Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

111 IF you're interested in art in Ballarat. Last week I had two very happy days there. Then I went direct to Canberra and was sur- prised to find myself depressed by all its art. The two cities are much the same size. Both are inland hill towns in lovely country- side. Both have lakes. Both line their streets with plenty of trees, the Ideal way to disguise messy houses. Both cities have very consciously adorned themselves with orna- ments, more so than any other cider in Aus- tralia. Ballarat wins, and partly because it's older - 115 years to Can- berra's 40. Minor art is often better when it's old enough for its preten- sions Ili' it had preten- sions) to have subsided into' quaintness and charm. Ballarat's mar- ble group The Flight from Pompeii" is no longer dramatic terror, but Victorian period nostalgia. Canberra's giant bronze figures, "Ethos," and the man in the Hall of Memory, are still close enough in time for us to under- stand (and resent) their heavy symb 61 I s m (though it doesn't take long for things to be- come cherishable for neriod charm, and it's already hapormed to the Hotel Canberra. the nrcaded shops at Civic, and some BM houses near Mugge Way). Period In any rase. the Vic- torian period's great achievements were more often in ornamental art than in art as an in- dependent activity. It was a period that loved ornament and under- stood it. Thus Ballarat's statu- ary participates in 0 larger schemes. proces- sional along the main boulevard, punctuating in the green parkland. Canberra's sculptures. on the other hand, are scattered everywhere and look more like lit- ter. At best they, are parasitlb on the nearest building. Some times they are oddly placed. like Tom Bass on the National Library. some- times the building is ugly anyway, like Norma Redpath's Treasury. Ballarat's buildings, especially the Victorian Italiante palaces in Lydiard Street. have a sober, dignified blockl- ness much to pre- ferred to these thin napery quality of Can - b e r r a's commercial buildings. Good ()moment is re- petitive. It doesn't try to give a big aesthetic experience too often, or in unsuitable places. A doorway, a piazza a porch, a passage. a high- way - these are sc.tree- ty the places for big aesthetic thrills. Can you have a big thrill when you're tra- velling, and hurrted? All ,vou want in these places Is ornament, not rul. Of course, second -late there are lots ART with Daniel Thomas art if it falls as art, can still work as ornament. Nearly all the sculp- ture in Ballarat and Canberra Is less than first rate, but only in Ballarat does it succeed as ornament. There it doesn't interfere with the architecture and It doesn't litter the land- scape. Instead it Is grouped in extensive re- petitive sequences in re- lation to roads or paths. Canberra could do the same by planting sculp- tures at regular inter- vals right along the cm- .tre of Northbourne Avenue. Or by putting clusters of sculptures into parks and Pavil- ions, instead of single sculptures in porches. Ballarat's "Flight Front Pompeii" Is not only the centrepiece of a cluster, it also shows the Victorian care for detail in pedestals, lab- els, flooring. The pol- ished brass rails, mosaic tiles, the iron dome of the pavilion haus. lig the sculpture are no less ornamental than the sculpture itself. Without the trimming the sculpture would be more easily seen as what it is, that is less than first rate. Canberra's sculptures have a family resemb- lance. They are nearly all heavy. And they are nearly all latter-day variations on cubism. I suppose they have all been commissioned by people who were young 90 years ago, that is when Picasso and cubism were big. One longs for some- thing light in both weight and mood amongst all the heavy solemnity, but when one finds it, symolising the theatrical life between the two theatres, it's just streamlined cub- ism again. The principle of repe- tition In ornament is seen at its best in a bit of folk art at Ballarat. A cottage, called "The Old Curiosity Shop" for no good reason, was entirely encrusted with of things worth seeing broken china by Its bricklayer owner be- tween the 1850's and the 1890*s. Broken china is rub - blab, bad sculpture is rubbish; acquire more abd morepla, pces ut it in suitnd- le , a, eureka! the rubbish be - cot ea charming (I'm not saying this process ever takes you any fur- ther, but even charm Is something). Ballarat's age also gives it the advantage of associations with artists. All Canberra evokes is certall. paint-, fogs of the Murruni- bldgee by Elloth Gruner. Ballarat is the location of Richard Mahon)+, Creswiek, a few minutes drive away, is filled with the ghosts of the Lindsays (their house is demolished but the drawing -room Is now installed in the Ballarat Art Gallery). Land- scapes painted by Engel' von Guerard and David Strachan come into tortes, Museum Although there are a few drawings and paintings to enjoy in the National Library and in the War Memor- ial, Canberra doesn't yet have any proper art museum. The Ballarat Art Gallery has out- standing Australian paintings of the Vic- torian period by Von Ouerard, Buvelot, Rob- erts, Cor.der. McCubbin and .David Davies, and good ones by contem- poraries from Nolan and Hinder to Col Jordan. As to private 'collec- tions. I can't speak for Canberra, , but I'd be surprised if ti could equal the numerous and rather large col- lections formed in Ballarat. Not only do they collect the usual -Australian 19th cen- tury and' recent paint- ers. and often ver well, but they also. in- dependently, light upon excellent works by less esteemed names. One house, was filled with advanced abstraction by Batson, Hinder, Kitch- log.' And the biggest surprise was a consider- able amount of non- Australian material, mostly British; John Piper in some quantity, Sutherland, Lowry, and an outstanding sculp- ture by Henry Moore. Canberra may have more physical Ilixuries, but Ballarat has a very strong character, and a better feeling of what a city really is. Some day Canberra might be as good as Ballarat. WHAT'S ON A .1 Gallery of New South Wales: Perman- ent collection. Newcastle City Art Gallery: Permanent col- lection, Clone: Asher BIM. David Jones: Fine and decorative arts. Macquarie: Easter show, mixed (Wednes- day). Tolarno at Darling, burst: John Howley. Central Street: Jot' Szabo. Walters: David Ran- kin. Stern: Mixed, Gallery A: Peter Pow- ditch. Bonython: Rapotec, Wallace-Crabbe, John Piper, Leon Moburg, Human: Ron Robert- son -Swann, Frances Jones: Chien Lowe, Villiers: Mixed. Von Bertouch, New- castle: Blackman, Berries: Paintings, exhprints ,ition.cr efts, annual ibition Australian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra: Cle- ment atleadmore, John Coburn. Ornamented tale of two cities "TELEGRAPH" 3 0 MAR 1969 Sydney, N.S.W.