Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

More on 1969 THIS has been the year of the foreign visi- tors, and the two most important ones were sculptors Christo and Richard Stankiewicz. But sculpture by local artists was much more prevalent than usual, and not only prevalent but also interesting. For once a large pub- lic commission has made the grade: Clem- ent Meadmore's piece at the new AMP building In Melbourne. There was an irripor- tent one-man shoe/ by Ron Robeitscn-Swann, who also won the Co- nialco Prize, which scandalously Is not going to be commis- siened for Its public site. There was Robert Klippen( "masterpiece," that Is, Isis biggest, am- bit lous, put - It - all-in piece, which like many such display pieces is not necessarily a suc- cess. There were good one-man shows by F.Sn- nmnuel Raft, Nigel Landon. Max Cullen, Seter Davidson, Tony Coleing. At the end of Feb- ruary, 1970, a few days before the Adelaide Fes- tival of Ails, the Mll- dura Arts Centre will open its next sursev exhibition of Australian (and New Zealand) sculpture. The Mlldura Tri- ennials have now been going long enough for 1970s at last to look probably quite unlike the previous exhibition. Innovation This time the Invita- tion list has been ex- tended to the many painters who make occasional sculptures, and It thus acknow- ledges the increasing tendencies towards In- termedia in the arts. Mlldura has also made the sensible inno- vation of eliminating prizes and instead sim- ply purchasing several thousand dollars' worth of sculpture for the Mlldura Art Centre's collection. Art prices scarcely exist outside Australia- they did once, but they've been given up -and it's good to, see Mlldura leading us into the future Its this. re- spect. One prize that still exists, the Perth Prize for drawing, conducted by the Western Austra- lian Art Gallery. in February each year, has been Improved. The money has increased to $1000. It's gone international, meaning that drawings by anybody in the world can be sent to Perth. A nd another of the newly required foreign visitors will be out to judge it, to do the usual magic -wand - of - Euro- pean -culture act. and to be used for feedback to Europe of Knowledge that Australia exists. Perth's judge is to be the English artist Brid- get Riley. The new trends of 1969, beyond the hard- edge and color field, were the mixed -media, conceptual, or anti- form. tendencies, all intellectual rather than emotional, visible, in Paul Partos (sprayed nylon canvases folded on the floor). Ian Mil- lis (ropes on walls, rods on landscapes). Max Cullen (frames hinged to walls). Tim Johnson (stretchers without canvases), Ti Parks (rope and fur archttec- lure, floors. -with holes In them - placed on ART with Dimiel Thomas ( 4 These works have a tendency to become ar- chitectural en viro menus. so I suppose , they are a continuation , of the occasional envir-4 onments and happen-, lugs we've had for the , past four years. Early, In 1969 there was one of the best of them all.' The Black Box of Oyster Bay. Here is a list of what' I personally was moved' by and experienced as' being outstanding visual. art in 1969: Four environments' or sculpture exhibitions: The 'Sleet Box of Oyster Bay, Christo's Little Bay, Stankiewles. at Walters but not at the National Gallery of Victoria), Rodin at David Jones. Five films, none of them new, but I nhap- pened to see them, sev- eral times, i 1969: Godard's "Masculin-. Feminine," Felten's " Kubrick's "2001," Geri- et's "The Balcony,"' Peter Weiss"'Marat/- Sade." One show of paint -4, lugs, by Fred Williams.; There were plenty of single paintings and; sculptures, among them` Robert= - Swarm's Trarssfield painting, Meadmore's AMP sculp- ture. Partos' Geelong pankintIpainnting,eag Prt's big pi There were a few new dtscoverles David Wire's disemb'o d 1 e d, mirror -drawing. Peter 4 Powditch's (not seen ( properly by me till this 4 year's show) passionate articulation of pictorial elements, Surprised For local art history there were several agreeable retrospectives: Lloyd Rees at the Art Gallery of N.S.W.. De- siderius Orban at New- castle. Watkins-MO:311- lick at Central Street, Rupert Bunny at Clune, and Albert Tucker at Bonythen. Some survived the test of retrospection only in parts. Watkins, often accused of ex- cessive eclecticism, sur- prised by the visual unity of his past and present pictures. Predictions for 1970: More unsaleable art. Art that refuses to be a commercial invest- ment, a preclote object. Art that wants to alter life by means of the artist's ideas. tempor- arily embodied in an exhibition gallery, or merely recorded. In words or photographs, not an art of objects. which take on a life of , their own after they, leave the artist's hands., and become a trigger for fantasies the artist , himself never di earned of. Art to be kept ast close to the artist a in-, tenuous as possible; sometimes to be no more than a statement of intention. Anti - dealer, anti - museum art, which is, however, an art highly suitable for art magazines, per- baps as much the prisoner of the maga- zines as precious -object art is DrLsoner of the dealers rind the numetims. 28 "TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.E.W.