Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

AT last -a few Australian noticed outside Australia. And I don't mean by sensation -seeking jour- nalists like those who found Australian paint- ing so deliciously horrid in London eight years ago. There's much more to Nolan and Boyd than curiosity as a surrealist fantasy survival, but it was mainly as a curio- sity that tire White - chapel Gallery exhibi- tion was received in 1981. It is serious critics in serious art magazines, curators of the world's top museums, and the world's leading present- day artists themselves, that Lake notice of two sculptors c u r rently showing in Australia: Clement Meadmore. now living in New York has six black steel pieces at the Austra- lian Sculpture Gallery, Canberra: Ron Robert- son -Swann, recently re- turned from London, has eight steel pieces, painted In colors, nt the Rudy Komon Gallery. Last year Meadmore was included In the Whitney Museum's round -up of the best In American sculpture' Swann was in several small select shows of the best In new British sculpture. Its kind of flattering that they are being claimed by others. It's up to us to earn a con- tinued claim on them. Everybody here thinks Meadmore is pretty good by now, but they haven't tried very hard with Robertson -Swann. For n start these two are not "minimal" artists, Neither of them can be explained in terms of negatives, of reduction to the purest. most beautiful forma They have nothing to do with the cool pas- sion of Robert Morris' "art for art's sake." IT'S SEXY Meadmore is hot not cool. He has a soul - mate in Barnett New- man. His work Ls often described. rightly, in terms of "elegant mus- cularity." It Apt* , and flexes and tenses. In sort of way It's *say. Robertson Swann's wo-k is not sexy. You don't id airy bodily with t',e objects he makes, you don't feel any need to touch them. They are for tits eye. His mate Is Anthony Caro, and like Caro he is interested in' ex- tremes. not balanced perfections - how far can you extend some- thing how extreme can its disjunetions be and still hold together. But If the forma are not purist, the feeling is very pure. I find his sculptures lyrical and by no means remote from natural experience. Nearly always these slender steel construc- tions embody or fix some sensation of flash - ins movement. The tit- les may sometimes be for fun but sometimes they are obviously lit- eral: "Stride" Ls exact- ly and wonderfully a stride. "Nstes" has ele- ments which dance like notes of music. "Spring Green" springs and leaps. "All the way to the beach by Two" has forms tumbling up and over a height. "Lemon - ad ' which seems the conventional la context, Is morn till, though eertiOnly neeragiNi. Thic largess. artists ore being ART with Daniel Thomas "Homage to Tony Caro," Is clearly to do with ex- tended looking across roofscapes, with the flow of sight. There is some con- firmation for interpret- ing them as instant, ex- hilarating travel. The eight pieces have been installed in the gallery in an unusual way, pre- sumably by the artist himself. They are placed in a long curved line, continuing from one room to the other; they have to be experienced as a trip; you can't settle among them as in a field. This all sounds a bit like Olsen, whose paint- ings used to take us on winding journeys round the hills and harbors of Sydney and it's true that if Olsen were ab- stract one could Imagine something like Swann, though there's nothing to localise Swann in any particular place. Once an artist has found his own formal language as surely as Meadmsre we can in- dulge in the luxury of speculative footnoting. I think we can return him to the city where he grew up, Melbourne. It has a special architec- tural character, and its massive, blocky rec- tangles made of dark bluestone just might have something to do with the dark, blocky rectangles he now bends and twists and elon- gates. He's probably never realised it himself. CANBERRA Accompanying Mead- more's sculptures are gouaches by John Co- burn, wavy ItSsmtc tow- ers, fully abet act, and the best thitigs he's done. Last week I forgot to mention an odd Can- berra aberration. Leon- ard French's series of paintings, the "7 Days of Creation," are on view for a year or so in Civic Square. Just near Tom Bass' "Ethos." It is the most over-designed installa- tion I've ever seen and it shows no respect for the pictures. French is a muralist if he's anything, yet their re- lation to the wall is de- nied. They are placed very high, in mid air, tilted backwards. AU this in a pitch dark room, the pictures spot- lit, and placed not in a straight line, but in t. curved sequence. Theis look like cinemaseoPe- sized color aft es zoom- ing ofT to all quarters of outer space. The de- signer couldn't have been Ka what kind of pictures he was getting; there are seats In rows, lust like the movies. THE SHOW The usual art prize exhibitions are at the Showgrounds till Tues- day. Their installatIbr. Is much Improved. pic- tures are in small tires, the sculptures can now be walked around, the decorated cake depart- ment no longer gets confused with the art. Landscape and water- color prizes to Kenneth Jack, and a good land- scape by Lance Solo- mon, Portraiture (the best section) to Caring - ton Smith, with ?ahead and Casaab to notice. Still life to Clive Wil- bow, when I would have given it to Alison Reh- flsch. Human Image, Lillian Sutherland. Ab- stract painting, Col Jordan, DOUBLE BAY There are three new galleries In this hither- to remote area for the art circuit. Villiers, Bay Street, is expensive, gilt-edged - Nolan, Boyd, Blackman etc. represented by very de- cent examples. Mavis Chapman .apposite Vil- liers and ,,,stalra above Christopher Davis an- tiques, has small de- corative texture paint- ings etc. Howell, up- stairs in Knox Street at Goldman Lane, has ex- cellent original prints. It is the only place in Australia, I think, where you can buynAme conrican and Europeatem- poraries. Picasso $550. Vasarely $300, Poi Bury, Bridget Riley Paul Jen- kins $83, Steinberg. Australians with screen prints made at the Paddington Print Studio at $50 are Eric Smit h, Lymburner, Flower, And th are etchings by Rooney, Buckley. and Beckett. "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 6 APR 1969 At last the world takes notice