Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 21 DEC 1969 1969 -not a bad year THIS hasn't been such a bad year in art. However, there wasn't a manifesto to charact- erise It, In the way that 1959 was the year of the Antipodean, 1968 the year of The Field or 1962 the year of the Imitation Realists. Nor was there a knockout exhibition from overseas to re- member it by. like 1939 for French and British painting, 1953 for French painting, 1967 for American painting. All the same there was an unusually large amount of foreign art. As usual, there were little shows of drawings and prints sponsored by embassies and consu- lates. They are mostly very forgettable, but Peter Klitsch. a Vien- nese draughtsman, at Komon, was nicely in time with the art nou- veau revival. A big French Em- bassy show, the "Three Trends in Contempor- ary French Art," was prepared especially for Australia. And two in- ternational tobacco companies. improving their image, toured packaged shows: Phil- lip Morris with Op Art prints, Peter Stuyvesant with "Art of the Space AVese three would. suppose, have been the most popular shows of the year, and they fol- lowed the chiefly kine- tic / lumina' / optical Power Bequest exhibi- tion of 1968 in achiev- ing this popularity. Their popularity makes me a bit sus- picious. They are pop- ular with the fun- orowd, the younger ad- vertising executives and designers, with students (but of other things than art), with readers of Marshall McLuhan. It's good that this trendy crowd is reached by art, but I wonder if they weren't Just exper- iencing It as decor for the swinging sixties, not too different from a shopping trip at the House of Merivale? Even so, if a lot of It is distinctly easy -art, and U on a slightly higher level it's appro- priate period -art for a nop age of technology and cybernetics, its masters are pretty im- hressive and it's good to ave seen more Vasare- ly, Soto, Schaffer and Bridget Riley. And in the Three French Trends there were a couple of ambiguous people, Kowalski and Raynaud, wino found it sinister as well as cele- bratory: plus a welcome sight of the Dalaunays, early 20th century pre- cursors of the style. More gratifying in a way was the fact that local, Australian initia- tive produced a num- ber of foreign shows. There is now the Power Bequest, of course, and its 1909 purchases were seen in two exhibitions, one Italian, the other chiefly German. They didn't include much to remember, b:tt a col- lage by Enrico BaJ, and a stained pillow-picture by Oraubner were more titan enough to Justify the operation. Local initiative also produced Central Street's show of con- temporary foreign art from Sydney collec- tions, an impossibility a butl nowllike ifterwodtieenialgs ago,ai ART with Daniel Thomas Rauschenberg, R o n Davis and Anthony Caro. And local initiative produced the Richard Stankiewicz sculptures at the Waters Gallery, and the Christo pack- agings at Little Bay, at Central Street, and at the National Gallery of Victoria. These two foreign artists, both world- famous, each produced works of art, of stun- ning beauty during their stay and this is what 1969 will be re- membered for. It was the year of the foreign visitors. Not only were there workers, like Christo and Stankiewicz, there were also visiting lec- turers: the Italian art- ist Enrico BaJ, a French art magazine editor, J.-C. Lambert, the art critic for "Life" Maga- zine, David Bourdon, and the editor of the magazine "Art Inter- national," James Fitz- simmons. They came to see Little Bay, or to accompany the Three French Trends, or the Italian Power pur- chases. or to Judge the Transfield Prize, But they have gone away with some knowledge of Australian art, and some intention of mak- ing it known to the rest of the world, So if 1909 was the year when international art came to Australia more decisively than ever be- fore, it will also be the nIng of a confron- ts n of Australian art with the art of the out- side world. Besides the magazine articles, which have al- ready begun with Alan McCulloch's Australian reports to Art Internat- ional, the most concrete sign of Australian art's willingness to compete is the opening of a New York branch by an Aus- tralian art dealer: Max Hutchinson, of Gallery A, opens there next month. What about Aus- tralian art itself in 1969? Sex and Polities still haven't reared their ugly heads much locally, though they're big else- where. Only Richard Larter, Garry Shead and John Howley wave the flag. The dominant style in painting Is still the col- our field hard-edge ab- straction. that, emerged here in 1965-60. Christ- mann. Aspden, Michael Johnson and Ron Rob. action - Swann (his Transfield painting? currently seem the best of them. Sculpture has been more prevalent than usual, and for once a large public commission has made the grade!' Clement Meadmore's piece at the new AMP. building In Melbourne.