Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

Arthur Streeton, Circular Quay c. 1893, oil on canvas, 9 x 191. Commonwealth Collection, C'anbt 'ca. Impressions of Arcadia THERE ARE LOTS of myths and legends about Australian art. One is that a group of painters including Tom Roberts, Arthur Stree- ton, Charles Condcr and Fred McCubbin were the first to sec Australia "as it really is." They came to- gether in Mclboutnc about the time that Australia was celebrating its first 100 years and when the federation of the separate colonies was imminent. It was a time that required a visible achieve- ment of national identity and maturity. We had to know that we were different from England, that our achieve- ments had value and that we were grown up enough to become a separate nation. Ibis group of 1890s paint- ers helped till the need. They were the first generation of native born or locally trained artists to work in Australia (previously our painters had arrived from Europe already formed as artists) and they, were the first to work as a 1 group with a sense of shared purpose. They were the best of many who began illustrat- ing Australian history (bush- rangers, by then already in the past), digniiying. Australian life (sheep shearing ennobled in big pictures destined for arts museums; the drama of rail- way tunnels), and above r, providing a symbolic Austr" of golden pastures and sti: ling sea coasts. Being the first native-born generation they were the first to reveal the now common pat- tern of buoyant youth, excited achievement, and then decline. They got worse as they grew older (which is more the fault of an inadequate Australian audience than of the artists), ex- cept McCubbin, whom they sens- ed at the time to be the deepest of them all. Streeton declined furthest, yet it is Streeton whose brief I890s achiesement is the most moving. DANIEL THOMAS MASTERPIECES OF Ar.STRALIAN PAINTING by James Gleeson (Lansdowne: Australian Art Library $17.50) THE GOLDEN AGE 01 AUSTRALIAN PAINTING Im- pressionism and the Heidelberg School by Alan McCulloch (Lansdowne: Australian Art Library $17.50) ALBERT TUCKER by Christopher Uhl (Lansdowne: Austra- lian Art Library 514.50) ARTHUR STREETON by Ann Galbally (Lansdowne: Austra- lian Art Library $8.50) Ann Galbally's Is pernarartne most welcome of the four new Lansdowne books for there has never been an adequate study available of &rector'. The sketches around Sydney's Har- bour and beaches reveal a jewell- ed, sundrenched arcadia for youth to play in. And the highly romantic mood is presented in highly artificial compositions, ec- centric, narrow, vertical or hori- zontal Japanese-style panels. They are hardly a realistic look at Australia "as it really in." If the stockman and bush- rangers also operate as rough gods and heroes to populate an arcadian landscape, these same artists didn't hesitate to introduce actual nymphs, sirens and fairies. Many of their fairy-pictures are now lost, and they are scarcely illustrated in the new books: hut they existed. The best known are Sydney Long's art nouveau nymphs at the end of the period. and art nouveau touched Rob- erts, Conder and Streeton too. nouveau immuy comes into a realist program, though earlier in in the century Corot, a hero for the later generation, had made the progression from realism to fairies. The group's partial realism was due to their interest in open air landscape painting and in momentary effects of light, which sounds like impression- ism. They indeed held a mani- festo-exhibition of small sketchy paintings in 1889, which they called "Impressions." But they cannot really he called Impres- sionists for they do not seem to have known or understood the paintings of the great French Impressionists. Their composi- tions remain too formal, their themes too heroic or artificial, and above all their handling of paint is meagre, illustrative and graphic-not rich, self-sufficient or painterly. In their own time there was one painter at least who, in Mel- bourne, knew something of real impressionist painting, and this was E. Phillips Fox, a less nationalistic but a much better painter than they. Here is an- other myth about Australian painting: since Roberts and Streeton and company were the first group consciously to dlus- trate national life, and since we rightly hold them in great affec- tion, we assume they were the best painters of their period. We "overlook the better but less Aus- mai ian ist work of Fox and Bunny. If they are not realism, not impressionists, and only oblique- ' ly part of a "Golden Age," their final label "The Heidelberg School" is also a dubious one. The term u :is unknown until the 1940s, a time when Sidney Nolan was living at Heidelberg, near Melbourne, and when Melbourne painters were beginning to re- cognise some of their ancestry. Streeton and Conder indeed re- membered Heidelberg with great nostalgia after they moved to Sydney and London respectively. McCubbin never painted there, Roberts seldom. Other "artists' camps" for open-air painting ex- isted earlier on the Hawkesbury near Sydney, and at Box Hill near Melbourne. The name "Heidelberg School" should ere dropped. (A painting by Con - der. long called Springtime, Hei- delberg, hasn't been so popular since it turned out to be of Rich- mond, N.S.W.) Alan McCulloch's book The Golden Age is much the best account of the group and the period we have had. Much new material, many corrected facts, a skilful marshalling of the moves and influences between Sydney. Melbourne and Europe, and warmth of anecdote. show that he has really lived the period, and in consequence he brings it alive for his readers. James Gleeson's Masterpieces of Australian Painting duplicates some of the same plates, and is rather apologetic about the (pub- lisher's?) title, Can any Austra- lian painting really qualify as a masterpiece? It also perpetuates the myth of "The Heidelberg School." and equates its import- ance with its excellence: what came before and after is omitte1 or skimped in the book. Syd- ney Long and the early 20th century is missing; and the first 100 years of Australia are very thin. Two-thirds of the 130 pic- tures are in fact more recent than 1940, which seems over- generous; certainly it is difficult for an author to distance himself from the art of his own time and place. Gleeson's is chiefly a picture book, with a note of apprecia- tion and analysis accompanying each colour plate. Christopb-r Uhl's monograph on Albert Tucker is, like all four, welcome for its enormous number of illus- trations. However, it is unusual for a book on a living artist for it expresses doubts about the value of Tucker's late work. The convention is either to refuse to write the hook, or having ac- cepted, remain silent about mis- givings-which are more prop- erly voiced in magazine or news- paper criticism. Not all the hundreds of colour plates in these books are good. Printed in Hong Kong, they lack the close supervision we are used to. say, in "Art In Australia." A great. many of the Golden Age lpictures belong to the Art Gal- ery of New South Wales and are currently on view. "MORNING HERALD" Sydney, N.S.W. 1169