brazilian Ambassador to Australia is especially interested in the visual arts and admires his work. There Is an extraordin- ary gaiety In this show. It is not the scattered gaiety of mere animation that exhibitions of Op paintings can provide. These 10 painted sculptures and 10 watercolors have Concentrated, coned e n t, driving regular rhythms, not an arbitrary scatter. Art WITH DANIEL THOMAS So much so, it's more a beat than a rhythm. And it's a beat that swings. This gaiety is very lim- ber, very muscular. There is a reference to mental agility and mathematical exuberance in his "The- orem" and his "Toys For Leonardo," (who also lived in Milan); to exuberant physical agility fn his "Hurrah Pele" (Pele is a Brazilian Soccer star, and the piece a totem pole of 'football -sized spheres with grinning mouths, skewered to-swivel). COLOR The colors are both cheerful and sensuous. The forms are almost al- ways circular, implying wholeness, completion, at oneness, Integration, The Leonardo toys Ore three concentric rings intersect- ing at right angles and wrapped round a sphere. They are marvellously stable on the floor. The spheres of "Hurrah Pete" are built up from discs. "Theorem" is three towers of stepped discs, diminish- ing alternately upwards and downwards, rippling up and down the rear wall and corners, of 12 -foot wide room. "New Lines of Joy" also attaches itself to architecture, being a stepped series of separate concave arcs emerging from the junction between floor and wall. The water- colors are similar arcs emerging from the lower corner of their sheet of paper. Ramosa's circles and spheres imply not only mathematics science and but also the rounded perfection to which nature aspires In healthy frult, flesh and muscle. The exhibition Is a most tonic experience. Mrs. O'Brien's Sculpture Gallery has done many worthwhile things since it opened in Canberra. The new premises to which it moved this year are much more suitable for exhibit- ing works of art. Inttead of the former distraction of glass and window there are now proper enclosed rooms, with walls. Some sculptures don't need walls, but litany, including sons of Ramosa's have a edictal relation with these pre- existing planes. LAUNCHINGS Wee Walt Lee's was the first of three one -week exhibitions being given, at Gallery A to launch young artists in their twenties. It is a sensible scheme. Lee moves fast, Some con- ventional flat-cubist ab- stractions were apparently done early this year. The bulk of the exhibi- tion is color-field abstrac- tion, the paintings repeat- ed In screen -prints. Un- catalogued, most recent, and best are a shaped multiple canvas, and some white inkless intaglio prints. All retain some Oriental reference, the colors of scarlet lacquer, the use of liquid gold in the paint- ings; the overtly Chinese brocadedness of the inkless prints. But the most recent shaped canvases (called "Solitaires," being centred on a giant diamond) also invoke Michael Johnson. His color can sing and, like Noland, he can paint a lovely oozing soft -edge. ORIGINAL PRINTS The Sydney Printmak- ers' annual exhibition (Sonython) has slightly higher prices, 915 to $90, than the $25 Wee Wah Lee charges for his screen - prints at Gallery A, but then they're not beginners. Eva Keky tries a print/ sculpture, a colonnade of screenprints surrounding a box. The rest are tradi- tional etchings, litho- grahanginphs,g on theo wall., etc., for Many have the private Intimacy, and sometimes the accompanying whimsy and humor that is more possible with work on paper (which associates it with reading and writing), than with public painting. Sue Buckley's lithograph, stroked mast gently on to the stone, is an ideal state- ment of Intimacy. A few, like Weaver Haw- kins, simply present the same strong Images and structures in all their media and don't let the medium dictate too much. POTS There's always an out- break of pots at Christ- mas. The Potters Gallery's special show is now over, so la the Smith, Shiga, Sahm exhibition at Ber- rIms However, Singe and Sahm, plus Stanton who works with them at Mos- man, are currently at Aladdin. Robin Welch's machine - clean sculptural pots are at Bonythons, sent from England where Welch has now returned. 031 Levy and John Gil- bert are at Canberra and Newcastle. Perhaps those oven - baked objects seem best frosh from the studio, and the New E'ngland Gallery, where Ivan and Patricia Englund both make and sell their pots should be noticed. WHAT'S ON Art Gallery of New South Wawa-Perman- ent collection; European master drawings. Newcastle City Art Gallery. - Eric Thake; Selections from CAS- K ol otex exhibition (Wednesday). Clune.-The Colonial Eye. Education Depart- ment. - Ogburn Studio Students. David Jones-Fine & Decorative arts. Macquarie. - Christ- mas show (Wednesday). Central Street.-Mixed show for new extension. Native Art Gallery. - Pacific and Australian Primitive art, $1 to $50 (Wednesday), Aladdin!. - Sahm, Shiga. Stanton, pottery. Walters.-Robert "Fusionism." Stern.-Mixed show. Gallery A. - Lynette Tongue (Tuesday). Banython.-Paul Bea- dle; Comalco sculpture award; Sydney Print- makers; Robin Welch pottery, Ronson.-Mixed show. Frances Jones.-Hinke Zleck. Artarmon. - William Cooper bird paintings. Von Bertouch.-New- castle: Max Hurley, John Gilbert. Australian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra. - Ed iral Ramose, P", zillan sculptor, tit