Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

f "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 11? 1969, A HARD LOOK BY ROWDITC DETER POWDITCH'S is the most interesting of this eight new exhibitions this week. His work, seen in scattered showings, used to repel by its rough handling of paint, though it was remarkable to find a young painter so strong but so seem- ingly uninterested In abstract art. It looked like Pop Art, being Sydney surf girls bulging out of their bikinis, or faces of Hollywood movie stars. However, his fellow artists have always ad- mired him greatly, and they always know best. And I find that the only prize he's won, six years ago, was judged by me. Now that I've seen a one-man show (Gallery A) the paint surfaces are no longer rough he's in Ills first gold frames and it looks more like Poussln than Pop Art, He's not too good at telling you what lie's up to; instead the cata- logue tells that he was born under the sign .if Aries. But he does offer a homage: "To Lyndon Dadswell, who taught me to see- To John Olsen, who showed me what to see." The pictures are about seeing. Most obvious- ly they zoom, like the eye, into such interest- ing areas as t h e crutch or the facr, but not, cross-eyed at the same time, and seldom bothering with the more distant body - parts. More important, they notice bow extraord- inary is the change from flesh to clothing. how odd the spaces and shapes In any junction between any two objects, especially when a body squeezes, grips or stretches against another ob- ject. He looks hard, sees clearly the specific separateness of things. The pictures become hard. They seem to be about disjunction. The early pictures often used an odd tech- nique of painted ma- sonite reliefs - fret - worked, carved, bent. bits assembled at odd angles. "Di," a red- head, Is a masonite cut- out, on a blue grldded background, and may- be the best of them, for she knows all about the old Italian contrap- poste. Like Pousain, she Is baroque classicism. The recent pictures have given up cut-outs, and get theft' disjune- (ions just as well with paint alone. Their scale has Increased, and their structure simplified. A regular series of broad bands covers one well - modelled girl ("Vene- tian"). One very broad, very flat band (a shower screen), with a trompe - l'oett curled - tin towel on it, corers another A large "Seascape II" with no figures is the most fully realised of Powditch's vlalotwof absolute cle ar,stgli test- ness. agegr.reight.agrg: .' hetqatta-shee.ys there. 'et's Just say that ART .with Daniel Thomas Peter Powditch has be- come visible. From now on he will be someone to notice, WALLACE-CRABBE Robin Wallace- Crabbe (3onython) was already visiole - he's had a couple se one-man shows at the Macquarie - but now he is more visible. He has changed a little, from bright, flattened figures in interiors, to quiet, uninhabited in- teriors opening on to sky or emptiness, or, rather alarmingly, on to more arid more in- teriors. Prom Matisse to Magritte. Clarity inter- ests him as much as it does Powditch, but in- stead of being an amaz- ing and wonnerful truth, clarity for him is a treactierois quicksand, rlusion. .t like his anp ilesictu This painter is art critic for the Canberra Times, and I sometimes think he's the best art critic in Ausiraliu. PIPER John Piper Ls long - lost childhood. When I was growing up almost the only modern art on offer wus a holy British trinity of Sutherland, Piper, and Moore. Later one realised it was spec- ially limited war -time rations. The big name of 25 years ago now has 13 small gouaches at Bony thons. Welsh mountain old churches. 193)1 tc 1968. Charming, and "Charm School" of the same wartime genera- tion, Dorald Friend es- pecially. RAPOTEC Stanislaus Rapotec (Bonython) Ls no sur- prise. The large, dark, action paintings are much the some as usual, only better. They are now called experiences of Greece and the oCids on Mount Olympus: some Gothic experiences in Spain are continued; Australia has retreated. It doesn't matter WHAT Art Gallery of New South Wales: Perman- ent collection. Newcastle City Art Gallery: Ciodfrev Miller drawings, Hunter Valley review. Clune: Asher BULL David Jones: Fine and decorative arts. Farmers: Belvedere Op Art ethibition. Macquarie: Jeffrey Makin. Central Street; Joe Szabo. Aladdlos: Volgtr sta. cis, Drews. Walters: David Ran= kin. Stern: Mixed, Gallery A: Peter Pot& ditch. what he calls them, they are Rapotees own personal and masterful affirmations of his exist- ence, the purest action painting we've had in Australia. Their new claim to myth and ritual is only another tradi- tional asp ct of action painting which was never much concerned with landscape, MOBURG Leon Moburg (Bony- thon) Is au American potter who works at Redlands University. California. His pots are highly proficient but, not exciting. He makes pot- tery animals as well. as vessels, and specially charactertiettc Ls a long narrow snout which is placed on both. SZABO Joe Szabo (Central Street) has changed style once again. Tio more action, op, or hard - edge. Now it's shaped canvases and they seem to be better than what he used to do. Most are diamonds, with chamfered edges. When .a central slit separates two different levels it becomes more muddled than compli- cated. The single -plane canvases are still the best; "Green," a dia- mond with a red edge, and "Double," also red and arc .11, like a pair of wings beating from the bottom edge. '..NAIN David Rankin (Wm- tern) continues from hts promising debut last year. Romantic, nature - based abstractions, high-keyed, shimmering drifts of spots coalesce ever so slightly into clusters, and Into the picture frame. MAKIN Jeffrey Makin (Mad- qaurte). Paintings, pas- tels, drawings, Not free of the art school - born 1943-but well able to enliven a pleasing arrangement of rectan- gular shapes with an overlay of illustrators' drawing and make a decorative harbor view. crucifixion, or figure group. His most per- sonal quality is a generous bulky scale. TV ART A weekly series, by Terry Smith, on con- temporary art, is being screened on Channel Ts Sunday morning "Television Tutorial," at approximately am. The series is pro- duced by Sydney UM- versity's Power Inati- tote of Fine Art. 'S ON Helen McEwen: Peter Creel, Bonytlion: Rapotec, Wallace-Cra'Me. John Piper, I Moburg ceramics. Kamen: Ron Robert- son -Swarm (Thursday.). Frances Jones: Chica Lowe. Villiers: Mixed. Von Bedew!), New- castle: Charles Black- man 'Friday). Berrima: Paintings, prints, crafts, annual exhibition. Australian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra: Cle- ment Meadmore, John Calm rn.. Macquarie Canberra: Eskimo art.