Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

Go on a gallery crawl this week IGHT now I think there's a wider range of Australian art on view in Sydney than ever before. There are at least eight exhibitions which should be visited. Make a big effort to go on a gallery crawl this week. The five one-man shows start, in order of seniority, with Ian Fairweather (Macqua- rie). Ten years ago lots of people decided he was the best painter Australia had ever had. Janet Dawson (Gal- lery A) and Leonard French ( I loldswo r th ) have had similar claims made for them over the past 10 years. And Michael Taylor (Watters), who is much the same generation as these two, and Ron Robertson -Swami (Ko- rnon). whr is much younger, have also had large claims made on their behalf. The three mixed shows are remarkably interesting, too. The Travelodge Art Prize (Maeleay Street Travelodge) invited 12 painters each to show two works. We are not told who chose the list but it seems geared to good old - fashioned beauty - to art as gorgeous - colored mcctangles placed on walls. The Transfield Art Prize (Bonython), which doesn't open till Tues- day, invited 25 artists, chosen by Brian Fine - more, each to do what they liked within an allocated urea of the gallery. And the Contempor- ary Art Society (Far- mers). which is not in- vitational but democrati- cally open to all its N.S.W. members is also most interesting for its non -paintings by young experimentalists. Even so. it's notice- able that 1950's French abstraction is allye and well with Margo Lewers and Nancy Borlase, and 1 Ms color -stripes with Joe Szabo. But the experimental- ists are more con- spicuous. Ian Milllsa simply places sponge rubber mats at the n - trance to make you stumble on. It's a hieral jolt into awareness - of what? Your own body I suppose and the space you're entering, and the art object (the mats) it- self. John Armstrong makes an elegant Jap- a nose plum -blossom bough. only it's little blocks of stone that hang from the branch. All this couldn't be more different from the Travelodge exhibi- tion, except for the prize, which went to a very pretty sfeckled rectangular canvas by Gunther Christmann. (Judge: David Thomas. Prize 11000 from Hunt- er Douglas "Luxaflex"). The Travelodge prise of $7500, the largest award in Australia, went to Donald Lay - cock. (Judges: Laurie Thomas, Geoffrey Dut- ton, Michael Parker.) In addition, paintings were bought from David Aspden, Sam Fullbrock, John Olsen, Clifton Pugh and Fred Willi- ams for a collection that the Travelodge is forming for premises In Sydney. The other exhibitors are Bilu, Brack, French, Michael Johnson (new work from New York), Robertson -Swann and Stuart. What makes 'this ex- hibition so agreeable is partly the firm conser- vatism about art - equals - painting - on - canvas, but also the sight of out-of-town work (and time Trans - field will also have im- portant work from Mel- bourne and Adelaide). ART with Daniel Thomas The Guy Stuart paintings of radiant monster grids and baf- fles were hugely admir- ed in Melbourne but have never been seen here. Th.. new Asher Silos are the kind that won him a big prize in Melbourne recently'. Donald Layoock, also from Melbourne, who was hardly notictd when last seen in Syd- ney two years ago, won with his now typical giant, floating fertility signs. They have been fruit kernels, or chry- salises, or blossoms, or breasts, and they pos- sess an absurd, extreme glamor which comes from their size, their space -ship look, and their skilled technical flamboyance. Janet Dawson's exhi- bition is also very beautiful, and also about energy - flows. Only hers are wayward, they explore the con- fines of a slender oval (which is a 1910-1920 mirror -shape that she must have picked up while working on the decor for the play "Le- gend of King O'Malley", set in this period). Or she erects breakwaters or groynes for her Dui& to challenge or to slide deviously around. Janet Dawson cares- ses, and is gentle, but she Is also very sure, Ian Fairweather. What can one say, hav- ing reported so many of his past exhibitions? Of course the work is beau- tiful, of course it's very good. This time he doesn't attempt large major works. It's very even, , rather serene. One dif- ference is that his pic- tures now vibrate more, the forms are closer - packed, dense. Some- times the subject is in- deed figures in motion, children on a merry-go- goinurnd, or a child on a "TELEGRAPH" .Sydney, N.S.W. -411141.41\2A.-11 . 11-1 1-,