Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

A new gallery DOES Sydney need a new dealer's gallery? The Holdsworth Gal- leried open tomorrow with very large pre- mises on the corner of Holdsworth Street and .Jersey Road, and the first response is surely there can't be enough customers in Sydney, or a sufficient supply of good art. After all, cities in the United States which are bigger than Sydney often have no dealers' galleries, only an art But then Sydney hasn't got New York handy, to drain away customers, Sydney it- self is the place to en- joy your art -buying. It's important to have a visible art -buying scene, and the Padding- ton cluster of galleries, unique in Australia, really operates as one super - galler Only when galkriet, scatter distantly over a city, as in Melbourne. might a new, big gallery spoil the scene; here another Paddington gallery only helps the scene, and al- though the address is Woollithra, the Holds - worth is a Paddington gallery, a few yards down the street from Galleries Primitif and Rudy Komon's, The Holdsworth might help link the three new Double Bay galleries - Joe Rose's new late Kandinsky type paintings are cur- rent-Howell, and Mavis Chapman) with the Paddington circuit, but Double Bay still seem; a separate, non -art, neigh- bourhood, In a way the Holds - worth la a rebirth of the Clune Galleries' Macleay Street days, for Mrs. Thelma Clune, who ran it with Terry Clune and Frank McDonald, is helping run the Holdsworth. She will bring sonic customers; so will the manager, Mr. Peter Brown, an art teacher at Cranbrook who, hopefully, taught his pupils to collect art. And the proprietor is Mrs. Soheinberg, whose husband is in Stocks and Holdings, a pro- perty development com- pany, and she, of course, will add her friends to the Paddington pool of art gallery visitors. However, it, may be rash to assume that the gallery intends to make money. Lots of galleries are motivated more by Ildeas of art I titan of r.alrign be a matter of present- ing new and unfamiliar art by artists the gal- lery wants to support, and in Sydney the Mac- quarie, Chino Galleries (when in Street), Gallery A,Macleay Waf- ters and Central Street, have looked more like patrons than profiteers. The Hungry Horse was toe same, but when it became the Bonyt.hon and moved to its very large premises the, feel- ing was different, and perhaps very large premises are always im- plausible as 'non-profit" galleries, Sometimes a "non- profit" gallery is less a matter of long terns support for artists It be- lieves in than a kind of show-biz hobby for its owner; artiste anti works or art get dump- ed, the "shows," and their notices, are the main concern. I don't know of any "show -big", hobby galleries In Aus- tralia i but they are com- mon n New 'York. So, The Holclaworth's location ,makes it wel- come; and we don't ye', know Its Motivation. There's another point IbtfSy %e tpallerI es than alloao dney to ta (sire. Artists Ilse in Sydney. Quite a lot of them, from all aorta of start- ing points. And where you hat e artists you call have galleries. I've not mentioned the possibility of the Holdsworth selling non - Australian art. Hither- to this has not been too successful, but seine day our collectors might start looking beyond the local scene, and the en- couraging sales of the Stankiewlez sculptures at Withers might be significant. A big gallery 'an often grab short - notice museum exhibitions with considerable pres- tige, like Farmers Op Art, Walters' Three Trends in Contempor- ary French art, The Holdsworth cov- ers a lot of ground, has excellent security, but at present it doesn't have enough uninterrupted wall or floor space to exhibit a large number ART with Daniel Thomas, of large paintings and sculptures, What It can do, better titan present large settle exhibitions, is set tip a large number of small exhibits front stock. There are a great num- ber of nooks anti corn- ers; to browse and buy will be easy, It will also have better storage and deliveries than any ex- isting gallery - twice as much storage as ex- hibition space, plus good holding areas where in- coming exhibitions can be retouched or repair- ed in safety. Add to this the com- forts for visitors of name rous lavatories, comfortable sofas, and, eventually, air - condi- tioning. Of course a new gal- lery is welcome, CHRISTIE:5 THIS week Christles, the London art auc- tioneers, will for the first time conduct a sale entirely In Australia. A year ago there was the first of two telephone oonnections between a room in Sydney and the Australian section of a sale in London. Now there is an Australian office, ut 2ri8 New South Head Road, Double Bay. Pictures that have been found in England and Australia, will go On view tomorrow for three days, at the Bonython Gallery, and be auc- tioned there on Wed- nesday at 8 p.m. It's like an airing of the stock held by the Clune Galleries, Sydney, or Joseph Brown Gal- lery, Melbourne - that is it is aware of Aus- tralian art history (and of history, illustrated with little art, which is equally secure in terms of money). it means hardly any abstraction (there's a Rapotec), but on the other hand very little conte mporary semi -commercial real- ism. There are, sonic very interesting impres- sionist period pictures- Phillips Fox, a Mother and Child and a liar - vest scene, an ouLstr.nd- ing panel portrait of Stree'.on by Roberts, a large composition done by Roberts at the end of his English studies (which would be a very welcome addition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales' large Rob- erts' collection. See my long article in the new Art Gallery Quarterly where all are illustrated. Any donors' offering?) A Charles Conder beach scene, a marvellous Nolan with a pendulous banana flower, a Rupert Bunny toilet, an early Arthur Boyd master- piece are among the of- ferings. MOM "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 21 SEP 1969 s-1 .1 R V"`I 1 E T \-1